Technically, the answer to the question “What is web defacement?” is that it is when a third party makes unwelcome and unauthorized changes to your website. This is true, but it doesn’t really explain what web defacement actually means for your business.
What is web defacement?
If you’re asking yourself “What is web defacement?”, it can be more practical to rephrase the question as “What does web defacement mean for my business?”. Web defacement can sound pretty harmless as hacking attacks go. To be fair, it often is. Even so, however, it’s a disruption your business probably doesn’t need.
More importantly, it’s a sign that your security has been breached. The breach may not be very deep, but then again, it might be deeper than you initially think. Web defacement can be used as a distraction to delay an investigation into something more serious.
Regardless of whether or not this is the case, web defacement is embarrassing and can damage the trust between you and your customers (and indeed your own employees). The good news is that you can protect against it with some straightforward security measures. Here are some tips.
Remember to secure your servers
If you self-host your own website then you must inform yourself about the necessary security precautions. It is, however, probably fair to say that very few SMBs are going to self-host their websites. They’re far more likely to go for a third-party hosting option. This is generally a very sensible approach, but it’s important to choose the right vendor for the right reason.
When you look at adverts for hosting, you’ll see a lot of vendors highlighting their low prices. This is understandable but you need to stay aware of the difference between price and value. A low price is only any good if it comes with high security, reliable uptime, fast page-load speed, and excellent customer service/technical support. If it doesn’t then, bluntly, you need to adjust your budget rather than compromising on the factors which will make or break your website.
Make sure your local devices are also secured
If your server is a backdoor into your website, then your local devices are windows. As such, they need to be kept not just closed, but locked shut. The good news is that you can get robust anti-malware solutions, with integrated firewalls, at prices even SMBs can afford.
If you have remote and/or mobile users, then it’s a good idea to invest in a virtual private network. This will give security when using external internet connections. At this point, the safest approach is to work on a “zero-trust” principle and just assume that any third-party internet connection is at least potentially insecure.
For completeness, the term “local devices” means both computers and mobile devices. In fact, the latter are often in particular need of protection as their size, portability and function make them even more vulnerable to malicious actors.
Choose and manage your software carefully
All the mainstream content management systems are capable of delivering a high level of security, but the onus is on you to learn how to get the most out of them. Remember that without a vendor there is no vendor support. That said, there is a massive amount of high-quality informational material available for free online, plus there are plenty of real-world training courses from experienced vendors.
Third-party extensions, however, are another matter. Quite bluntly, they vary from the absolutely excellent to the absolutely awful. Some of the absolutely awful options will be intentional malware. Others will have been written with sincere intentions but will still have the potential to cause havoc on your website. Again, remember that the lack of a vendor means the lack of any regulatory authority on third-party products.
The safest approach is to stick to mainstream options and, even then, do your research carefully. If at all possible, test any third-party add on thoroughly before deploying it in production.
Choose and manage your administrators carefully
Your administrator logins are one of the biggest security vulnerabilities on your website and you need to manage them carefully. Keep these accounts to a minimum and vet the people to whom they are given, then monitor them carefully. If this sounds harsh, then remember that security issues can be caused by ignorance as well as malice.
Give each administrator their own set of credentials, ban sharing (under any circumstances) and enforce rules about strong passwords and two-factor authentication. Change the default URL for the admin panel, block users after a certain number of failed password attempts and log them out after a certain period of inactivity.
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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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