How Safe is Your Web Site?

by Frank Jovine on 11/28/2008 in Internet, Tech

Your site may have been already targeted by hackers who are using automated tools to find most common vulnerabilities. If they find one, they will inject harmful code that will attack your loyal visitors and guests.

To help keep your site safe, start with some quick, free scans that ferret out the most obvious problems. First, fill out a form at Qualys.com to request a free scan of one IP address. Discover all devices and applications across the network, and identify and eliminate the security threats that make network attacks possible.

Next, download the also-free Scrawlr tool from HP. After a quick install, use Scrawlr to scan your site for SQL injection vulnerabilities (a type of hole targeted in a recent Sony site hack).

A clean bill of health from both scans won’t guarantee that your site is safe. For instance, neither will find problems with custom JavaScript code, another common type of attack. And while requesting or running either scan is easy, fixing a reported hole might involve a fair bit of work. But that job will still take far less work than repairing your site and your reputation after your site has been hijacked.

Take the extra steps to keeping your site and your visitors safe from harmful cyber attacks.

Let’s us know your thoughts and what you have done to check your web site.