How to prevent malicious compromises.
Top Tips to Prevent Malicious Compromises
Use Unique, Complex Passwords
With more than 5,000 data breaches in 2019 alone, the importance of using unique, complex passwords cannot be overstated.
The Surveillance Self-Defense guide at eff.org has many recommendations regarding passwords including writing them down on paper!
Top Tips
Use a password generator to create highly complex, secure passwords.
Use a password manager that encrypts passwords for sites, stores them where you can access online via a master password and that has a history of security success.
- LastPass – www.lastpass.com/
- NordPass – nordpass.com/free-password-manager/
- bitwarden – bitwarden.com/
Choose Web Hosting Carefully
The decision as to where to host your website can play as big a role in keeping secure as any other single thing you can do. Compromises happen due to outdated software, updates not applied, systems not secured using best practices and simple lax standards about internal employee and external accesses.
Choosing a web hosting company with more than a decade of proven secure-hosting experience makes sense. A great history of success, coupled with managed hosting that’s high-performance, high-specification and value priced – all combine to make KnownHost web hosting a decision that makes sense.
Quality web hosting will not only keep everything from kernel and operating system software updated to applications and control panels. Updates are critical. More than just updating systems, expert hosts will include hardening and optimization services as standard (behind the scenes) to assure customers of a secure, high-performance solution.
Get DDoS Protection
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are one common means hackers use to compromise websites. Even when server hardware and software have been hardened, an exposed, unfiltered network can provide an attack vector.
Choose web hosting, like KnownHost that includes complementary DDoS protection for all hosting accounts. Ensure that your account has maximum protection from network to server.
Use SSL
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is what makes http: URLs function as https: and what makes the communication between server and web visitor encrypted. It’s also used to encrypt admin connections with the server so that mail, control panel, and other functions can be encrypted as well.
Some hosts, like KnownHost, provide free SSL certificates for web hosting customers because of the important protection SSL affords.
Keep Desktop Apps Updated
It’s not always server-side systems that drop the ball and provide hackers an inroad into compromising website systems. There are times that a website owner has an application compromised, dangerous email or website link clicked and thus provides a hacking opportunity at their very own hands.
Use a proven anti-virus, in addition to keeping the operating system and desktop applications up to date, as ways to prevent malicious compromises.
Update Server Systems
The server operating system and underlying technologies like PHP, mySQL or MariaDB, programming languages and interpreters, and more, can all play a role in containing hacking opportunities.
If you’re using a managed hosting provider, make sure to check with them so that they confirm they’re role includes keeping systems updated on your behalf.
Update Core Applications
Websites typically run an application, or several applications, such as blog, ecommerce package, wiki or forum. Generally speaking, it’s the web hosting customer who has installed these that is responsible for keeping them up to date.
An exception to this rule is specialty hosting, like WordPress hosting, in which the core WordPress install is patched and updated automatically, regularly.
Conclusion
There are a number of simple, easy to implement, steps that you can put in place to secure your website hosting environment.
Secure your passwords, desktop, server environment and applications and hosting platform in order to minimize hacks of your web hosting account.
If you have questions about what KnownHost can do to help harden your hosting, open up a support ticket and get answers today.