Having a website can offer you a lot, be it building your online presence or expanding your business. But as websites play an increasingly crucial role in the digital world, hackers opt to carry out website defacement attacks to fulfill their malicious motives.
But what actually is a website defacement attack, why do cybercriminals plan these attacks, and how can you protect your website from them?
What Is a Website Defacement Attack?
Website defacement is a cyberattack in which malicious actors replace some content of your website with their messages to embarrass you, damage your brand, promote malicious sites, or spread their propaganda.
In other words, a website defacement attack is like digital vandalism that damages the visual appearance of your website.
For example, a cybercriminal can change the core message of your home page with their defacement message stating the website has been hacked, or they can replace your home page’s featured image with their image to show you in a bad light.
The defaced website can severely affect your brand reputation, as no one wants to deal with a hacked site. Threat actors deface websites by gaining unauthorized access to the website’s backend.
The popular ways to gain unauthorized access to websites include but are not limited toCross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, Malware infection,SQL injection attacks, stolen login credentials,DNS hijacking, and more. Also, cybercriminals can exploit security vulnerabilities in third-party plugins to gain administrative access to your website.
Reasons for Website Defacement Attacks
There are some key reasons why malicious actors deface websites:
Regardless of why a cybercriminal hacked your website, you must quickly resolve the issue to minimize the damage.
Consequences of Website Defacement Attacks
Defaced websites reflect poorly on brand value and can cause severe implications. The following is how website defacement can affect you.
1. Business Disruption
A website defacement attack can disrupt your business for several hours or days. When there is a website defacement attack, you must deploy resources to fix the issue and detect vulnerabilities that led to the attack. All of this can take time, depending on the severity of the defacement.
2. Loss of Reputation
Any disturbing image or inappropriate content resulting from a website defacement attack is like a neon sign stating your website has been hacked. Your audience will likely think you don’t take your website security seriously, and theirpersonally identifiable informationshared with your website is no longer safe.
3. Poor Search Engine Ranking
Hacked websites are often a sign of poor website security. Google and other search engines may flag your defaced website as a security risk. They may also lower the ranking of your website in search results, leading to a significant revenue loss.
4. Loss of Money
No one wants to share sensitive data like credit card information or other crucial information with hacked websites. So, when your customers find that your website is hacked, they will take their business to your competitors, causing a significant revenue loss.
If the hackers in a defacement attack wish to extort you, then a lot of money may also be lost via some kind of ransom payment.
5. Potential Cyberattacks
Not all website defacement attacks are acts of digital vandalism. Cybercriminals may use website defacements as diversions.
When you are busy fixing a website defacement issue, they can conduct other malicious activities without getting noticed. They can steal sensitive information,install malware, and exploit vulnerabilities to plan further attacks.
How to Prevent Website Defacement Attacks
Here are some strategies to prevent hackers from defacing your website.
1. Use a Web Application Firewall
A web application firewall checks traffic between the web server and the client. And it blocks malicious traffic and attacks that could harm your website.
Also, a web application firewall can protect your website from attacks like cross-site scripting and SQL injection. Sostart using a web application firewall serviceto add a layer of security to your website.
2. Implement Strong Passwords and MFA
Hackers usevarious tricks to guess your passwords. Once they successfully get hold of your login credentials, they can gain access to your website and carry out website defacement attacks.
You should use strong passwords and implement multifactor authentication (MFA) to enhance your accounts' security.
Be wary ofMFA fatigue attacksif you wish to use this security method.
3. Limit the Use of Plugins or Add-Ons
Exploiting vulnerabilities in third-party plugins or add-ons is a popular way hackers enter your website environment and perform a website defacement attack.
Therefore, try to minimize the use of third-party plugins and add-ons. If you need to install any plugin or add-on to improve the functionality of your website, make sure you install and reputed one.
Also, regularly update installed plugins/add-ons to prevent hackers from exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities.
4. Use CAPTCHA Verification
Hackers often deploy bots to attack websites. This is the reasonwhy CAPTCHAs are importantto your website security.
Using CAPTCHA validation can prevent malicious software from engaging in abusive activities on your website.
If you’re not too tech-savvy, don’t worry. You can easilycreate a CAPTCHA validation formfor your website.
5. Implement an SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate creates a secure connection between your website and users. This means the traffic between your website and users are encrypted, preventing someone from sitting in the middle of the communication line and intercepting data to steal information and carry out website defacement.
These days, you can quicklyget a free SSL certificate for your website, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t get one.
6. Check File Uploads Carefully
Some websites allow users to upload files, providing threat actors with opportunities to hide malicious code in files and penetrate your website environment. So you should make sure that user-uploaded files are devoid of executable permission.
Also, consider running a virus scan on all files that users upload to your website.
7. Automate Backups
You should regularlyback up your entire siteto avoid losing the pre-hacked version in a defacement attack. Doing so will help your business be up and running in no time if you fail to prevent a website defacement attack.
8. Use a Website Defacement Monitoring Tool
A website defacement tool will send you an alert if any business-critical web changes are made on your website. With a website defacement tool in place, you can act promptly before website defacement can do any significant damage to your brand.
You can explore thesefree and paid website change detection toolsto find the best solution for your website.
What Should You Do if Your Website Has Been Defaced
Here is your action plan if your website has been defaced.
Website Defacement Attacks Explained
A website defacement attack, regardless of the hacker’s motive to stage the attack, is detrimental to an individual and company’s reputation. So, ensure you have implemented the proper security controls to prevent hackers from gaining unauthorized access to your website and defacing it.
You may also want to learn more about securing your content management system to enhance your website security.
