There are dozens of open source CMS freely available online like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla etc. that can be downloaded by users, various open source CMS have advantages and disadvantages and thus users can select the CMS they need to install depending upon their specific needs. Drupal is one of the widely used Content Management Systems.

Drupal

Drupal is a free and open source CMS basically written in PHP and is being used by at least 2.1% of all websites globally, though it offers a sophisticated application programming interface for developers however no programming skills are required for basic installation and administration. Drupal is considered as one of the most powerful content management system for building websites as it is less resource intensive as compared to WordPress and thus can be easily used from a simple blog used by individual users to a content portal used by large corporations.

Advantages of Drupal

1. Drupal is one of the most technically advanced content management system and thus you don’t have to worry about upgrading it to a more expensive option.
2. Drupal is easy to customize according to individual needs with the help of many modules and themes readily available. With the help of knowledgeable developer you can also edit the file system and get it customized according to your specific needs.
3. Drupal is open-source and thus can be downloaded and used for free.
4. Drupal is more performant compared to WordPress and Joomla as Drupal pages typically loads faster.
5. Since its initial launch, various versions of Drupal were released to make things better and easier for end users.

Drupal 7

Drupal 7 is a fantastic content management system however as every other content management system it also comes up with some limitations. Below are couple of limitations with Drupal 7 for your reference:

1. Incomplete Entity API.
2. Lack of separation between content and configuration in the Database.
3. Lack of separation between logic and presentation in the theme layer.
4. Another limitation of Drupal 7 was it is hard for organizations of all sizes to find Drupal talent (developers, themers, site builders, etc) and thus Drupal 7 was complex to use for many individuals.

Thus with the launch of Drupal 8 these limitations were taken into consideration and a very good amount of work has been done on Drupal 8´s mobile features and user experience improvements. At the same time the above mentioned issue of Drupal 7 being complex for many individuals were taken care with the launch of Drupal 8 as the code will be more abstract, verbose yet it will also be more maintainable and accessible to non Drupal developers.

With Drupal 8, developers feel that they have to relearn everything since Drupal 8 is based on the Symfony PHP Framework and the twig templating system. Drupal 8 is based on Object Oriented Programming which is a dramatic change from Drupal 7.

Advantages of Drupal 8

1. Drupal 8 is still Drupal and thus it fits all size or type of organizations starting from hobbyists to large government entities and fortune 500 companies.
2. Dedicated support is provided for Drupal 8 users with simple documentation available to understand the new features/changes.
3. Drupal 8 comes with more robust new configuration management system and is compatible with mobile devices and thus it overcomes the limitations of Drupal 7 regarding mobile devices.
4. The pages of Drupal 8 are HTML 5 based and thus Each output template has simplified elements and classes with native input tools for mobile fields like date, email and phone.
5. Drupal 8 has inbuilt multilingual feature and thus you can easily translate anything in the system using built in user interface and thus its awesome for building multilingual websites and this feature will benefit both end users and developer and reach greater audiences on both sides.
6. A new tool bar is introduced in Drupal 8 with top level items including: Home, menu, shortcuts and users.
7. Drupal 8 is more accessible as compared to Drupal 7 specifically benefiting visually impaired users.
8. Drupal 8 provides and support inline editing by using spark project, this spark project was introduced in Drupal 7 version and acted as an incubator for Drupal 8.

To check and compare the features of Drupal 7 and Drupal 8 I had personally downloaded the different versions and was disappointed to find that with Drupal 8 the performance regression was between 50% to 70% and thus I still believe that Drupal team still need to do a better job to deliver a really fast Drupal 8.

Disadvantages of Drupal (My Personal Opinion)

Every CMS comes with advantages and disadvantages and the same is true with Drupal. below are couple of disadvantages of Drupal: (Of course , many developers would disagree with me.)

1. Installing Drupal and making modifications in Drupal is not as easy as compared to other content management system like Joomla and WordPress.
2. Drupal comes with limitations when it comes to future scalability and efficiency as compared to other content management systems like quick CMS and WordPress as when your website gets bigger, the code will generate a big server load. This is caused by the big range of possibilities provided by Drupal. There are however modules that load the website to the server’s cache, that decreases the server load.

References | Other Excellent Articles

• What are the main differences between Drupal7 and Drupal8?
• Drupal 8 Has All the Hotness, but So Can Drupal 7.
• Drupal 8.0.0-rc1 released.
• Drupal 8: Make something amazing, for anyone.

Conclusion

This post highlights the major differences between Drupal7 and Drupal8. I also listed in the References section other excellent posts relating to this topic. I encourage you to check them out.

Drupal is a free, open-source platform for web content and user communities. It powers some of the busiest sites on the web, and can be adapted to virtually any design. Drupal runs over a million Websites, including the White House, Louvre, Los-Angeles City and the University of Oxford. Drupal over the past years has become the most favorite CMS for large corporations and educational institutions. All this reputation and fame attracts hackers and crackers.

If you are a Drupal user and wants to protect your website from hackers and attackers, then keep reading. Here, I will share with you the Top 10 Practical Security tips that can strengthen your website’s security with many external references. Let’s begin:

1. Follow Drupal Security News

Follow the Drupal security news on a regular basis in order to get alerts of any security updates. You can also get security advisories from these places:

• Twitter (@drupalsecurity)
• Email list – Register or Log in to drupal.org, and then go to user profile page and subscribe to the security newsletter on the Edit > My newsletters tab.
• Drupal Security advisories.

There are several Security risk levels defined in Drupal. You can also calculate the risk level for a security issue with the Risk Calculator.

2. Remove Unused Modules

If you are not using a module, just remove it. Old modules present a security risk and increase maintenance time. Also unused modules will slow down the system and bloat your Drupal installation.

Relevant References

• How to Uninstall a Drupal 7 Module.
• VIDEO: How to Remove Unused Drupal Modules.

3. Use Drush to Update your Website

Drush (Drupal Shell) is a command-line shell and scripting interface for Drupal, designed to make life easier for those who spend their working hours using the command prompt.

It gets annoying and time consuming very quickly when downloading Drupal modules and core from drupal.org Website and applying them to your Drupal code base manually through FTPS or through the Admin’s interface. If you want to make this a smooth experience, you can use several Drush commands.

To be able to use Drush command line interface, you need to have Drush installed and setup for your Drupal Website.

You can cross-check what has changed

pm-update --pipe (alias: up --pipe): lists projects that need to be updated. Well, you can then go to drupal.org and cross-check the release notes to view what has changed.

You can also run the updates in a single process

Drush pm-update (alias: up) – Update modules, Drupal core and themes and also install any pending database updates.

It is important to keep your Drupal core and modules up-to-date.

Relevant References

• Specific instructions for installing Drush on Different Platforms.
• Drush Commands Reference.
• Drush Repository.
• Drush on Github.
• My top 10 Drush commands + read the comments section for other great Drush commands.

4. Check Status Report on a Regular Basis

The Status report, in your Drupal Admin at /admin/reports/status will warn you about any issues with your code base, such as out of date Drupal core, modules or database updates.

Also make sure that, the core update manager module at /admin/modules is enabled (this module is enabled by default) so that you can get update notifications on a regular basis.

5. Limit Access to Your Important Files

You can block the access to some important files, such as upgrade.php, install.php file and update.php through .htaccess configuration file.

The .htaccess file is located in the root of your Drupal install. By adding the block of code to your .htaccess file, you can restrict the access to some sensitive files from the public and allowing access to specific domains.

Below, is the standard block of code I use. Of course, change the domain(s) or block of domains to yours.

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#Drupal7-Restrict access to these files to specific domains only.#Do NOT INCLUDE cron.php, authorize.php  - not needed here. <FilesMatch"(MAINTAINERS|INSTALL|INSTALL.mysql|CHANGELOG).txt">   Order deny,allow   deny from all   Allow from 128.112. 140.180. </FilesMatch> <FilesMatch"(install|update).php">   Order deny,allow   deny from all   Allow from 128.112. 140.180.  #put your domain(s) here. </FilesMatch><FilesMatch"web.config">   Order deny,allow   deny from all   Allow from 128.112. 140.180.  #put your domain(s) here. </FilesMatch><FilesMatch"test.bak">   Order deny,allow   deny from all   Allow from 128.112. 140.180.  #put your domain(s) here. </FilesMatch><FilesMatch"php.ini">   Order deny,allow   deny from all   Allow from 128.112. 140.180.  #put your domain(s) here.</FilesMatch>

6. Limit Administrative Access

If you limit administrative access to few people, you will have less of a chance of an attacker compromising your site down the road. Revisit user access at /admin/people and make sure that the site’s Admins have the approriate level of access. They have exactly the permissions they need, NO MORE AND NO LESS.

Only allow access where it is needed, and make all access policies deny by default. There needs to be a clear, documented roles of who has access to what.

Drupal has an excellent permissions management system that will allow you to manage access rights (More in the references below.)

Relevant References

• Users, roles and permissions in Drupal7.
• User Roles.

7. Secure your Login Operation

If you are the website’s administrator, then it is better to restrict the number of invalid and repetitive login attempts, and also make sure that the originating IP addresses trying to break into your Website are banned either temporarily or permanently.

You can do this by using a Drupal module called Login Security. This module not only restricts unauthorized access attempts, but also notifies you by email.

8. Block User #1

The Drupal account created during installation (user #1) is a special account that has all the permissions by default. Failing to secure this account could result in potential security risks.

Go to /admin/people, choose the user#1, and make sure that the user’s status is blocked. First make sure that you already created another Admin account.

Relevant Reference

• Securing user #1.

9. Backup your Drupal Website

This tip applies to Drupal and to any other CMS. Always have the habit of backing up your Drupal site on regular basis. In case your Website has been hacked, you can recover from your last backup.

You can backup your files and Database manually or you can backup automatically using the Backup and Migrate module or you can use Drush to backup.

Backups that can not be restored are not worth much, so make sure to test your backups from time to time.

Relevant References

• Backing up a site.
• Backup your database and files.
• Backup Using the Command Line.

10. Choose a Safe and Reliable Hosting

Last but not least, there are countless of web hosting companies nowadays, but not all of them offer a safe and protected environment (They won’t tell you that). Thus, it is better for you to select a reliable web host that can reduce hacking frequencies by using some of the cutting-edge technologies such as SSL, SSH, and Firewalls and also have excellent and responsive customer support in the event you encounter issues with your Website.

Bottom Line, do your homework before you choose your hosting company.

Wrapping Up!

In this post, I discussed top 10 practical security tips for your Drupal Website to protect your site from hackers and crackers. By following these handy tips, you can strengthen your Drupal website’s security quickly and easily.

Also in this post I listed many excellent external references relating to Drupal security. Go ahead check them out and strengthen your knowledge.