Many websites on the internet today run on open-source content management systems. While there are many approaches taken toward enhancing CMS safety, site owners are still at risk. Third-party plugins, scripts, and so on are always targets of malicious attacks.
How CMS Can Cause Weakness?
If you run a website, you’re naturally concerned about security. Identity and access management (IAM) ensures data protection and help to boost employee productivity. Here are a few ways your site might be at risk:
- Code Injection – when a piece of code finds its way into a website and causes unwanted results
- Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) – an injection attack where code runs from the browser and not from the CMS
- Session Management Attack – when a hacker takes control of a session token to manipulate accounts, steal data, etc.
- Cross-Site Request Forgeries – a form of trickery where visitors end up submitting unintended requests, leading to their accounts or data being stolen
It’s crucial to conduct regular website analysis to know which elements of your CMS are putting you at risk.
What Hackers Want
Generally, an attacker has a few basic ideas in mind. They want access to personal information, which leads to spamming, scamming, and phishing. Hackers also tend to steal financial data – credit card info is always at risk.
Other than that, websites also suffer from redirected traffic, especially if they’re highly ranked. This may lead to severe consequences like SEO penalties and blacklisting. If your site has content related to politics or social causes, hacktivists who disagree with your ideals will perform DDoS attacks on it. As a result, your website will be inaccessible to visitors.
At times, cyberattacks are borne out of boredom. Many hackers look for security holes just to cause trouble.
Enhancing CMS Security
To maintain a safe website, follow the best practices available. This includes hard-to-break passwords and regular updates and backups. Take the time to perform complete website analysis. It might involve some hard work, but it’s worth it.
