How to secure my Shared Hosting account?

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Regardless of the efforts of network technicians and programs monitoring shared hosting servers for possible server attacks, it is in the customer’s best interest to follow certain guidelines for maximum protection. No security measure can be considered too much as long as there are plenty of lawbreakers who always find a way to cause chaos on information systems.

Securing Shared Web Hosting

There are a couple of security measures you can carry out for the out most safety of the server your site is hosted on. Such safety measures include:

• Make sure your local computer is properly protected;
• Make sure you have secure and encrypted connections;
• Use strong passwords;
• Make sure you have up-to-date web applications;
• Check permissions.

It is highly important for your local computer to be properly protected from spam, spyware and various viruses, as it will prevent any incoming threats from a shared server and in the same time any other outbound threats to the shared server. Most antivirus software programs generally recognize and repair security holes, viruses and spyware.
The next guideline is to use secure and encrypted connections, as these connections will make it very difficult for hackers to get into your connection and implicitly your computer. Hosting providers typically have such secure and encrypted connections, but it is better to directly ask them about it.

Additionally, the use of strong and hard to crack passwords will prevent lawbreakers to access your personal files and folders. This is crucial when dealing with sensitive banking and personal information. With the great number of clients sharing the same server it is compulsory to have extremely strong passwords.

Making sure that all web applications and software are a data saver. As patches and fixes are frequently made available for most programs, by upgrading to the latest update you are properly protected. If there are security breaches in a program, the developers can release a patch fixing the problem ensuring adequate security.

Lastly, setting adequate permissions for various accesses to a website or to your computer is an additional protection against threats. Root folders and files should not be accessible to the general public. The webmaster and a few selected people involved in the website should be the only ones with access to them.

Shared hosting has several advantages that make it an attractive option for a lot of customers. As we are talking about the most commonly used and popular hosting type, unfortunately there are numerous individuals on a server causing potentially serious threats. Following these guidelines you are protecting your equipment and information, ensuring thus the safety of the system.