One of the most common concerns a developer faces is a web server attack. Some of these attacks may comprise a denial of service, rendering a website unavailable, or theft of critical and sensitive information of the site’s users, such as passwords, credit car details, email addresses, and many more.
Hence, web server security is of
paramount importance for IT professionals. For website and blog
owners who have scant knowledge about server security, here are some
tips to help you gain a bit of understanding on the issue.
1. Use separate servers for internal
and external users, and for testing and debugging.Although having a separate server for internal users entails extra expense, it’s worth it to block external users from access to sensitive information of your website. Clients and customers of ecommerce sites, corporations, and institutions have no business getting into the internal users’ server, but internal users can be allowed access to the external server to enable them to resolve issues that arise regarding customer service or experience.
Having a different server for the people designated to create and manage the website and its contents will not affect customer experience since both types of users have vastly different purposes and goals.
Tips to Improve Your cPanel Security
If you can only
have one server due to budget constraints, you can use process
isolation to prevent accidental or intentional interaction between
internal and external applications. Another method is to create a
specific IP address on your web server which will allow access only
for admin or internal users. Using a VPN will allow you to do this,
thereby reducing security vulnerabilities. Click on
http://blokt.com/guides/5-best-vpns-for-torrenting
to select a good VPN.
- Separating the testing environment
from production seems like the practical thing to do. Yet many
companies overlook this security process and allow their IT
specialists to tweak code or develop new programs directly on the
production server.
The consequences
of having a shared server for testing and production are disastrous.
An erroneous app can make the site malfunction and cause a site
outage or make it “hang.” Worse, it can make your site vulnerable
to breaches or malicious attacks.
2. Do a website audit on a regular
basis.
Auditing your website can put you ahead
of your competitors since you will be tackling and troubleshooting
internal and external problems and optimizing your site for Google. A
comprehensive initial audit may take weeks, depending on the site
size and the tools you use. Guides to web auditing vary but
generally, do a follow-up review after three months, then after every
six months thereafter. Follow-up checks are easier to do and less
time-consuming.
The basic auditing guide consists of
audits on the following: technical, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, user
experience, and content and funnel.
3. Keep storage of logs secure
physically and virtually yet available and accessible if needed.
Activity logs are critical for history and forensics, as in legal
cases. Follow best practices for secure storage and retrievability.
4. Delete unnecessary services,
applications, modules and extensions. On the default Apache server or
on Microsoft’s web server, many of these software are pre-installed
and enabled. A developer will determine which are essential and which
are nonessential. Services and software that are not wanted or needed
should be removed from the server to limit the openings for malicious
activity.
5. Manage privileges for the various
users that access the web server. Permits for users should be
contained only to allow them to perform their specific function.
Assigning the least privileges for a network service to run will give
added security and manage vulnerability.
6. Software sellers usually release
updates to protect their products from vulnerabilities. Admins should
keep their web servers patched whenever they receive the patches to
fix any weaknesses and bugs.
Author: Spyrestudios