How To Increase The Security Of Your Web Hosting Server

In today’s day and age, if you are looking forward to creating a successful business, you will have to take it online. However, doing so also comes with the hassle of cybersecurity and threat from malicious hackers.

So if you are thinking about launching your website, you will also have to give some thought on how to secure it. There are many ways in which your site’s security can be compromised. One of them involves exploiting your web hosting servers.

And so, for this read, we will discuss 9 points on How to Increase the Security of your Web Hosting Servers. So without further ado, let’s get on with the show:

Choose Secure Web Hosting Services

Regarding security, you must be prepared from square one. Choose the best website hosting that offers all the latest security measures. You should try to avoid making any compromises here.

Look for hosting services which offer no means for unencrypted access. Keep an eye out for these words - SSH, SFTP, and HTTPS. Servers which offers these standards are far more secure. Also, stay clear of service who are still on telnet, FTP, or HTTP, then stay clear of them. These are currently outdated and highly insecure.

Use SSH Keys

SSH is a network protocol through which administrators gain secure access to a remote computer. Now, you can either use password authentication with SSH, but it is recommended to go with SSH keys. SSH Keys works by providing users with a private and public key. The private key is exclusively kept by the user, whereas the server keeps the public key.

During a login attempt, SSH makes sure that the public key and private key are matching. This makes the login procedure much more secure. It also eliminates the risk of brute force attacks.

Use A Firewall

Security is all about layers. So after you have implemented all these precautions, the next ideal thing to do would be installing a firewall. However, all the recommendable web hosting services have a pre-installed firewall. But if yours doesn’t, then you should immediately install one.

A firewall will keep your site safe from malicious connections. It can also safeguard your site from flooding attacks, prevent malicious packets from entering your system, protect from exfiltrating data from your system, and even eliminate the chances of hackers mapping your network.

Monitor Logs

You might not know, but servers collect enormous amounts of information on who connects to it. All these data are stored in logs. If you keep an eye on these logs, then you will be able to stop certain malicious behaviors and security compromises.

There are plenty of online software or services offered by reputed companies, which you can use to analyze, summarize and gather reports about login attempts. Once you have an idea, it will help you to better your website security.

Pick Software From Reputed Developers And Agencies

With powerful and user-friendly CMS (content management system) like WordPress, users are now building their website by themselves. You can use software (or plugins in the case of WordPress) to easily build stunning, professional-looking website, without any coding knowledge.

These software use modules and elements which you can drag and drop to create the layout of your website. As you can imagine, this is very convenient. However, if you choose website builder from a bad developer, then it might have vulnerable code which hackers can exploit. So always go with software and plugins coming from reputed well-known developers/agencies.

Keep Your Software Up-to-date

Hackers are constantly searching for vulnerabilities of software. This is why, the developers from time to time, update their software to free it from these vulnerabilities. So, as soon as an update is available, it is advised that you install it.

All the software that you are running on your website is installed on your web server. Hence, if a hacker gets into one of them through a vulnerability, they can have potential access to your server.

Uninstall/Turn-OFF Unnecessary Services

While properly running our website, and trying to grow it, we will often need help from multiple services. But once used, we tend to leave them on our systems - unattended. This can lead to a build-up of unnecessary services. Now in case, any of these services suffer from a security breach, the hackers might end up compromising your site as well.

Hence after using a service you know was for a one time use, uninstall them, or at least turn them off. Activate/install them again when you think you will need. It might be a hassle but will help keep your site secure.

Install A Malware Scanning Software

Just like installing antivirus software on your PC, you can also install anti-malware software on your web hosting server to scan your website on regular basis. In the odd chance, that your security has been breached, the software will inform you and start fighting the malicious threat immediately.

Furthermore, sometimes hackers try to exfiltrate data from a server or even install malware through scripts and other tricks. All these problems can be tackled if you have a powerful malware scanning software protecting you.

Backup Regularly

Backing up isn’t treated as a security precaution, but it should be. The main reason for securing your website is to keep your data safe. A totally secure and unhackable website is still something of a distant dream. So remember to keep your data encrypted, so that no one can get a hand on them. And even if they destroy/corrupt it, a backup will eliminate all worries.

In Conclusion

So this was our comprehensive guide to increasing security of your web hosting servers. We hope you found this helpful. If so, then don’t forget to share it along with your friends and family who also needs this information.

Also, if you know further measures to reinforce security on your hosting servers, then do let us know. The comments section is an open place for progressing this discussion. We, as well as your fellow readers, will love your participation.