Is Your Website Safe? How to Perform a Website Security Check

It’s time for a reality check. You might think, “My website is pretty secure—I mean, who would want to hack me?” But hackers don’t discriminate based on status, and frankly, they don’t care if you’re running a Fortune 500 company or selling farm-to-table dog treats. They’re usually looking for easy targets. So, if you’re not protecting your site with a regular website security check, you’re basically unlocking your doors and throwing out the welcome mat for folks with nefarious intent.

If a ‘website security check’ isn’t a phrase with which you’re familiar, we’ll tell you how to identify and fix weaknesses and how to ensure security with the audit your website deserves and probably needs.

Why Is a Website Security Check a Top Priority?

Let’s get practical, and dig a little deeper into the why of security audits. You can think of it this way: Skipping a website security audit is like leaving your car unlocked in a busy parking lot and hoping for the best. Sure, maybe nothing happens, but why take the risk?

A website security check should be routine maintenance — a small investment to avoid major issues down the road. Here’s why it’s worth the effort to run regular audits:

• Risk Mitigation: Identify site security risks before they become very real and very expensive problems.
• Safeguard Brand Authority and Trust: No one wants to be the website that suffers a data breach and leaks customers’ personal information. Keeping data safe builds credibility and protects your bottom line.
• Protect SEO Rankings: Search engines aren’t fond of compromised sites. The math is simple—hackers get in, rankings go down, and all that effort you put in to jump ahead of the competition goes down the toilet.
• Meet Compliance Standards: For some industries like healthcare and finance, regular website security audits aren’t just best practices — they’re legal requirements.
• Stay Ahead of New Threats: Cyber threats are constantly evolving and adapting, so regular site check-ups help keep you one step ahead of the latest tricks.

In short, a security audit isn’t just about avoiding a disaster; it’s about being responsible and ready for whatever the online world throws at you. So, let’s look at the three major steps for a comprehensive website security check.

Step 1: Set Up Your Website to Avoid Threats

A gentle reminder: prevention is better than surgery. So, here’s how you can fortify the walls of your website:

Keep Software Updated (Always!):

If your website software, like CMS or plugins, has a “Hey, Update Me” banner flashing on the dashboard, don’t ignore it. Outdated software is the digital equivalent of leaving your front door unlocked while you’re away on vacation. Updates contain patches for vulnerabilities and bugs, and skipping them is just asking for trouble. If you’re an Ironistic client, check with our IQ Department before hitting that “update all” plugins. We’ll make sure nothing breaks with the update!

Choose Secure Passwords (Yes, Really):

If your password is still an homage to your favorite furry friend, “password123,” or even worse, “admin,” it’s time for a change. And no, “PassWord123!” is not the kind of upgrade we’re talking about. Think of something complex, random, and unique for each login. Use a password manager like LastPass to keep things straight.

Get a TLS/SSL Certificate:

If your website isn’t encrypted with TLS (that’s the little padlock symbol in the URL bar), you’re already losing trust with your users and probably most search engines. A TLS certificate ensures that any data exchanged between your site and its users is encrypted, giving hackers one more roadblock to battle.

HTTPS vs. HTTP:

Brandon Vreeman, Ironistic’s Technical Project Manager, says:

Limit Login Attempts: 

Look, we all forget our passwords now and then, but if someone is logging in unsuccessfully five, 10, or 50 times, that person is probably not your friend. Limiting login attempts can stop brute-force attacks dead in their tracks. Your CMS or hosting provider likely has an option to set these limits; make it a habit to check and enforce them.

Step 2: Identify and Fix Vulnerabilities 

Learning where your site is vulnerable isn’t fun, but it is absolutely necessary. Chris Foss co-founder and president of Ironistic says, “Regular scheduled audits will help protect your website from hackers by identifying vulnerabilities before it’s too late.” So, without further ado, here are some ways to uncover potential blind spots:

Website Vulnerability Scanning: 

Think of a vulnerability scan as a medical checkup for your website. There are automated tools, like Jetpack Protect, Probably, and Acunetix, that can scan your site for weaknesses. These tools help identify issues like outdated software, SQL injection vulnerabilities, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other red flags.

Review User Permissions: 

Not everyone on your website team needs the keys to the whole kingdom. Assign permissions carefully, and make sure that users who don’t need admin access don’t have it. Removing unnecessary user permissions can minimize damage if a breach does occur.

Monitor Logs for Suspicious Activity: 

Logs are a goldmine of information about your site’s activity, including who’s visiting and what they’re doing. If you notice unusual spikes in login attempts or odd IP addresses poking around, it might be time to investigate further. Set up alerts to notify you if anything odd starts happening because when it comes to websites, paranoia is healthy.

Install a Web Application Firewall (WAF): 

A WAF can block harmful traffic before it even reaches your site. It acts like a gatekeeper, filtering out malicious requests and prohibiting SQL injections, XSS, and other common attacks. Think of it as your website’s bodyguard—ready to tell hackers to “move along.”

Step 3: Conduct a Full Website Security Audit 

Once you’ve taken steps to bolster your site’s defenses and identify common vulnerabilities, it’s time for a full security audit. These audits don’t just scratch the surface; they dig down deep to ensure that every part of your site is as secure as possible. Here’s what goes into a website security check:

Audit of Your Website’s Files and Directories: 

Excess or outdated files are risky. Check if there’s anything on your server that shouldn’t or doesn’t need to be there. These loose ends are another vulnerability that attackers can use to their advantage.

Check for SQL Injections and XSS Vulnerabilities: 

These are common ways hackers can mess with your data. SQL injections can let them access your database (uh-oh), while XSS allows them to insert malicious code (yikes). If this sounds like a foreign language to you, tools are available that will check for these vulnerabilities (as well as experts like yours truly who speak it fluently).

Test Your Backups: 

Sure, you’ve got backups, but when was the last time you actually tested them? If a crisis does hit, you don’t want to realize your backups are corrupted. Conducting regular test restorations ensures you’ll have something if things go south.

Assess Security Plugins: 

If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, there’s a good chance you’re relying on security plugins to handle some of these tasks. However, not all plugins are created equal, and outdated or poorly configured plugins could do more harm than good. Regularly review and update your security plugins to make sure they’re still up to the task.

Josh Hall, Ironistic’s Director of Operations, says,

Perform a Penetration Test: 

A “pen test” simulates a cyber attack on your site to see how it would stand up. It’s like hiring a burglar to break into your house and find where the weaknesses are. Unless you’re a security pro, this step is probably best left to trustworthy experts.

Review and Document Your Findings: 

Once you’ve identified weaknesses, document everything. This includes vulnerabilities, fixes you’ve implemented, and areas for improvement. Having a record makes it easier to track changes over time and gives you a baseline for future website security audits.

To view deeper insight into technical and security audits (and other types of website audits), download our free series: The Big 3 Website Audits and Why You Can’t Live Without Them.

The Bottom Line: Stay Vigilant – Take Your Website Security Check Seriously.

Security audits aren’t a one-and-done kind of deal. Just like going to the doctor or dentist, they need to happen regularly. The longer you put off an audit, the greater the chance your site becomes a target. 

So, set up a regular schedule for website security audits – we recommend one at least every six months – and don’t leave your site’s security to chance. If all this updating, scanning, checking, and fixing sounds like a bit much, Ironistic is here to help!  After all, safeguarding websites is just one of the many things we do well.

 

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