With more people setting up their own home based, online business

every day, the amount of vulnerable web sites is increasing at an

alarming pace. And the blame for this lies mostly within the

Internet Marketing community itself. Why? Using the powerful

techniques of persuasion at their disposal, many so-called

Internet Marketing Gurus lure people into setting up their own

online business by providing them with ready-made, plug and play

web sites that contain basic security flaws. Do not forget that

most of these sites are made by marketers, not programmers! And

the consequences for you can be disastrous...

One of the most common vulnerabilities - and paradoxically the

most easily cured - is to ensure that each directory on your site

contains an index file. By default, web browsers, when directed

to a directory look first of all for a file named index. This

could be followed by a variety of extensions such as .html, .htm,

.shtml or .php to name the most common ones.

If the browser does not encounter the index file, it will display

the entire directory in the form of a clickable navigation list,

disclosing all its contents for the world to see, thus leaving

your precious and often restricted content wide open to any type

of malicious action.

To prevent this from happening you should make sure that you have

at least one or a combination of the 4 following basic security

measures in place:

Security measure 1:

Ensure that each directory contains an index file by renaming the

default page you want to be shown to index. Then make sure that

all the internal links to that page are updated as well!

Security measure 2:

Create an empty index file. When arriving at the directory, a

blank page will be shown, but you will no longer be displaying a

directory listing. You could also provide a message and a

clickable link on that page to take your visitors to the correct

page.

Security measure 3:

Create an index file that contains a redirection to the page you

want to be shown. There are many free and easily implemented code

snippets available that will allow you to do so and your visitors

will not even notice that they are being redirected.

Security measure 4:

If you have downloadable content that people have to pay for, do

not keep it it the same directory as the sales page, but keep it

in a separate, secure directory and set up your payment processor

to that directory. This way you ensure that only people who have

paid for the content have access to it.

When selling products online as an Internet Marketer or

otherwise, you are more prone to people trying to get to your

restricted content so as to avoid having to pay for it. These 4

basic security measures should help you drastically reduce the

risk of unlawful access to your site and save you from a lot of

headaches and worries.