Server Security Administration - 10 Things To Take Care

Server security is one of top listed item in any organizations annual budgeting since security measures implemented has to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability of any business data. If the security measures taken are not adequate enough, the system will be vulnerable to various threats online or offline. There are number of steps to be implemented in terms of server security, of which the first and foremost would be that the organization should have a security policy in place which is to be followed by anybody involved in the business and who has direct access to business information.

• The security measures planned and implemented on a business system should be as simple as it could be. The more simple it is, less would be the chances of losing strings.

• It's quite important to make sure the users recognize inevitability of having security measures in place and consequences if it's breached. The actions involved can be documented and supplied in form of organization policies and training can also be delivered.

• Setting the right access right would be the next point to be taken care of. The rights to read, write, edit and execute should be separate and provide granularity as much as possible to ensure data confidentiality.

• Mediated access by means of firewalls, proxies and so forth would help to reduce the threats to a certain extend by preventing the direct access to any sensitive information or rather any information.

• If the least access right is given to any task or user, the scope of damage would be limited to the assets available to the compromised entity.

• If a web server process has been given access to the back end database, the ability should not be carried on to any other process or system. Least common mechanism should be used to implement any such access controlled functionality.

• Single layered security system would be scarce for an organization. Multi-layered security system would lessen the risk of the network being compromised. If the security measure in place is single layered and if the measure is breached, it leads to compromising the whole network.

• The ratio of work or the work factor can be stated as, the amount of work required to breach the system should exceed the value of information gained by a successful interference. Organizations should be able to identify what it takes to breach the security system in place.

• The failure mechanism also plays an important role in ensuring system security. If any kind of failures like power failure occurs, the system should fail in a safe manner with all the security controls remain in effect and enforced. We may drop the functionality, but it's better than losing security.

• Maintaining records and logs is a best practice to follow. If at all a compromise occurs, evidence is still available to the group. The information would help to better secure the network in future and to understand what methods were used by the hacker to breach into the system.

In short, the various steps would include, planning and deployment of the required server operating system, installing secure server software, ensuring the contents are all secure, implementing appropriate network protection mechanism in place, and establishing a secure administration and maintenance process.