Astra Security: Years’ Review of Website Security & Firefighting
Updated on: March 29, 2020
Astra Team
7 mins read
The year 2018 witnessed the discovery of severe vulnerabilities all around the year. These range from the famous Drupalgeddon3 to RCE bugs in WordPress core. Popular Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, OpenCart, Magento and Prestashop had been victims of large-scale attacks. The Astra security suite played an active role in making the internet a safer place. Astra is a cloud-based security solution that resides on the client side & stops attacks in real time. Astra has been protecting its customers from intrusion attempts and delivering on the promise that their website will be secured without any ifs & buts. This article highlights Astra’s journey in 2018.
Major Hacks Astra Prevented in 2018
Credit Card Hack
This year, the researchers at Astra uncovered a large spread credit card phishing campaign targeting Opencart, Prestashop & Magento stores. Two payment methods namely Authorize.net AIM and pp_pro were compromised during the attacks. Also, the admin panel was compromised and the credentials were being siphoned off to hacker’s e-mail. A comprehensive cleanup done by Astra engineers removed the infection & the installation of Astra Firewall ensured protection from any such attacks in future.
SEO Spam
SEO spam can hamper the reputation of a site in the long term. Astra acknowledges this fact and therefore actively blocks SEO spam attacks like Japanese SEO spam or the Viagra Cialis hack. Spammers have multiple tricks up their sleeves when it comes to deceiving search engines. Some use meta-tag stacking while others prefer cloaking. However, search engines are getting smarter each day and these attempts can lead to a site getting blacklisted. The end result is the loss of organic traffic to the site.
However, Astra has a prevention mechanism for this too. Astra Web Application Firewall continuously monitors the reputation of its client sites from 66+ blacklist engines throughout the year.
Redirect Hack
A redirect hack takes away the precious user traffic from the site to other malicious domains. The results could be catastrophic for the site rankings and security. Astra Firewall constantly monitors and protects the website from such infections.
Ads Suspended Due to Malware
Companies like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. control the online ads market. Therefore it is utmost necessary for webmasters to comply with their terms of service otherwise ads will get suspended. The possible reasons for ad-suspension could be inappropriate content or malware. Astra has a team of security experts to help web admins with various tasks ranging from cleaning the malware to talking to engineers at Google to get the ads approved. Also, Astra Firewall prevents malware infections that lead to ads suspension.
Securing Admin Panel from Hacking
Admin panel is a prime target for attackers due to the unrestricted access it gives to a website’s resources. Once attackers are able to compromise the admin panel via known vulnerabilities, they may deface the website or install malware to steal data. Astra engineers remove all malicious code, web shells uploaded by hackers and give back the control to the customer. This year Astra protected websites from various admin panel hacks like defacement, new unauthorised user added, grey screen etc. Astra keeps monitoring login activity & blocks unauthenticated logins. The admin is notified in case of new logins or if any other suspicious activity is detected. Moreover, any malicious code modification to the site is also blocked and reported to the users.
A Layer of Security Against Zero-day Attacks
Attackers are constantly trying to find flaws in CMS/Plugins to bypass security restrictions. When the attackers exploit any such vulnerability of which the software vendor is unaware and a patch is unavailable, the results can be disastrous. These so-called zero-day attacks are often detected in the wild. Astra Firewall acts as a barrier between the site and the attackers trying to exploit zero-day vulnerabilities. To add an additional layer of security Astra Engineers periodically perform a security audit of client site for any vulnerabilities. All the vulnerabilities are disclosed responsibly to the customer.
Astra, the Best in Competition
Astra has some great features that make it stand out of the crowd. Many users have chosen Astra over competitors like Sitelock, WordFence, Sucuri because of its tailored features, ease of use & amazing support. In the words of a customer giving feedback on Trustpilot,
Our customers like us because:
- Ease of Use: Astra is a cloud-based security suite that you install as a plugin on your website. Also, the engineers at Astra help you to integrate the solution with your site.
- Real-Time Support: Astra users get instant assistance via chat & email. This feature is available irrespective of the plan you chose. In-fact to witness this first hand, drop a message in the chat box on the bottom right corner of the screen!
- Community Support: Astra has a talented community of researchers spread across the globe. These researches conduct regular security audits on our client websites. This security audit reveals sensitive flaws which are disclosed responsibly by Astra.
- Customer Satisfaction: Astra team has always believed in the concept of placing the customer first. The customers are briefed regarding vulnerabilities using detailed videos. Moreover, the users can consult the experts at Astra whenever they need.
Here is what some of our satisfied customers have to say.
Check our Trustpilot & Capterra reviews. For some case studies click here.
Awards and Accolades
- Astra is a TechStars company. Which means Astra is among the likes of Sendgrid, Twilio, Uber, DigitalOcean etc. We were accelerated at Techstars in Berlin.
- The founders of Astra were awarded at the Global Conference on Cyber Security as the ‘Most Innovative Security Company‘ by Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi.
Astra Through the Eyes of Media
Fit Small Business
Astra has been covered by fitsmallbusiness.com in one of its articles titled “Top 25 Essential Elements of What Makes a Good Website“. This article contains quick security tips by Ananda Krishna.
NDTV HOP
NDTV Hop is a mobile platform for digital content and it is India’s first vertical LIVE channel. They cover Astra founders journey in cybersecurity & the importance that website security holds in the tech world.
YourStory: Indian Startup Stories
Your story is an India based news platform. It mainly covers entrepreneurs and change-makers, funding analysis, resource pieces and the first glimpse of emerging trends from India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, as well as profiles of great businesses and entrepreneurs from all over the world. In one of its articles, it traces out the story of the development of Astra IT, Inc. According to the article,
Success stories of businesses started by college student are plenty. These include the journeys of biggies like Facebook and Google and other smaller ones across the world. On the Indian front, there are OYO and Freecharge, which were started by college dropouts. But Shikhil Sharma and Ananda Krishna’s story is one of the lesser known ones. The talented ethical hackers joined hands to set up Czar Securities and make websites more secure. How they met also makes for an interesting story.
More of the article can be read by directly visiting the site.
Big Brands Using Astra
Astra security solution is highly scalable and flexible. Therefore with its flexible pricing, Astra caters to all. Which means that even big brands like OpenCart recommend the Astra security solution.
Big businesses often run a very tight ship. Therefore installing tailored solution is required to check usage of server resources. In such a scenario, the Astra security suite which works out of the box is of great help.
Some of our prestigious customers are SeelectTea, Ford, African Union, Kotak Securities, Religare, Hotstar, Jet Airways, Nasser Pharmacy, Yum Asia, Girnar Software and many more clients across the world.
We believe in spreading happiness while securing businesses
Astra Team
