The increasing frequency of hacking incidents in the recent times is a cause of concern for website owners. As these risks get bigger, so does the need to address them by taking adequate security measures irrespective of the platform on which your website has been built. Drupal, for instance, has been acclaimed one of the secure open-source CMS platforms by online software standards. However, there are several threats that you may still experience with your Drupal business website. Let us help you with a comprehensive overview of Drupal Security and all that you can do to make your website hack-proof.
Assessing Your Risk: How Vulnerable is Drupal:- The journey to address your security risks begins with their assessment in the first place. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure, an online vulnerability data source, indicates that hundreds of vulnerabilities have been reported with the platform since 2002. it is to be noted that a majority of them are associated with cross-site scripting. Amongst the recent ones was the ones detected in March 2018 and had widespread implications because it could potentially affect millions of users using version 6 onward.
Another major threat that every Drupal Development Company and business websites that use the platform faces is Drupalgeddon 2. It is the successor of Drupalgeddon, an SQL-injection vulnerability which was detected in 2014. Drupalgeddon 2 places crypto-mining software on the sites that are not secured with relevant patches. Considering these facts, it can be stated that Drupal still faces its share of risks despite being touted as a secure platform. So if you have a site on this platform, you need to beef up your security measures.
Drupal Security Features: What Makes it Stand Apart:- A powerful, open-source CMS, Drupal is renowned for its outstanding features and enhances security. The modules and themes as well as the platform itself has been built with security in mind. Moreover, the regular updates that it comes with makes it even more secure. However, it is important to understand the platform’s security features and how these work in the first place.
Granular Access Control:- With the platform, you have a granular control on who can view and make changes to the website. You can even create roles which provide limited permission to the site viewers.As compared to the other popular CMS platforms, Drupal offers dependable protection from the majority of common malware threats.
Drupal Update Manager For Managing Updates:- Drupal comes packed with the “Update Manager”, a unique module which tracks the latest updates and provides automatic notifications about the new modules and themes for your website. It enables you to avail the latest updates and security patches as soon as they are released, which translates into better protection for your website.
Database Encryption:- Another strong security feature that Drupal offers out-of-the-box is database encryption. You can configure it to encrypt either the entire database or very specific parts such as forms, user accounts, content types, and more. This level of encryption indicates that the CMS can be configured to pass the privacy compliance standards issued by HIPAA, PCI, etc.
Password Security:- Drupal encrypts the passwords stored in the database right at the first install. The passwords are hashed multiple times, which makes them obscured and lengthened to such an extent that they become safe from brute force password cracking attacks. Furthermore, you can leverage modules such as 2-factor authentication and SSL to enhance the password security.
Specialized Security Modules:-
In addition to these features, there are several specialized security modules that can be integrated into your website to give it additional protection against hacking attacks. Here are a few of them:
- Login form module, which implements patterns such as restricting the number of failed login attempts, hiding the reason of login failure, limiting access by IP address, etc.
- Captcha empowers the site to block automated scripts and prevent the flooding of mail server or back-end database.
- Password Policies provides constraints related to password creation to ensure the password strength.
- Hijack Prevention module provides extra protection to the already secure pages and prevents hijacking of the SSL pages in the site.
- Concurrent Sessions module ensures that a single user will not be able to use multiple sessions.
Besides these, you can avail several other ready made modules or invest in Drupal Module Development to have one created according to your website’s requirements.
What Else Can You Do To Make Your Drupal Website Secure?
Of course, you have these impeccable security features that you can leverage to your advantage, but some extra measures can go a long way in taking your Drupal site’s security a notch higher. Here is all that you can do:
- If you are not tech savvy, hire a professional who understand the risks and guides you with a right action plan.
- Opt for the latest version with an upgrade or avail Drupal 8 Development if you are creating a new site because the newer versions are more secure.
- Run only the updated version of the Drupal modules that you use on your site.
- Use strong passwords and protect your data as well.
- Backup the software and database regularly.
- Ensure that the connections you are using are fully secure.
- Avail HTTPS and SSL security certificates for your site.
- Restrict the access to the entire important files on your web server.
- Avoid using unnecessary modules and providing extra access points to the website.
- Get themes and modules only from trustworthy sources.
Conclusion
Now that you have complete information related to the vulnerability of Drupal, its existing security features, and the extra measures you can take to safeguard your website, you will realize how much work it can be. A professional team like that at Drupal India can help you handle the entire aspects of a security beef up. Talk to us and we will guide you about having a secure, hack-free Drupal website for your business.
