Protect Yourself from a Website Security Breach

I recently read an article about website security that talked about the local Salt Lake City police department whose website had just been hacked. It made me realize that government and corporate entities alike should do everything they can to protect themselves from a website security breach.

Hackers gained access to the website that gathers citizen complaints about drug and other crimes, including phone numbers, addresses and other personal data of informants. Their website remained down Friday as police officers worked furiously to take control back from the hackers.

The old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” was again the case with the police department as the website was not sufficiently protected against vulnerabilities used by hackers to access the site.

The global hacking group “Anonymous” is taking credit for having broken into the site.
 Anonymous is group of Internet enthusiasts, pranksters and activists whose targets have included financial institutions such as Visa and MasterCard, the Church of Scientology and law enforcement agencies.

In the past they have discovered ways to hack into the Virginia Law Firm, Marine agencies, and even the FBI. You can now add the Salt Lake City police department to that list of organizations unable to protect themselves from a website security breach.

My question was why is this group hacking into government agencies in the first place? Though the police department would not confirm that it was the group Anonymous who was in charge of these hackings, on Friday, before the site’s administrator had gained back access to the site, there was a new post on the website that read, “So you get your kicks beating protesters? That’s OK; we get kicks defacing your websites — again.”

So, how can you protect yourself from being victim to online hackers such as these? My first advice is to try not to make any enemies. However, if illegal or immoral activities are taking place, take your stand. In any case, keep your websites secure and updated with vulnerability scanning as required by the payment card industry and their security standards council. These scans check for holes that hackers use to access your site and protect you from a website security breach.