Top Internet Security Mistakes and Their Solutions


Whether it's an enterprise, a political institution, a country, or even your own home, security is a key aspect. Computers, mobile devices, and the Internet are all confronting an increasing number of security threats.

Computers and mobile phones have now been included to the list of a person's essential needs. We all rely on these gadgets for anything, from simple mathematical calculations to storing data, developing programs, interacting with the rest of the world, and so on.

Virus assaults, data theft, data deletion, and hardware damages are among some security concerns. A Proactive and Defensive strategy to online security concerns is required by definition. To that end, this article aims to instill a security attitude in the reader, hopefully instilling a good amount of paranoia.

This article focuses on 10 frequent and critical web security mistakes to be aware of, as well as suggestions for how to avoid them when it comes to mobile phones and laptops.

What is Network Security?

Network security addresses issues such as unauthorized access prevention, misuse termination, and service denial issues. Complementary elements like as confidentiality, integrity, and availability are examples of security (CIA). You are completely incorrect if you believe this is it.

What are the Common Network Security Mistakes?

Now let's focus our attention on some of the common network security mistakes that most of the users tend to commit −

Poor Password

Poor password usage and the lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA) passwords may appear to be the most obvious approach to safeguard your digital assets. Unfortunately, far too many firms are failing to use them correctly - or failing to put them in place when they are most required.

You should also choose strong passwords that include letters, numbers, and special characters. Not only that, but they must all be changed on a regular basis.

Digital Asset Management Not Being Used

Digital Asset Management (DAM) may appear to be one of those enigmatic tech phrases, but you must completely comprehend it. Rather than going into great depth here, you can find a lot more information in this comprehensive guide.

Knowledge Deficit

One of the most common errors in the realm of network security is a lack of information. While it may not be required for everyone in the company to be completely knowledgeable about network security, however, you must assure that you have individuals who are.

They must not only be aware of current best practices, but also be updated with all of the changes that are occurring.

Injection flaws

Injection issues are caused by failure to filter untrusted input, which is a common occurrence. It can happen when unfiltered data is sent to the SQL server (SQL injection), the browser (XSS - more on that later), the LDAP server (LDAP injection), or anyplace else. The issue here is that the attacker may inject commands into these entities, resulting in data loss and browser takeover. Unless it can be trusted without doubt, all input must be carefully screened.

In a system with 1,000 inputs, correctly filtering 999 of them is insufficient since there is still one field that might act as an Achilles heel and bring your system down. You could believe that inserting the output of a SQL query into another query is a smart idea because the database is trusted, but if the perimeter isn't, then the input comes indirectly from bad actors.

Authentication Issues

A large collection of issues might arise as a result of faulty authentication, although all are not derived from the same source.

  • The session ID might be included in the URL and leaked to someone else through the referrer header.

  • Passwords may not be encrypted during storage or transmission.

  • Because the session IDs are likely to be predictable, acquiring access is simple.

  • Fixation of the session may be feasible.

Using a framework is the easiest method to avoid this online security risk. You might be able to do this correctly, but the former is far more straightforward. If you decide to write your own code, be exceedingly cautious and educate yourself on the potential risks. There are a lot of them.

Cross Site Scripting (XSS)

This is a rather typical input sanitization failure (basically a variant of common error #1). An attacker injects JavaScript tags into your web application's input. The user's browser will execute this input if it is delivered to them unprocessed. It may be as easy as creating a link and convincing someone to click on it, or it could be lot more malicious. The script starts when the website is loaded, and it may be used to send your cookies to the attacker, for example.

There's a simple online security solution − Don't provide the client HTML tags. This also protects against HTML injection, a similar attack in which the attacker injects plain HTML text.

No Backups

If you don't back up your files, you're putting your data at risk.

Failing to Update

When applications need to be updated on a regular basis, it might appear to be inconvenient and unnecessary but nothing could be farther from the truth.

They require these adjustments when they request them, and this is frequently for security reasons. If you've spent money on antivirus software and firewalls, but aren't keeping them all up to date, it's all too simple for them to stop working.

Exposed Sensitive Data

This online security flaw concerns cryptography and resource protection. At all times, including in transit and at rest, sensitive data should be encrypted. There are no exceptions. User passwords and credit card information should not be sent or kept unencrypted, and passwords should always be hashed. Encryption can be used to fix this.

Ignoring Encryptions

Many firms do not take the advantage of encryption because they do not understand what it entails. This is critical in many situations, including dealing with online banking.

If you store and transport data without encryption, you may be putting it on the Internet for everyone to see and access.

Updated on: 11-Apr-2022

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