In today’s time, people are more immersed in technology than anything else. The tech industry has taken over everything, be it in the education aspect, advertising aspect, or banking, and financial aspects. People have mostly reverted to all their work, data, and even money handled over the phone. For this, it is necessary to have a website that is safe, transparent, and fast. Finding a good, secure website that handles money that we can completely trust isn’t easy.

1. Using dedicated servers for your website

 The first step is to stop using a shared server and start using a dedicated server. Dedicated servers, also known as bare-metal servers, are essentially where one organization can host their website alone and securely. It is essential to have them for several reasons.

Handling money or payments on an online platform creates people’s hesitancy and reluctance for all kinds of technology. It also affects your bandwidth and storage giving your customers a negative experience overall. Additionally, if shared server space is used, other sites on it may cause a load on the banking website, making it slower.

The best part of dedicated servers is that they give the freedom of complete control over one website. Navigating it and making sure customers are happy and satisfied is easier.

2. Encryption is the Key

 In matters of money, the most significant aspect is how safe anyone can keep it. Be it in a physical sense or an online one, security brings a sense of peace and calms the mind. Thus, encryption is a very crucial step for all website security.  

For this, SSL encryption is very important. 128 bit SSL security, also known as strong SSL security, has an encryption key of 128 bits, passed between a web server and a web browser. 

A place where SSL encryption is paramount is online casinos that handle a high volume of cash transactions every day. This combination is essentially so stable, as there are more than 2000 possible key combinations, which makes it impossible to crack through. This provides the integrity of these sites and attracts hundreds to their platform daily.

3. Beware of DoS Attacks

 DoS stands for denial of service. There are three basic types of DoS attacks- Application Layer Flood DoS, where the hacker uses spoofed IP addresses to hang the servers and make it slow, Unintended DoS attacks, and Distributed Denial of Service attacks. The third is one of the most dangerous as hackers try to slow down or corrupt a website. It makes the website unable to respond to the actual requests of the customers.

Any safe mode for online payment will be slow if these attacks are not looked into and prevented. These could lead to loss of financial data as well trust of the customers. Moreover, because it is multi-faceted, it makes it all the more dangerous. That is why using a dedicated server and 128-bit encryption can help protect from these attacks.

4. Periodical scans for safety

 Security for online payment is a must. One of the ways to protect web banking websites is through vulnerability scans. These scans can help spot areas on a particular server; that may be prone to vulnerabilities in a network or group of networks. Once recognized, these areas can be repaired by a software engineer and help to block hackers from attacking. These scans should be conducted every 90 days for the banking site to be safe and free from any vulnerabilities.

5. Control Management System (CMS)

 Along with vulnerability scans, it is critical to have an updated version of Control Management Systems(cms) and plugins all the time. This, along with the Vulnerability Scans, helps create a safe platform for online banking.

6. 24/7 Monitoring

 A banking website handles sensitive data and, so it is prone to many cyberattacks. Intrusion from hackers needs to be detected every time and, for this, it is important to have surveillance 24/7.

7. Certifications related to data protection

 Data protection is the key to which web banking revolves. Sensitive data is always more prone to be hacked than any other data. This matter needs institutions to incorporate different data center certifications. The best known is SSAE 16 data center auditing. This auditing is primarily recognized by International Standard on Assurance Engagements as well.

Audits reports help to provide information on the system and control of organizations. SOC report helps to provide an overview of an organization in a more structured and secure way. It gives an outside perspective of the company at a point in time.

8. Backups

 Backups are very common in any industry dealing with a bundle of information. Data needs to be regularly backed up and also to be in encrypted form.

Encryption is needed to provide security if the information stored and backups are. In case of loss of files over any external/internal damage. Web banking platforms are vulnerable to hackers, so backups need to be in encrypted form.

9. Disaster management

 Financial institutions must always look out for the worst at all times. They need to consistently know what to do in times of fervent attacks from hackers and have business continuity planning.

Like practice drills in real life, planning is very crucial for online payment security. These practice drills are to be performed every ninety days to check all security points to go through, ultimately giving disaster recovery a secure and faster pace.

10. Load balancing of servers

 Since many sensitive and high-profile data are stored among websites dealing with online banking, there are loads to be distributed among the data centers. This distribution needs to be even and well balanced not to make the website crumble down. Data centers can act as different pillars of a building, and equal weightage makes the building durable and steady for the long run.

Strategic distribution of load among multiple data centers helps the website function smoothly, respond to customer requests on time, and reduce the risk of losing data. Optimally, web banking sites should have 2-3 data centers to not overload and gain smooth function of online payments.