5 Best Practices To Beef Up Your Website Security In APAC

The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is currently witnessing an unprecedented surge in online cyber crimes, fueled by the rapid adoption of digital technologies! Ransomware poses a major threat to businesses in the region. Its main victims were industrial companies, which accounted for 34% of successful attacks!

This staggering growth trajectory underscores the immense cyber threats in the APAC region. Whether you’re managing IT infrastructure, steering business strategies, or crafting code, improving your website security against online threats, thus protecting yourself and your customers, should be at the forefront when building your website.

And we at Vinova can give you 5 best practices to easily improve your website security.

1. Secure Coding Practices Is The Core Of Your Cyber Security Measures

The 2019 Cathay Pacific Airways data breach is a stark reminder of the consequences of lax security. Hackers gained access to passenger data, including passports and travel history, resulting in reputational damage, regulatory fines, and eroded customer trust.

This case study underscores how businesses must continuously adapt their security posture to stay ahead of evolving threats and maintain user trust in the digital age:

1. Vulnerability Prevention: Secure coding practices act as a shield, preventing common threats like SQL injection (malicious code insertion) and cross-site scripting (XSS). By validating user inputs and following secure coding principles, you significantly reduce the risk of exploitation.
2. Data Protection: Your website stores sensitive data – user credentials, payment information, and more. Secure coding ensures this data remains confidential. It’s like building a vault around this valuable information, keeping it safe from unauthorized access.
3. Business Reputation: As Meta has learned, a data breach can be a PR nightmare, shattering user trust and damaging your reputation to your clients. Secure coding helps you maintain a strong reputation by minimizing the risk of security incidents.
4. Legal and Compliance Requirements: Many industries have legal regulations like GDPR (EU) and HIPAA (US) that mandate secure coding practices. By following these guidelines, you avoid hefty fines and legal repercussions.
5. Cost Savings: Fixing security vulnerabilities after a website launch is expensive. Secure coding, implemented during development, prevents these issues in the first place, saving you time, money, and headaches in the long run.

Secure coding is an investment in your website’s security, reputation, and overall success. By prioritizing secure coding practices, you build a website that’s both functional and impenetrable against cyberattacks, protecting your data and your business. Consider the following principles:

• Input Validation: Just like you wouldn’t open a suspicious package, secure coding makes sure user inputs (like comments or login info) are safe before processing them. This helps prevent “injection attacks” where hackers try to sneak malicious code into your website.
• Authentication and Authorization: Think of strong passwords and logins as the lock on your door. Secure coding uses these to make sure only authorized users can access certain areas of your website, keeping your valuable information safe.
• Least Privilege: Imagine giving a spare key to a house guest, but only for the guest room. Secure coding follows a similar principle, giving users the minimum access they need to do their job on the website, and reducing the damage if something goes wrong.
• Secure APIs: APIs are like special doorways for different parts of your website to talk to each other. Secure coding ensures these connections are safe by checking incoming data, using strong passwords, and handling any errors smoothly, keeping those backdoors from becoming security weaknesses.
• Regular Code Reviews: Just like you might check your locks and alarms every now and then, secure coding involves regularly reviewing the code for any weaknesses. This helps catch and fix any security issues before they become a problem.

2. Optimize Based On Your Website Architecture

Navigating a website can be frustrating! Website architecture is the invisible map that guides your visitors to the information they need. It’s like a well-organized library where books are categorized, labeled, and placed on specific shelves for easy browsing.

Website architecture refers to the hierarchical structure of your website’s pages. This structure is reflected through internal linking. Essentially, it’s like the blueprint that guides how all the components of your site fit together. 

Here’s what website architecture typically looks like:

• The home page serves as the root of the structure. It’s the starting point for most visitors, and it should provide a clear overview of the website’s content and functionalities.
• Pages linked directly from the home page are like branches. Think of the main categories on your website (like “Products,” “About Us,” or “Contact”) as the major branches stemming from the home page. These branches link to the most important sections of your website.
• Each of these branches can have additional sub-branches linking to other pages. Just like libraries have sub-categories within sections, each main category on your website can have sub-categories. These sub-categories link to more specific pages with detailed information.

So what criteria should you focus on to improve user experience when they visit your website? Here are 7 to always keep in mind when looking into your website architecture for growth:

1. Strong User Experience (UX): A clear and logical structure makes it easy for users to find the information they’re looking for. No more clicking through endless menus or getting lost in a maze of pages. A user-friendly website keeps visitors happy, and from immediately bouncing off your landing page.
2. Search Engine Rankings (SEO): Search engines love websites that are easy to navigate. A well-structured website with clear internal linking helps search engines understand your content and rank your pages higher in search results. This means more people find your website organically.
3. Effective Crawling: Search engines use crawlers to navigate your website and index your content.  A logical structure makes it easier for crawlers to find all your pages, ensuring your entire website gets seen in search results.
4. Deep Site Navigation: A well-structured website with clear internal linking encourages users to explore beyond the homepage. They can easily discover related content and delve deeper into topics that interest them, keeping them engaged for longer.
5. Equitable Page Authority Distribution: Imagine website authority like a pie – you want each page to get a good slice! A well-structured website distributes this authority more evenly, ensuring all your important pages have a strong presence in search results.
6. Topical Authority: By grouping related content under clear categories, you strengthen your website’s topical authority on specific subjects. Search engines recognize your expertise and rank your website higher for relevant searches.
7. Conversion Optimization: A clear website structure with well-defined paths guides users toward your desired actions,  whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting you.  This improves conversion rates and helps you achieve your website’s goals.

3. Scalability and Security Should Work Together Hand-in-Hand

The APAC market is booming, and your website needs to be ready to handle the surge! Website architecture plays a critical role in scalability –  the ability of your website to adapt to growing user traffic and demands.  Imagine a growing city – you need to expand its security measures along with its infrastructure. The same applies to website scalability and cybersecurity:

Scalability optimizes the website loading speed, which, in turn, greatly enhances your visitors’ user experience. Imagine a store that can expand its shelves and staff as more customers come in – that’s website scalability in action!

• Adaptable Security: Cloud-based scalable environments demand security tools that can adapt and grow with them. Scalable security solutions can automatically adjust to changing needs, ensuring continuous protection without hindering website performance.
• Integration Challenges: As your business grows, managing multiple-point security solutions becomes cumbersome and inefficient. Scalable security offers a unified approach, streamlining integration and simplifying management.
• Single Pane of Glass: A unified security platform provides a central dashboard for monitoring and managing all your website’s security measures. This simplifies security operations and offers better visibility into potential threats.
• Cloud Security Benefits: Cloud-based scalable security solutions offer several advantages:
  • Reduced IT Overhead: Managed cloud security services free up your IT team to focus on core business functions.
  • Enhanced Protection: Cloud providers invest heavily in security infrastructure, offering robust protection against cyberattacks.
  • Compliance Assurance: Many cloud providers offer solutions that are compliant with industry regulations, reducing your compliance burden.

By prioritizing website scalability and implementing a scalable security strategy, you can build a website that’s ready to handle growth while keeping your users’ data and your business safe.

4. Website Security Best Practices

Website security protects your users’ data, safeguards your business reputation, and fosters trust. Here are the best practices when it comes to secure coding to follow:

1. OWASP Top Ten: The OWASP Top 10 is a valuable resource that identifies the most common web application security vulnerabilities. Familiarize yourself with this list,  focusing on vulnerabilities like injection attacks (SQL, NoSQL, OS command), broken authentication, and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).  Understanding these threats is the key to proactively mitigate them.
2. Regular Updates: Software, libraries, and plugins can harbor vulnerabilities that hackers exploit.  Regularly update these components to ensure they have the latest security patches.  This continuous patching process closes security gaps and keeps your website protected.
3. Secure APIs: APIs facilitate communication between different parts of your website and potentially with external applications.  However, unsecured APIs can be entry points for attackers.  Here’s how to secure your APIs:
4. Authentication: Implement robust authentication mechanisms to verify the identity of users or applications trying to access your APIs. This ensures that only authorized entities can interact with your data.
5. Authorization: Even authorized users may not have permission to access all your data. Implement authorization controls to define user access levels and restrict actions based on those levels.
6. Rate Limiting: Malicious actors may overwhelm your APIs with excessive requests. Rate limiting helps mitigate this risk by restricting the number of requests an entity can make within a specific timeframe.
7. HTTPS: When users interact with your website, sensitive data like login credentials or credit card information is transmitted. To protect this data from eavesdropping,  always use HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure).  HTTPS encrypts the communication between your website and the user’s browser, creating a secure tunnel for data transmission.

5. Monitoring and Incident Response

We’ve established the importance of building a secure website, but website security in APAC is an ongoing journey, not a destination. Here’s how continuous monitoring helps you stay vigilant:

• Monitoring Tools: Monitoring tools act similarly for your website. Set up tools to detect anomalies (unusual activity), performance bottlenecks (slow loading times), and potential security incidents.  These tools act as your early warning system, alerting you to potential problems before they escalate.
• Logging and Suspicious Activity Monitoring: Just like keeping a logbook of visitors to your castle, website logging tracks user activity.  Monitor these logs for any suspicious activities, such as failed login attempts from unusual locations or sudden spikes in traffic.  You can identify and address potential security threats by analyzing logs and investigating suspicious activity before it causes damage.

Furthermore, consistent monitoring empowers you to:

• Identify and Address Issues Quickly: Early detection allows for swift action, minimizing potential damage.
• Maintain Optimal Performance: Monitoring helps identify performance bottlenecks, allowing you to optimize your website for a smooth user experience.
• Stay Ahead of Threats: Continuous monitoring helps you stay vigilant and proactive in protecting your website from cyberattacks.

Conclusion

The ever-evolving cyberspace also means online threats to your website will only become more powerful. This is why website security, in APAC regions especially, is one of the most pervasive issues for any business.

By combining secure coding practices, thoughtful website architecture, and continuous monitoring, you can build a website that not only accommodates growth but also safeguards your users and data. Remember that security is an ongoing process, so stay informed about emerging threats and adapt accordingly.

And if you still have doubts about buffing up your website security, our IT experts at Vinova are gearing up to help! With 14 years in the IT industry, we will track down and tackle the most minute security blindspot in your website’s security. We are on the ready, just a click away!