When any individual or business has had their website hacked, apart from the considerable stress, inconvenience, and in some cases, financial loss, that they suffer, there tends to be a question that they all ask. That question is “How did they do it?”. It gets asked with a sense of disbelief as the person asking was under the misconception that their website was 100% secure.
The sad fact is that of the 2 billion websites that exist in the world a large number will not be completely secure from a hacking attack. Worse than that, the lack of security some of them have will be akin to leaving the front door of their home wide open with a sign above it that says, ‘Come on in and take what you like’.
Thankfully, many websites owners have taken the correct approach and have the necessary security in place that will repel most hacking attempts. Hackers will tend to follow the path of least resistance so if they soon find that your website is behind several layers of security then they will move on to a website whose owner has not to be so vigilant.
Website Hacking Methods
When that website does get hacked it will be done by exploiting or overcoming a website’s security in one of three ways. These are 1) Software vulnerability, 2) Access control and 3) Using a third-party integration. Now, it does not matter whether a website is owned by an individual who sells arts and crafts locally, or a global multi-billion dollar company, if their website is hacked, it will be based on one or more of these methods so let us look at each of them in more detail.
Software Vulnerability
When websites are created and published there will be several individual pieces of software and coding that are required to keep the website live. These could perform functions on the website, be responsible for the structure of it, play a part in creating the visual elements, generate some of the interactive elements and so on.