The Internet has taken over the world and so most of the businesses have gone online. With the coming in of online businesses, it is necessary for each business to have a website. If the website is insecure it will eventually increase the risk of being hacked which will further prove to be bad for your business. As a result, to avoid this impact, everyday efforts are being made to enhance website security. Since security is important, different certificates are introduced by the companies to make your website secure and prevent the risk of any external hacking.
What is HSTS?
HSTS or HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is a web server that notifies you about the website being accessed only through HTTPS. This ensures that your browser will be able to access only the HTTPS version of the website. The HSTS is responsible for allowing the users and web browsers to handle the connection via a response header sent at the beginning and end to the browser.
HSTS follows strict policies to ensure proper security of the website. HSTS is a bundle of different security settings via your web hosting service. The technology is available for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers.
How does HSTS work?
Usually, the two main features are responsible for restricting security implements. These features are aimed at preventing hackers from stealing sensitive data from your website, basically the credentials. HSTS works by ensuring all modes of communication should be sent through HTTPS. Hence, this ensures proper security to the website.
If the web browser protected by Strict Transport Security gets an invalid SSL certificate, the browser has the authority to prevent the user from accessing the website. It will also ensure that whatever asset is being sent via your website has an https:// and not HTTP://.
Why should you get HSTS?
Websites with no SSL certificate or security are at a higher risk of being hacked. Hence, having HSTS on your website can help keep all threats away. Some of the prominent benefits of having it include
- Transfers all the links from HTTP to https
- Prevents users with an unsecured connection to access the data
- Defends website from the risk of cookie forcing
- Ensures website recovery only in a secured environment
How to enable HSTS on your website?
The basic requirement is to have a valid SSL certificate. The website and no subdomain will work if there is no SSL certificate. To enable HSTS, you need to add a header to your file. The addition of the header will enable access cookie for a year for your website and subdomains.
You should ensure that all domains and subdomains are a part of the SSL certificate with proper HTTPS.
In the initial stages, Google recommends checking the speed and performance of the website. It also further helps in increasing the traffic management. However, Google recommended checking the speed for one week or one month. If the website faces any issues, you can eventually preload it and fix the problem.
Having HSTS on your website can prevent all the attackers from getting into your website. HSTS has been in the market for a long time. Moreover, it is very easy to install. Hence, you can get it now and boost your business.
