Website Security Basics for Founders

Security does not need to be heavy to be useful.

Here are high impact basics for a modern web app.

Add protective headers

Set these in deployment or middleware:

• Strict-Transport-Security
• X-Content-Type-Options
• Referrer-Policy
• Content-Security-Policy

Keep dependencies clean

Run this weekly:

npm audit --audit-level=high
npm outdated

Patch what matters first. Do not let known critical issues sit.

Protect forms and endpoints

• Validate input server side
• Rate limit expensive routes
• Return generic errors in production

Operational habits

• Enable branch protection on main
• Require CI to pass before merge
• Keep secrets in platform env vars, never in git
• Review access rights monthly

You do not need enterprise tooling to be secure. You need consistent habits.