A N Y T H I N G S E O
THE BASICS OF HSTS CYBERSECURITY
I have said it time and again, but I will never stop saying it because it is true: security is a crucial aspect of SEO that can make or break a brand’s reputation. Nobody is entirely safe from the threats of cybercrime. Brand and businesses should take cybersecurity seriously because cyber attacks cause serious damage. I have mentioned before that 60% of small businesses that suffer from cyber attacks go out of business within six months.
One of the security measures SEO professionals use is HTTPS. However, there is a security layer that can protect your site and your search engine optimisation. It is called HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) available. According to Mozilla, HSTS “lets a website tell browsers that it should only be accessed using HTTPS instead of using HTTP.” This article aims to define what HSTS is and discuss how it can protect your site and improve your SEO.
Search Engine Land defines HSTS as “a response header that informs the browser it can only connect to a certain website using HTTPS”. HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP. HTTPS encrypts the session with a secure socket layer or SSL certificate. It protects against hackers that aims to steal sensitive information from users.
Unfortunately, HTTPS leaves the site open to SSL stripping which happens when a hacker changes the connection from an encrypted connection to an older version, like if a site relies on 301 redirects for switching from HTTP to HTTPS. However, by applying HSTS, it forces a site to load over HTTPS and disregards any calls to try an HTTP connection. This will allow the browser to load the secure version immediately and eliminate the window for hackers to steal sensitive information.
Since it will allow the browser to load the HTTPS version immediately and to disregard any calls to try the HTTP version, it won’t have an initial HTTP attempt that causes a millisecond delay in the load time. The HSTS tells the browser to only use the HTTPS version which makes the redirect instant – and every millisecond counts in SEO. Switching to HSTS is a must for added security and faster load times.
SOURCE https://anythingseo.wordpress.com/2018/09 /03/cybersecurity-introducing-hsts/