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Content Security Policy For Website Cybersecurity & User Data Safety

Blue Compass web experts are here to help strengthen your business’ security policy for your website, protecting your company’s reputation and ensuring compliant cybersecurity audits. A content security policy (CSP) sets the standard for prioritizing consumer safety on the web and remaining competitive as businesses everywhere seek advanced solutions signifying they’re a secure place to land. As hackers continue to blur the lines and muddy the waters by injecting malicious code on otherwise reputable sites, maintaining a CSP header gives your business control over what counts as trusted content for your audience so your business continues to earn the trust of your customers.

Site Security Impact Do I Need A CSP? CSP Implementation

What Is A CSP & What Does It Protect Against?

Consider a content security policy—or CSP—the last line of defense to protect web users in case sophisticated hackers compromise content with harmful code. A CSP header is coded into a website’s infrastructure to define what assets a browser can display so users don’t unknowingly download untrusted content intended to exploit their personal data.

Hackers see trusted websites from reputable businesses as opportunities to reach unsuspecting users with sequences of code—known as scripts—to fulfill their own criminal intent. Scripts can be embedded in assets like fonts, images, CSS files, third-party chatbots and other entities like cookies or Javascript. Once a browser picks up the code, the hacker gains access to sensitive data stored in the browser, such as a user’s login details and personal information. Through custom CSP settings our web developers can implement for you, your business has the power to whitelist secure assets like fonts you’ve downloaded from Google, tags for tracking analytics and images from your own library so they run on your site, delivering an uninterrupted user experience.

This way, code coming from suspicious URLs or unknown sources you haven’t approved automatically triggers a user’s browser not to download or display the content from that source, leaving the user none the wiser while keeping their data safe as they’d expect from your business. Without a CSP in place, your business is more vulnerable to hackers targeting the customers who trust you with their data.

How A CSP Enhances Existing Security Policies For Your Website

Content security policies are just one component of a comprehensive security policy protecting your business and reputation from costly cyber attacks and PR nightmares. If you have a website built by Blue Compass in the Slate content management system (CMS), your site is already protected with core features like multi-factor authentication capabilities, secure hosting servers, regular testing and the ability to add an additional layer of security through a web application firewall. A web application firewall protects your site by filtering out harmful web traffic and bots. CSPs also enhance cybersecurity efforts by protecting the end user from savvy attacks to stay one step ahead of hackers as they, too, become more advanced. When it comes to your security policy for your website, a CSP is another cybersecurity step to be the most secure you can be for your reputation and user data safety online.

Is A CSP Header Necessary?

CSP headers are becoming a standard feature evaluated in cybersecurity audits and insurance policies required for websites handling sensitive data, such as banking, financial and medical institutions. Any business wanting to protect their reputation should get ahead of risks with a CSP to protect users.

The cybersecurity landscape has already pushed for stricter security measures like SSL certificates in the past few years, which nearly every reputable business website has today. CSPs are still in their early days, but our team at Blue Compass expects them to follow a similar trajectory. Consider a content security policy a competitive edge over less secure industry sites—especially if you’re in a compliance-heavy or reputation-dependent industry—positioning your business as a leader in your field.

Blue Compass Customizes CSP Settings To Fulfill Cybersecurity Audits

If your business is alerted to a missing or insufficient CSP during a cybersecurity audit or as part of your insurance policy, Blue Compass is leading the charge for websites to achieve compliance and gain peace of mind. Our talented team of web developers researched, trialed and refined a CSP header structure and content security process so we can provide you with a cutting edge tool for an otherwise cumbersome implementation of complicated CSP settings. We are actively enhancing and updating what a strong CSP should look like in our three-phase process so your website has the latest and greatest in cybersecurity at the ready.

Phase 1: Information Gathering

Phase One: Content Security Policy Reporting & Information Gathering

Blue Compass doesn’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach for our website designs, and the same applies for site security. The first step of our CSP process is reserved for gathering information from content behaviors on your website, which we complete by implementing a content security policy in report-only mode. At this stage, users won’t be protected from malicious code detected, but we need to know what kinds of content and sources your website makes available so we can accurately adjust your CSP to weed out the untrusted URLs from your own secure content.

Without this step, your CSP may be too permissive, allowing harmful code you haven’t accounted for, or it could be too strict and prevent legitimate content from displaying for users. Typically this stage lasts for a couple weeks or until we feel we’ve collected enough data to accurately program your CSP with the sources you trust. Then, we’re ready to transition your content security policy from report-only mode to active CSP settings protecting your users.

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Phase 2: CSP Setting Implementation

Phase Two: Implementing CSP Settings To Protect Web Users & Maintain Business Reputation

Our developers take the data we collect in the information-gathering stage to add custom code to your CSP header, which applies to each page of your site. This means that the assets we choose to exclude from your site are excluded site-wide, preventing a sneaky string of code from getting through to a user. We build a whitelist of allowed URLs and assets into your CSP settings so only the permitted content reaches users once we toggle your policy to active.

Because your website is a continually evolving resource, we expect content to fluctuate with updates and optimizations over time. We also know that hackers continue to evolve their approach to attempt more sophisticated infiltrations. For those reasons, we don’t stop monitoring alerts on your content security policy once we implement it. Instead, we aim to be your partner for website security, which means we continue to update our CSP coding and process to learn and grow with your business over time.

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Phase 3: Managing Alerts & Updates

Phase Three: Actively Managing Alerts & Updating CSP Header As Needed For Content Updates

Content security policies are a relatively new addition to cybersecurity, and they’re challenging to maintain for people not working closely with site content and code everyday. Blue Compass does work with site content and code all the time, so we’re able to develop advanced features to help make CSP headers easier to manage and more accessible for clients seeking the highest standards in cybersecurity.

For example, if your marketing team places new pixels for ad capture and retargeting campaigns, those pixels wouldn’t perform their function on your site unless your CSP is updated to whitelist the content source. The same goes for content updates like embedding forms, pictures or YouTube videos. CSP settings don’t know what’s classified as dangerous content versus business-as-usual content, so we work to streamline updates to your header so the headache doesn’t fall on your team.

We encourage clients to submit questions or potential changes related to CSPs to our client support team so we can assist you accordingly. Our developers also monitor CSP alerts so we can let you know when your policy rejects content and add the source to your whitelist if you determine it’s legitimate content. Especially if you’re planning to update web pages or add a series of blog articles, we recommend checking in with Blue Compass to ensure any content updates are accurately reflected in your CSP settings. As your digital partner, we help maintain a comprehensive security policy for your website through regular monitoring and updates built into your CSP so your site’s content remains flexible without putting your business at risk.

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Blue Compass Strengthens Site Security With Advanced CSP Header Implementation & Management

If you’re a high-trust institution like a bank, hospital or another business with low tolerance for risks to your reputation, a CSP header is a critical addition to your cybersecurity efforts. Do more with site security with Blue Compass paving the way for reputable content while blocking malicious attempts to infiltrate a user’s browser. A CSP is only as good as the effort you put into keeping it current with the types of content you allow on your site, but you don’t have to worry because we put in the time for you, tailoring CSP settings to your needs. Call Blue Compass at (515) 868-0010 today or contact us online to learn how a CSP can benefit your business or to get started with information gathering for ongoing CSP cybersecurity enforcement. If you currently host your site with Blue Compass, contact our client support team for more details about a content security policy for your website.

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Contact the Blue Compass team today. Together we will examine your needs and lay out a plan for taking your digital presence to the next level.

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Content Security Policy For Website Cybersecurity & User Data Safety

What Is A CSP & What Does It Protect Against?

How A CSP Enhances Existing Security Policies For Your Website

Is A CSP Header Necessary?

Blue Compass Customizes CSP Settings To Fulfill Cybersecurity Audits

Phase 1: Information Gathering

Phase One: Content Security Policy Reporting & Information Gathering

Phase 2: CSP Setting Implementation

Phase Two: Implementing CSP Settings To Protect Web Users & Maintain Business Reputation

Phase 3: Managing Alerts & Updates

Phase Three: Actively Managing Alerts & Updating CSP Header As Needed For Content Updates

Blue Compass Strengthens Site Security With Advanced CSP Header Implementation & Management

Ready to get started?

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