Tips on Smart Traffic Monitoring to Keep Your Website Safe

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Companies understandably worry about their websites’ security these days. It seems as if every time we start developing new security measures against potential hackers, the hackers themselves come up with a way to beat them. It is estimated that 30,000 websites get hacked on a daily basis. Is there any way to create real confidence in our security systems?

Fortunately, there are things that you can do to protect yourself and your site. While you can never be 100% sure that your website is not vulnerable to some kind of attack, there are measures that you can take to add security and help ward off hackers. It doesn’t matter if you are working with finance, travel, or gambling traffic; the methods are the same. We will cover some of the major ones here. 

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Be sure you employ the right tools

To ensure the safety of your website as much as possible, you will need to use the right monitoring and analytical tools. This includes:

• Tools to monitor your web traffic. You need tools that will help you understand who is looking at your page and what your overall traffic patterns are so that you can easily identify any anomalies. The right tools will collect user data and help you figure this out.
• Analytical tools. Using tools like Google Analytics will not only help you understand your web data better, but also give you insight into user behavior patterns, traffic sources, and related information.
• Monitoring tools. There are special monitoring tools out there that help you understand more complex data such as your “packet data” and allow you to conduct flow analyses.
• Web Application Firewalls. Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) will scan for potentially malicious activity and block it before hackers get the opportunity to access your site.

Analyzing your traffic

Once you gain a basic understanding of these tools, you should start learning how to analyze your site traffic. The basic steps are:

1. Look for unusual activity in your traffic. This could consist of either sudden spikes in unknown IP addresses, unexpected drops in traffic, or other things that vary sharply from the norm. These anomalies might be an indication of a security breach.
2. Determine the sources of your traffic and analyze them. You need to determine the types of places that you get your traffic from. This can include things like other sites, search engine results, or even social media. Figure out which of these categories is producing the biggest percentage of your traffic.
3. Look for unusual content. Analyze your packet payloads carefully to see if there is any suspicious code or other unusual content.

Look for security measures that you can take

There are different types of security measures that you can take, depending on the nature and severity of attempted attacks. These include:

• Installing WAFs. If you know that you want to keep out any unusual traffic that differs from the norm, you can install a WAF. In some cases, this could also mean inadvertently blocking desirable traffic, so this isn’t an optimal solution in every case.
• Blocking brute-force attacks. Brute force attacks are those that result from repeated attempts to figure out passwords by people who don’t know them. You can do this by locking people out automatically after a certain number of attempts.
• Require multi-factor authentication. Requiring at least two-factor authentication will help increase your site security significantly. This means that in addition to a password, people will need an additional form of authentication to log into your site.
• Require the use of SSL certificates. SSL certificates will encrypt data while it is being sent. This helps to protect anything from becoming vulnerable.
• Be sure to update your site on a regular basis. This means not only content, but plugins and other things that you use that could fall out of date.
• Scan your site and back it up frequently. You never know when an attack can happen, so it is a good idea to make scanning your site a regular practice. Look for any potential issues that might arise. Also, be sure to back it up so that you have copies of important material.
• Make sure your server is secure. This means taking several measures:
  
  • Use the strongest passwords possible
  • Restrict access for people that you don’t want on your site
  • Take any other security measures that you see fit to keep unwanted people out

Read up on threats and system changes

If you really want to be on top of your game, keep reading up on things that are taking place online. Some hacks are pervasive and can hit multiple sites simultaneously. Plus, there are new methods that hackers think of all the time. Once upon a time, no one knew about phishing, and many people became vulnerable to it. Hackers are getting more and more clever, so it is our job to stay on top of the game so that we can always be one step ahead of them.