In most cases, companies won’t bother about their web security until after a major security breach has occurred. This is the time when web security best practices become a top priority. Unfortunately, over 60% of small companies can’t sustain their businesses after a cyber-attack.

And it is a little bit easier to understand why this is the case: exposure of sensitive company information can damage the trust you have with your existing customers leading to the collapse of the company.

Luckily, you don’t need to set aside a big budget to protect your business website from vulnerabilities and potential attackers that threaten it.

The most critical thing to do is to work closely with your trusted Montreal web design company to develop a proactive approach that involves identifying all vulnerabilities and putting security measures in place.  

Read on to discover common web security vulnerabilities that you need to pay close attention to.

SQL Injection

An SQL injection is a common vulnerability that usually allows hackers to change backend SQL statements by carefully manipulating the user-supplied data. In some cases, the attacker may use application code to access and corrupt your website database content.

A successful SQL injection attempt allows the attacker to read, alter, create, or even delete sensitive business data that is stored in the backend database. This is one of the most prevalent forms of web security vulnerabilities.

Cross Site Scripting

Cross Site Scripting is commonly referred to as XSS. This term is used to refer to a wide range of vulnerabilities that target scripts embedded in a web page which are usually executed on the client side other than the server side.

These flaws can sometimes occur when the web application takes untrusted data and sends it over to the browser without validating it properly.

Attackers can use XSS to execute malicious scripts to collect sensitive user information that can damage the trust that exists between your business and clients. The XSS scripts can also be used to deface websites or redirect your site visitors to malicious sites.  

The good news is that an XSS attack can easily be prevented by working with experienced web security experts from your trusted Montreal web design company. These experts will white list all input fields and conduct input-output encoding to get rid of all suspicious scripts.

Malware

Malware can be defined as software that is usually created for malicious purposes. These programs are designed to infect and harm a computer system or website. Since it is a relatively broad term, malware encompasses web security vulnerabilities that range from adware to viruses that can attack both computer systems and sites.

Typically, a site attacked by malware exposes business sensitive data, including sensitive customer information.

Two of the most common types of malware include malicious redirect where your site visitors are redirected to another website that contains malicious content and defacement, which changes the overall appearance of a site.

Broken Authentication & Session Management

Broken authentication and session management refers to a wide range of web security issues that mainly deal with maintaining the identity of a site user.

If authentication details and the specific session identifiers aren’t protected all the time, a hacker can easily hijack an active user session and assume the identity of the genuine web user.