Brute force attacks (also called a brute force cracking) are a type of cyberattack that involves trying different variations of symbols or words until you guess the correct password. As you might have guessed, brute force attacks aren’t the most efficient. However, with some clever tricks and variations, they can work concerningly well.
With specialized software and the right situation, hackers can automatically try millions or even billions of passwords per second. This makes brute force attacks an essential part of the hacker’s arsenal.
Hackers use brute force attack to gain control over:
- user accounts
- administrative accounts
- links
- emails
and more
How brute force attack works?
To begin with, you have a person who for some reason does not love you and your business. Then this hacker will try to break your website. As we already said, most often hackers use special programs or scripts. They pick up passwords and logins to steal your data.
Who uses brute force, and why?
E-commerce businesses are primary targets for brute force attack, due to their payment processing activity and customer data collection, but any website with a login page has the potential to be an attack victim. A threat actor can use brute force attacks to identify a user or an administrator password, a password hash key, or an encryption key, for example.
By compromising your site admin account, a brute-forcer can obtain unrestricted access to the entirety of your site to perform further malicious activities, in addition to extracting content for fraudulent purposes, such as selling customer information on the dark web, and more.
Some cybercriminals want to exploit your e-commerce site resources for economic gain or to embarrass your brand by taking down your website.
How to prevent and stop brute force attacks
Below we will share the top 6 most effective pieces of advice to protect your site from brute force attacks. They will be effective only if your site is basically secure and supported. A combination of advice and a proper security support agency will give you the best results. Well, let’s go!
The 6 most effective pieces of advice to prevent brute force attacks
1. Use stronger passwords
The easiest and most effective way to prevent the loss of your data is to create a strong password.
A strong password will be difficult to break if it is:
- unique to each new site
- does not contain keywords for your area that can be guessed
- consist of a large number of characters, the bigger, the better
- will contain not only letters but also numbers and signs
2. Limit number of login attempts
Another way to prevent hacker attacks would be to establish a limited amount of data entry. As we have already mentioned, brute force attacks occur through continuous data selection. Therefore, this method can help a lot.
- you can set 5 attempts to enter data
- you can allow someone to resuming attempts after confirming the owner’s mail
3. Use CAPTCHAs
CAPTCHAs help distinguish between spam computers and real users. We are not saying that CAPTCHAs are a reliable way to prevent data theft. However, this is an excellent way to delay the time to get them.
4. Enforce two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication is like a bulletproof vest. It uses a two-step process to login. Most often 2SV occurs through:
- SMS code
- email message
- fingerprints
- retina scans
- face scans
5. Monitor attempted logins
Monitoring login attempts is a good way to prevent your data from being stolen. If you notice that within a short time someone tried to enter your site a large number of times, then this should be a warning call.
Conclusion
Security audits and ongoing website support are considered as the most reliable ways to prevent brute force attacks so far.
As hosting provider, we also really aware about this issue and we also keep monitoring our server. That’s why it is really important to choose reputable hosting provider, HostForLIFEASP.NET will be glad to provide the security support for your site at an affordable price.
