In today’s world where everything is on the Internet and shared across the network, You are not safe!!!! When your personal information travels through the whole internet network, it is often prone to security breaches and malicious activities. Securing your server is important to protect your data, application and all relevant processes to operate your website from the hackers, attackers, and thieves. In India, for securing the servers web hosting companies are offering services like DDoS protection, firewalls, dedicated bandwidth pipelines and several other options to survive from these attackers and hackers.
System administrator, Web hosting services provider and you yourself are responsible for securing, monitoring and measuring the operation of the server. Below are some of the server security tips:
Password Security
- Your password should be strong enough with the combination of number, alphabets and special characters and should be at least 8 characters long.
- You should regulate the passwords change on monthly basis.
- Use a secure password generator to create new passwords.
- Do not use your personal information like birthday, anniversary date and etc.
- Set up two-factor authentication for keeping a check on the Logins.
- Set up separate logins for all the teams by assigning access rights to the server with different passwords.
Regular scanning and testing
- Check with your hosting provider on DDoS protected bandwidth.
- Should implement vulnerability scanning.
- Keep a check on your website and find the loopholes in payment and ordering processing cycles.
- Schedule a weekly or bi-weekly security audits on your server and generate the reports.
- Ask for the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for any issues with the server from the hosting provider end.
Server Security
- Update your Operating system and install the security patches as and when released after verification.
- Update your control panel regularly and do not install software that is not used.
- Make sure that server logs are working and store at least 6 Months old logs.
- Maintain backups at a remote location.
- Disable direct root access if not required to anyone in your team.
- Monitor web traffic for unusual activity.
- Don’t install the unwanted software.
Web Application Security
- Update your web application proactively.
- Scan and Audit the web application.
- Test file uploads to assure no codes malicious activity.
- Secure Web application admin area with IP based restriction.
- Encrypt configuration files that contain sensitive logins.
- Guard against application-level DDoS attacks by limiting field input length.
- Specify File level access rights and store them in a separate area.
Firewalls
- Setup limitations for accessing Public, private and internal services.
- Setup firewall access to softwares and the incoming traffic.
- For more security, you can install private firewall or server firewall.
Security measure may vary depending upon the use of server usability. The server security can only be managed by the administrator or web hosting provider and should be revised, reviewed and monitored periodically to ensure that all the security measures are in place. It is advisable to secure the server first in the setup phase and alter the security settings as more services are installed and configured. This way you can ensure the server security from the beginning and save it from the attackers, hackers, and thieves.