What You Need to Know About Malicious Redirects
As a business owner, it’s more than likely that you have a website, but what happens if a link on your site takes a visitor somewhere else completely? The term “malicious redirect” may not be familiar to many, but it’s one of the oldest tricks in the book.
Malicious redirects are scripts injected into legitimate websites that redirect visitors from the intended site and resources to another site with malicious content. Unfortunately, many are unaware of this occurrence until it’s too late, perhaps even hearing complaints from clients. If you are the site owner, diligence is your remedy.
Here are some steps you can take to keep your website secure:
Limit access to your website's backend to only those who require it.
If at all possible, use MFA to authenticate to the backend.
Do not use third-party plug-ins, and if you have to, keep apprised of their updates and patches, as these are potential holes in the security of your website.
Always remember to scan your website for injected scripts. One way to do so is to regularly visit your site and click on all the links. If that is too tedious, there are free tools available that will scan your site.
The bottom line is, like any other important resource, your website needs to be managed, which will take time and deliberate action. If you don’t have the time to monitor your website yourself, contact us to learn how we can help your business and clients safe.