The website security industry is in a state of continual evolution, but one thing that has not changed at all is website hacks. With the recent outbreak of Covid-19, hackers have been poking around for any website they believe may be susceptible to a breach and many sites have already been hacked. This blog post will provide you with 12 tips on how to protect your website from being hacked during this pandemic.

Patches: Keep your website up to date with the latest software patches. Hackers are constantly finding new exploits, and it’s important for website owners to stay in the know so they can fix their site before a hack happens.

Password Strength: Make sure you have strong passwords on all website accounts that allow login credentials (WordPress Admin account, FTP server). A password should be at least 12 characters long and use upper case letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols – like “K0wlP455wrd!11” or “@$%&^*()”.

Website Security Settings: Enable SSL by default wherever possible as well as adding other security settings such as disabling directory browsing via .htaccess files, and limiting website logins to a pre-determined number of users. Ask for help in the nearest IT support Sydney.

Website Server Settings: Make sure that your website server is configured with the right level of access privilege for each account so you don’t accidentally give hackers the keys to the kingdom.

Firewall: Install website firewalls on all publicly accessible computers as an additional layer of security measures in case one site gets hacked it doesn’t affect other websites hosted by that computer or network.

Backup Policy: Always have backup servers running at least six hours ahead in time (or more) from any live website in order to avoid being impacted if/when a website goes down due to hacking attacks, technical glitches, natural disasters, etc., which can be costly.

Website Maintenance: A website that is up to date and running smoothly is less likely to be hacked by opportunistic malware or other online threats, so keep your website updated with the latest versions of WordPress, web browsers plugins (e.g.: Adobe Flash), operating systems, etc., as well as checking for any security issues on a regular basis.

Virus Protection: Install antivirus software such as Norton AntiVirus in order to protect against any new viruses before they can infect your website’s files and database information.

Regular Scans: For added protection from hackers who have mapped out vulnerabilities within system architecture, schedule website scans at least once per day using reputable website scanning tools like SiteLock Pro or Sucuri – and run a website scan weekly to detect any website hacking that may have not been detected by the daily scans.

Remove Unused Plugins: If you’re using WordPress, remove unused plugins and themes from your website in order to reduce the chance of unknown exploits being present on your website’s server – or at least update all plugins according to their respective website.

Monitor Your Website: For added protection during this pandemic time, set up Google alerts so if anything related to Covid-19 is mentioned online (in forums, social media, etc.), it will automatically be sent as an email notification directly to your inbox for review. This way you’ll know when someone posts about vulnerabilities on your website before they can actually hack into it.

Prevent Website Hijacking: To prevent website hijacking, set up website robots.txt files to block all bots from crawling your website’s directory and file structure – this will also keep the site off search engines like Google so that it doesn’t show up in searches for specific keywords related to Covid-19, etc., thereby reducing website hacking opportunities.

In conclusion, website hacking can be avoided with proper website security settings. So take these 12 steps to keep your website from getting hacked this time of the pandemic.