6 Web Hosting Tools You Can Use To Protect Your Website

Cyberattacks are growing increasingly common. They can threaten websites and businesses ranging from global brands to personal blogs. Without the right tools, you may find yourself a victim of a hacker. Fortunately, many web hosting services provide a lot of cybersecurity features that you can use. The following are six options you should consider using for your website.

1) SSL

Secure socket layer is a technology used to encrypt the data being sent between two computers over a network, often a website server and a visitor’s computer. With SSL, you can prevent cyber attackers from reading the messages sent between your website and your visitors’ browsers. Most web hosts offer easy-to-use SSL options.

Additionally, SSL allows you to sign the connection between your website and your visitors’ browsers with a certificate. This can help defend against any possible spoofing attack by giving people a way to determine if your website is really yours. It isn’t a perfect solution because hackers can use SSL too. However, it is an extra layer of protection to keep you and your customers safe.

2) Anti-Malware Software

Just like your personal computer, your website server can be attacked using malware, or malicious software. Similarly, it can be defended using anti-malware programs that detect and neutralize threats. This is a must-have on any computer system that is connected to the internet.

Web hosting services usually either provide this automatically or have tools you can install. Unsurprisingly, they are motivated to protect their systems. So, you can often count on them to have good measures for this.

3) Firewalls

A firewall is a system that monitors and controls network traffic. Most people are more familiar with software firewalls that they may have installed on their personal computers. However, a lot of servers are protected by hardware firewalls. These are standalone units that protect full networks.

Typically, web hosts will have this pre-installed and configured. They may allow some configuration of firewall rules. However, you can typically rely on these with minimal effort. Again, your host wants to protect your website and its server.

4) Backups

Some attacks can make your website unusable or destroy your data. If you collect customer data that may not be easy to replicate, this can be especially concerning. Even if the attack isn’t aimed at destroying data, it may make your database unusable.

Fortunately, you can protect against this by backing up your website. That way, you won’t lose all your hard work following a cyberattack. You can always set your website up again with your backed-up data.

5) Software Updates

One of the most underappreciated aspects of how web hosting protects you is through software updates. All software has some vulnerabilities that can be exploited by determined hackers. However, software creators are always patching and fixing these issues. So, it is important to keep your software up to date.

Your web hosting service will generally update a lot of the software you are using. Additionally, they will typically provide tools to make updates as easy as possible. Taking advantage of these can help to keep your site safe.

6) Multi-Factor Authentication

Finally, multi-factor authentication is a powerful cybersecurity tool. It requires that you not only know your username and password but also have your mobile device available, typically to receive a one-time password. This is a useful way to harden your security.

MFA sometimes has a slightly different setup. For example, needing your ATM card and PIN is an example of MFA. Nonetheless, the aim is to make hacking into systems significantly more complex due to the need to know something and have something.

Discover more about securing your website against possible cyberattacks. All the above are tools that your web hosting service either offers or applied to you. With a few more tricks and best practices, you can ensure that your website is ready for any type of attack.