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Cyber attacks are on the rise, so it’s no surprise that cyber insurance continues to be one of the fastest growing sectors in the insurance industry. For insurance agencies, there are two sides to this coin, the opportunity for cyber insurance growth, and the potential for malicious cyber attacks on their own agency’s website. How can you make your insurance agency website more secure and limit your exposure to cyber attack or breach?
the basics
- Install SSL. This is a mandatory step for all websites!
- Update your software frequently. This includes your operating environment, coding, themes, plugins, etc.
- Use complex passwords. All passwords for all user access to your website must be complex. It is often best to use a computer generated password provided by your system.
- Educate your users. Take the time to make sure all employees and contractors understand cyber security best practices, including preventing phishing emails and other hacking emails.
- Use anti-malware solutions. Invest in an anti-malware solution for ongoing scans to try and stop malicious attacks.
advanced
- Harden your server. Server hardening is a set of techniques used to improve the security of your servers. For example, you should manage server access, reduce external footprint (including hiding critical files from public view), patch vulnerabilities, restrict administrator access, and reduce user access permissions.
- Use parameterized queries To reduce SQL injection attacks.
- Multifactor authentication should be used for login security. MFA is an excellent addition to your security protocol, and it’s easy to use with authenticator apps like LastPass, Microsoft Authenticator, and Google Authenticator. They reside on your smartphone and allow you to enter a 6-digit code to validate a secure login.
- Add a firewall. Most hosting environments offer a firewall option, and you should take advantage of it. For example, most hosting organizations provide optional firewalls to help prevent hacking attempts. These are an inexpensive addition and should be a standard. Note that you will need to change your DNS A record when adding the firewall.
- Protect against XSS attacks. Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks can inject malicious JavaScript into your insurance agency’s web pages, alter browser page content, or potentially steal information. The best defense is to limit how and what JavaScript is executed in the page. For example, your website may not allow any non-hosted scripts to run (disallow inline JavaScript).
- Manually accept comments on the site. Do not allow comments to be posted automatically, this reduces spam and script attacks.
- Use captcha. Every form should have a captcha, and in case of cookie compliance captcha issues, make the captcha a mandatory field that requires the user to decide something. For example, 5+4=___).
- Encrypt data. Encrypt your data at rest if you are receiving any type of information, or as a general protection.
Preventing cyber security breaches is important to both agency principals and clients. Make Sure Your Insurance Agency Website Is Secure!
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