Cybercriminals often target websites to gain access to valuable user data such as login credentials. This data could then be used for identity theft or sold on the dark web.
An SQL injection attack can be devastating to any business. A successful attack could allow unauthorized viewing of user lists, deletion of databases and even gain administrative access to your entire network.
1. Secure Your SSH Keys
SSH keys offer much stronger protection from cyber attacks than passwords, but as with them they must still be managed and protected against breaches that could cost your business its reputation, customers or millions in fines.
SSH keys offer many advantages over username/password logins, including stronger security and easier access management. Unfortunately, it can be all too easy for people with privileged credentials to generate multiple SSH keys at random and let them accumulate over time – this increases the risk of key compromise and can lead to unauthorized access.
However, there are steps you can take to increase SSH security and safeguard against cyber threats. While they won’t completely address all of your security problems, these will go a long way toward protecting your system and increasing overall data protection.
Start by verifying you have the latest SSH key version available. To do this, follow the steps:
- Login to the server console as root.
- Run the following command:
dpkg -l openssh\*
Also, create a set of rules for managing SSH keys, such as an expiration date. This will prevent unused or forgotten SSH keys from becoming vulnerable to cyber attacks.
As with passwords, SSH keys should be specific to each user and environment in order to prevent one hacker from breaching multiple environments or users and gaining unwarranted access to confidential company data.
Two-factor authentication (2FA) can also help protect you against cross-site scripting (XSS), used by hackers to steal passwords and sensitive information.
To further protect against SQL injection on VPSs, consider installing a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN routes your data through an encrypted tunnel that protects your privacy by masking your IP address while also preventing hackers from intercepting traffic and stealing sensitive information from you. It makes an invaluable addition to any VPS security toolkit and works in tandem with firewalls to provide greater protection from hacking or other forms of cyber threats.
2. Secure Your Databases
Your database serves as the backbone of your web application or site, making its protection absolutely essential. A malicious hacker could exploit flaws in it to gain access to sensitive data like passwords, user credentials and credit card numbers; this form of attack is known as SQL injection.
Criminals can easily exploit this vulnerability to gain control of a website or app by injecting queries directly into its database. Once an attacker gains direct access, they could modify or even delete your content without notice.
To prevent this from occurring, separate your database server and web application server to increase security of both. This will reduce lateral movement between servers while also protecting it against attackers using compromised administrative accounts on web servers to access your database directly.
One way to bolster database security is using a proxy server to monitor all outgoing and incoming traffic for signs of malicious packets, blocking outgoing data that’s unnecessary for database functions as well as protecting against threats like SQL injections. For even better protection consider adding HTTPS encryption so all outbound data remains encrypted.
Make no mistake about it; even with your best efforts, an attacker could still find ways to penetrate your cloud server and breach it through sniffing attacks, brute-force hacking or cross-site scripting (XSS). To mitigate the threat from attackers, alert systems and logs must be established in order to notify administrators if something goes amiss with a database access request.
Strong authentication and multi-factor authentication can significantly decrease the risk of cyber breaches. You should also limit access to your database via validated IP addresses; this makes it harder for hackers to breach database security measures and gain access to sensitive information.
Keep in mind the importance of regularly updating your software, as newer versions can lessen vulnerability to attack while providing bug fixes and patches to further secure database security.
3. Secure Your Web Server
Your web server is one of the easiest points of entry for hackers, and to reduce its vulnerabilities you should take a number of basic security measures. First and foremost, be sure to regularly update your software – this can reduce risk by closing vulnerabilities present in earlier versions.
Your operating system must also be configured securely, including restricting the services that run on your machine and closing any ports that could allow hackers to gain entry. Disabling IPv6 also poses additional vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit.
One way to secure your web server is to ensure all passwords on it are strong and secure, including implementing stringent password best practices such as mandating minimum character length requirements or setting complexity guidelines for passwords. In addition, consider creating an expiration policy so as to prevent old passwords from falling into untrustworthy hands.
Finally, it is wise to install a web application firewall (WAF). A WAF can provide excellent defense against SQL injection attacks by filtering out malicious strings before they reach your database. Furthermore, these firewalls can provide detailed error messages which are helpful when troubleshooting errors.
As part of your web server security efforts, it would be wise to also install a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN encrypts and conceals your connections for added protection against cyber threats like data breaches and identity theft; when combined with a firewall it can further boost security.
Finally, it is crucial that only authorized users possess root privileges on your server. Developers and testers may require elevated access rights in certain environments that they won’t find on live servers; if their credentials leak however, your entire website could be at risk.
An effective solution to this is creating separate user accounts for developers and testers, and giving each one only the minimum privileges necessary to perform their duties. Furthermore, using Linux system privileges features to define user rights will help restrict access to sensitive files or resources.
4. Secure Your Network
If you want to secure your data against SQL injection attacks, using a web application firewall (WAF) may be your best defense. A WAF will protect your website by scanning incoming traffic for malicious patterns and blocking known SQL injection payloads from entering; additionally it prevents hackers from accessing your database directly.
Attaining online security requires taking various measures, and two-factor authentication (2FA) can help safeguard against attackers who attempt to gain entry through brute-force or stolen login credentials. Furthermore, using a VPN can further protect your network by routing all traffic through encrypted tunnels – this helps hide your IP address and location so cybercriminals have difficulty tracking you online.
Your firewall should also have a MAC filter set up to allow only trustworthy devices access to your server, helping prevent attacks from automated software such as bots. Finally, disable SSID broadcasting as this can expose your wireless network and make it easier for cybercriminals to gain entry to it.
An attacker could use SQL injection to gain administrative privileges on your system and gain control of your database, granting them access to run rogue commands that modify database data, steal sensitive information or simply disrupt business operations. Such attacks can be extremely expensive due to downtime costs, attack recovery fees, regulatory penalties or lost revenues resulting from downtime incidents and lost revenues.
To protect against SQL injections, it is crucial that all input fields on your website be sanitized – this includes form submissions as well as URL parameters and AJAX interfaces. An SQL Injection Pattern scanner should also be employed in order to detect common characters used in SQL injection attacks; they will be grouped together and given scores – this score can then be used as the basis of rules; always compare your string against a list of acceptable characters for proper detection.
