Simple Tips and Tricks to Increase the Security of Hosting Servers

Website security breaches happening to so many big and small-sized corporations have once again confirmed the importance of web security of hosting servers.

Since the web hosting server contains all your website files and information, including sensitive ones, it’s essential to maintain the security of your web server against all kinds of threats and issues.

Hackers with ill intent never stop finding ways to gain access to a company’s sensitive data. So, this is the major reason why maintaining security protocols to keep the web safe is an important element of server management and for server administrators.

Although no single list of web security tips can be considered complete, the following list is as close as we could get to aid you in securing your web servers:

1. Set Up a Public Key Authentication for SSH

It is not an easy task for hackers to even come closer to invading the security of well-built servers. So, those who lack knowledge of web hosting security, end up choosing easy-to-crack passwords leaving high chances for hackers to exploit opportunities.

Thus, when you are creating a new password, there are plenty of useful tools that measure its strength of the same. As a general practice to have a strong password, create one with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols.

Also, do not forget to change your password once in a while. It would be harder for criminals to figure out the password if you keep changing it regularly.

3. Install and Configure the CSF Firewall

CSF (Config Server Firewall) is a free and advanced firewall for most Linux distributions and Linux-based VPSs. Besides the basic functionality of a firewall, CSF consists of other security features too, including login/intrusion/flood detections.

Steps to install the CSF firewall

— Step 1 — Downloading: Config Server Firewall needs to be downloaded from the ConfigServer’s website.

— Step 2 — Uncompressing: The downloaded file comes in the form of a tar package. It has to be uncompressed and extracted prior to being used.

— If you are using some other firewall configuration script, like UFW, then you must disable it prior to moving ahead. You can disable UFW by running the command ufw disable. Next, execute the CSF’s installer script.

The firewall is now installed. However, do check whether the iptables modules are available or not.

Steps to configure the CSF firewall

— Step 1 — Configuring Ports: Your server will be more secure if less access is given to VPS. But, not all ports can be closed since clients must be able to use your services.

— Step 2 — Additional Settings: CSF offers a different range of options in its configuration files. The default values are great and can be easily used on almost any server. The default settings are configured to stop flood attacks, port scans, and unauthorized access attempts.

— Step 3-Applying the Changes: When you are modifying the settings in the csf.conf file, you must save the files and restart CSF for the changes to take effect.

4. Install and Configure Fail2Ban

It is not possible to be assured of the fact that the server will never be compromised, so the data should be encrypted and stored off-site. Even with the best caution, unexpected circumstances can happen, including server crashes, which is not something you want to deal with. Do you?

Back up your data on a regular basis to ensure that your website is back up and running quickly after a server crash. It is imperative that your web server is protected from malicious attacks, as that is how users feel safe and secure while doing transactions on your website.

Backup is the safest and most reliable way to restore your lost files after a data loss. Regular backups can get data back up to 100% without putting in much effort and time. But, the files that are created and added to the system between the backup cycles won’t be restored. Some third-party software is what you need for this.

Certainly, with regular backups, you can be sure of running a business smoothly and the security of data at the time of a data loss.

7. Monitor Logs

Logs are a useful security tool. A log is a list of events that happen on a system. Your system can be a basic website, user events, errors, or access to your server. Logs can help you raise alerts for challenges ahead, prevent vulnerabilities, improve services, and much more.

Step-By-Step Process of Log Monitoring

— List out all the logs.

— Navigate to your logs directory.

— Check out your log format.

— Create a list of answers to parsing questions.

— Activate log monitoring.

— Do check access to log file storage location.

— Create an upload method.

— Create your parsing.

— Monitor log processing.

— Start the log monitoring.

8. Disable Unnecessary Services

Software or program(s) that are idle and not contributing to the server’s operation must be turned off. The more services that run on your system, the more opportunities for attackers to exploit them or gain control of the system through them.

Turning off unnecessary services also applies to the web hosting server engine and removes modules that are no longer in use, etc. The less information you share about your underlying structure, the smaller the footprint available to strike you with.

9. Install and Configure ModSecurity

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