What Is Create a Secure Website and Who Is It For?

Updated

Create a Secure Website (createasecurewebsite.com) is a free course and companion book that teaches you how to build a website using open-source tools, with security as the organizing theme. The stack it teaches is specific: a Debian VPS, the Hestia Control Panel, the Joomla content management system, and the Helix Ultimate template. It is written for three overlapping audiences: people whose sites have already been hacked and want a more resistant way to rebuild, first-time builders who want to start on a sounder footing, and anyone helping others build more secure sites.

What the course actually covers

The site is organized as a numbered curriculum rather than a blog. The sequence runs from the computer you work on, through server setup, to site building, appearance, content, promotion, and maintenance.

Stage What it teaches
First steps Replacing Windows with Linux, creating a secure Linux computer, running Linux from a USB stick, initial laptop configuration
Secure VPS Choosing a VPS host, installing Hestia, using Midnight Commander, installing Joomla through Hestia
Site setup Joomla first steps, adding extensions, adding a better editor and welcome article, general website security tips
Appearance Helix template basics, menus and mega menus, typography customization
Content Categories and folders, writing and posting articles, making featured images in LibreOffice Draw, attaching them to Joomla articles
Navigation Menu item links, category and article menu items, dividing and linking pages
Custom modules Building modules, styling with inline, internal, and external CSS, preset classes, "Rainbow" presets
Promotion Home page slideshow, informational videos, a free email newsletter, a free download manager
Management SEO, migrating a cPanel site to Hestia, migrating WordPress or Wix to Joomla, updating Joomla 3 to Joomla 4
More tips Video-background modules, cropping and resizing video in OpenShot, alternative search engines, moving a site to a new VPS

There are also demo pages for the module and "Rainbow" styling techniques, plus a free downloads section.

Who each part is for

  • If your site was hacked: the course frames itself around that experience directly, and the security thread runs through host selection, panel choice, CMS configuration, and the dedicated "Real Website Security Tips" step. Start at the VPS section rather than the Linux desktop material if you already have a working computer.
  • If this is your first website: follow the numbered order. The early Linux steps exist so that the machine you build from is itself on a secure footing, which is unusual for a beginner course but consistent with its premise.
  • If you are helping others: the curriculum works as a reference outline you can walk someone through, and the demo pages show what the styling techniques produce before you commit to them.

What to know before you start

The course is explicitly built on free and open-source tools, and its stated goal is to help you create your own secure website with them. That is a statement about the toolset, not a claim that every linked service — VPS hosting in particular — is free; hosting is a paid resource you select in step 2.1.

Two practical caveats come from the curriculum itself. First, it includes a step for updating Joomla 3 to Joomla 4, which tells you parts of the material were written against Joomla 3; check version-specific instructions against your installed version as you go. Second, the migration steps (cPanel to Hestia, WordPress or Wix to Joomla) assume you already have a site elsewhere and are moving it, so they are not relevant on a first build.

The site's own framing of the stakes is worth repeating: people may spend years building a website without realizing how quickly it can be damaged. If that risk is why you are looking, this course is aimed squarely at you; if you want a quick drag-and-drop site with no server administration, the Debian-and-Hestia approach here will be more work than you need.