When the normal individual takes a selfie & transfers it to Instagram, the following hacker attack has officially occurred. — Security magazine

Cybercrime is more profitable than the worldwide illegal drug trade. — Cybersecurity Ventures

Every single second, there are 75 records stolen by hackers — Breach Level Index

On the dark market, you can buy a consumer account at just $1 — RSA

Fraudulent emails account for 75% of the business being attacked. — Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2018

I've mentioned the statistics not to scare you, but that's the reality of our world we reside in. In this era, you can't have 'it won't happen to me' mentality. Many business owners think, Why me?! When there are bigger fish to fry & there's no reason to target my website. Truth to be told, 43% of the small businesses are targeted by cyber attacks. So you have to find a way to improve the security of your website.

Measures to keep your website safe from spam & hacking

Use HTTPS

It is a protocol which is used to provide security over the internet. If your website isn't using HTTPS protocol, then you should immediately include this in your top priority list. This tells your site visitors that they're interacting with the best possible server and nothing else can change or capture the content they're seeing.
If your website doesn't use this protocol, then hackers can easily change the information present on the page to collect personal data from visitors to your website. For instance, hackers can steal a user's login information & password.
Websites who are adopting this protocol are being rewarded by Google. Your search ranking of your website will be improved after using this protocol.
An SSL certificate encrypts the communication between the web browser and the server. For improving the security of your website, you can also combine your HTTPS with a secure sockets layer(SSL) certificate. It is essential for the eCommerce websites as users are submitting their name, address, and credit card numbers.

Install security plugins

Attacks on your website can't be manually prevented. Instead, look for such resources and online tools which will monitor the security of your website. By building your website with a CMS like Magento or Wordpress, you can simply improve the security of your website with plugins that avoid attempts of website hacking. However, you must install these plugins at the initial phase of Wordpress development or Magento website development.

Security plugins for Magento
• MageFence
• Amasty
• Watchlog Pro

Security plugins for Wordpress
• Wordfence
• Bulletproof Security
• Sucuri
• fail2Ban
• iThemes Security+

These choices address the security vulnerabilities that are natural in every stage, thwarting unique kinds of hacking attempts that could undermine your website.

Restrict file upload

Granting the visitors to upload file to your website can be hazardous. As such files can consist of a script which manipulates vulnerabilities on your website. In some cases, your website may need file uploads. For instance, adding photos of your products while users are writing a review. In such cases, treat all of the uploads as a powerful threat. You could set it up so that any files or records that get transferred are stored in a folder or database in another location. Building a separate script will carry those files from a private location to drop it to a browser. I won't get too much into the detail as it will require coding and is a little bit complex to set it up. A simple solution is to restrict the file uploads of the users which are uploaded to your site.

Update your software

You should update CMS, Wordpress software, and plugins regularly whenever an update is available. The reason is software updates frequently arrive with bugs fix or glitches, and security improvements. Hackers are always ready to take benefits of their vulnerabilities. Hackers use bots to analyze vulnerable websites. So, if you aren't kipping the software up-to-date, then it will be easy for the hackers to identify your site before you can do anything about it.

Invest in Automatic backups

The worst-case scenario of a site hack is to lose everything as you forgot to back your site. To protect yourself in the best way to make sure you have a new backup. Not to say, but in case a data breach has occurred, you will be having your current-backup which will make recovering your data quickly. In fact, if you forget to take a backup, invest in automatic backups. It is a cheap way to purchase peace of mind.

Select a safe web hosting plan

Preferring a shared web hosting plan might be engaging because of its cost, but it's not the most secure choice to make. If you choose this hosting plan, you are sharing your server with other websites. If any of the sites get attacked, a hacker can easily collect the accessibility of your server that you are using. I will suggest you prefer a dedicated or personal web hosting plan in which none of the other websites will be shared among the server.

I hope the article is helpful enough to acknowledge you about some threats which you should be aware of & security measures to prevent it. It is next to impossible for any of the websites to be 100% secure and safe — there are multiple ways through which hackers can attack your website. However, you can make their task of hacking much difficult by applying the above measures on your website. In the end, if it gets difficult for hackers to hack a website then they will move on to another website.