If you are running a website for your business, then you must know how to check a site for malware. It’s also essential that you know what steps to take to limit the chances of your site being infected by malware in the first place. Here is a quick guide to help.
How to check a site for malware
The most straightforward way to check a site for malware is to have it scanned by a website vulnerability scanner. You can do this as an ad hoc check, but the safest option by far is to invest in a subscription so that your site is scanned 24/7/365. What’s more, if you go down this route, you will generally get a web applications firewall as part of the deal, so you have even more protection.
How to limit the chances of your site being infected by malware
The good news for SMBs is that keeping your site free of malware generally depends more on common sense, thoroughness, and robust processes than on expensive security solutions. Here is what you need to know.
Security starts with your choice of host
Once you start looking for a website host, you’ll quickly discover that there are countless hosting vendors looking for your business and most, if not all, of them, will have a range of hosting options from which to choose.
The good news is that you can often trim down this list fairly quickly by looking at metrics such as their track record on security, uptime, page-loading time, customer service, and technical support. These often tend to be interlinked. In other words, companies that know how to maintain effective security can limit outages which reduce their uptime and page-loading time. They also tend to understand how to look after their customers.
Once you’ve chosen your host, you need to choose your hosting package. Although it may be tempting to go for the lowest-priced deal you can find, this is one instance where spending a bit more money upfront can actually save you money over the longer term.
Bluntly, if you don’t understand how to manage your hosting to maintain proper security, then the most pragmatic approach may be to spend a little extra on a dedicated server and have your host manage it for you (as an add-on service).
It’s important to manage your software carefully
Website creation is possibly the only area of business in which SMBs, even larger ones, can, in principle, get all the tools they need for free. It is, however, important to remember that the absence of a vendor also means the absence of vendor support.
This means that you either have to know what you’re doing yourself or hope that support is available for free or be prepared to pay for third-party support from a third-party vendor who knows their way around whatever software you’re using.
Of course, the likelihood of finding any sort of third-party support (free or paid) depends largely on the popularity of the software you are using. This is a strong argument for sticking with the mainstream content management systems and third-party add-ons, especially the latter.
In short, there are only a few CMSs in common use but there are countless third-party extensions for them. These vary from key add-ons just about everyone uses to blatant malware via niche applications and software developed with good intentions but by developers with a poor skillset. Then, there’s software that used to be great but has long since been abandoned and has, therefore, become a security threat.
This means that the safest approach by far is to stick to the mainstream, third-party extensions, which add important functionality and have widespread support. Even then it’s advisable to test them thoroughly before deploying them in production.
Whatever software you use, commit to learning how to get the most out of it from a security perspective (or employing a third-party vendor who can deal with this for you). In particular, you want to ensure that all default settings are changed if at all possible. Also, commit to keeping it updated. Any out-of-date software is a security vulnerability and open-source software is particularly vulnerable as it is so easy for malicious actors to inform themselves of the vulnerabilities in older versions of it.
It’s vital to manage and monitor your administrators
Administrator accounts are basically keys that unlock your website’s entire functionality, including its security. They, therefore, need to be kept to a minimum, only given to people you trust and carefully monitored to ensure that they are not abused.
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Removal
Security stack layer 1
Malware Detect & Removal
Our malware detection scanning, preventive methods and removal enables you to take a proactive approach to protect the business and brand reputation from malware attacks and infections.
- Unsuspecting websites get infected with malicious code.
- Continuous website monitoring to detect any incidents.
- Identify and remediate the cause to hardening your websites.
Comodo cWatch Web can identify malware, provide the tools and methods to remove it, and help to prevent future malware attacks at the edge before it hits the network, included as a paid member.
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Response
Security stack layer 5
Cyber Security Operations Center
Our exclusive C.S.O.C. is staffed with certified security analysts to monitor, assess and defend websites, applications, databases, data centers, servers, networks, desktops and other endpoints.
- 24 / 7 / 365 security monitoring using state-of-the-art tech.
- Engage clients of complex threats to resolve the issue.
- Real-time web traffic monitoring and proactive incident fixes.
C.S.O.C. checks for threats, identifies and analysis then performs the necessary actions to resolve the issue while offloading costs of in-house experts by using stack layer 3 to handle the heavy lifting.
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Intelligence
Security stack layer 3
Security Information • Event Management
S.I.E.M. collects logs and events the network traffic and web assets, security devices, operating systems, applications, databases, and reviews the vulnerabilities using artificial intelligence to process.
- Reduces billions of events into prioritized threats real-time.
- Identifies changes in network behavior with activity baselines.
- Flows data searches in real-time streaming or historical mode.
S.I.E.M. senses and tracks significant threats to links to all online supporting data and context for easier investigation. While anomaly detection to identify changes associated with the network safety.
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Prevention
Security stack layer 4
Web Application Firewall
W.A.F. by Comodo eliminates application vulnerabilities to protect websites and web applications against advanced attacks including Denial-of-Service (DDoS), SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting.
- Destroys malicious requests and thwart hack attempts.
- Protection to account registration forms and login pages.
- Malicious bots and brute force attacks are block and patched.
Combined with malware scanning, vulnerability scanning and automatic virtual patching and hardening engines provides robust security is fully managed for Comodo cWatch Web customers.
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Performance
Security stack layer 2
Add a network of globally distributed servers designed to boost the speed for websites and web applications by transferring content to your user based on their proximity to the nearest CDN web server.
- Proven to increase search engine rankings and site scores.
- 29 worldwide CDN node locations to reach your users.
- Save your bandwidth by leveraging CDN browser caching.
CDN serves your users your website content with virtually unlimited capacity. Giving you the freedom to focus less on site maintenance, more on scaling the uptime of your traffic and target audience.
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Compliance
Security stack layer 6
Payment Card Industry • Data Security Standard
PCI • DSS ensures that your customers' cardholder info is kept secure from security breaches through a meticulous scan of your network and applications to identify and fix security vulnerabilities.
- Simple and automated way to stay compliant with PCI • DSS.
- Pass the requirements for the 12 points PCI • DSS standard.
- Schedule on-demand PCI scans to report quarterly results.
Establishes and implements a firewall, hardens your environment, disables unnecessary services & configures system parameters to prevent misuse, ensures system audit components are protected.
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