Regardless of whether you’ve got a personal website that you use as an online portfolio, or you’re setting up a corporate website for your business; online security is incredibly important. And web hosting security will make up a large chunk of your task to make your website as hacking-proof as possible. If you’re not aware of website security – we’ll fill you in on all the details you need to know right here!
Why Is Internet Security Crucial
Many people who are just starting out with their own website aren’t aware of all the associated quirks that come with maintaining a successful online presence. But once you get into the details of it all, you’ll realize that understanding the essence of secure web hosting will be hugely beneficial to your website.
Obviously, the Internet is one of the biggest inventions in human history. And it allows us to reach an unprecedented level of global communication; enabling both product and service-oriented businesses to reach an incredible range of new markets and target audiences.
However, that kind of worldwide access to information and communication avenues does not come without its cost.
While the Internet is the preferred way of doing business these days; it also has incredible potential for malicious exploitation by unsavory people and organizations. There are many criminal organizations out there, trying to damage websites. Whether they’re after sensitive data, or they’re just looking to do some damage – you need to take steps to protect your website through a proper web hosting security.
Who Must You Protect From?
We will now go into the details on who you’ll be protecting your website from – and what that means in terms of web hosting. Firstly – you should realize that there are two kinds of hackers that intend to harm your website.
Firstly – we have the identity thief, which is simultaneously the most threatening and the most common type. That’s an individual or (even worse) an organization, looking to exploit the security weaknesses in your website to obtain personal gain.
They do this through stealthily obtaining as much information about the website’s users, so they can sell it to other nefarious organizations, or simply as leads to marketing companies. This isn’t the kind of hacker who looks to strike one and do some damage – they want to breach your website and stay in access for as long as possible. That way, they’re able to extract the most information.
On the other hand, you’ve got the hackers who just want to boast that they’ve managed to breach someone’s website. These just want to be as destructive as possible – usually, they’ll leave something akin to a digital ‘graffiti’ in order to let everyone know that they were there.
Choosing The Right Web Host
So, now that you know what kind of threats you’ll be up against – it’s time to learn what you can do about it. First of all, know that the back-end website hosting security is one of the most crucial aspects of your website’s informational safety. With that in mind – choose your web hosting provider with extreme care.
That being said – know that you don’t have to spend a great deal of money in order to find a secure web host. Many subpar hosting companies will try to gain approval for their huge prices by claiming that they provide top-notch security to their clients.
But in fact – you can find very secure free web hosting providers. For instance – have a look at the list of trustworthy options we’ve found here if you need some guidance. Just remember – the hosting provider you pick will have a huge impact on how well-protected your website is.
SFTP
This is another factor to consider while you pick your host – their protocols for file transfer. Most people who have uploaded files to their hosting account know about FTP – which stands for File Transfer Protocol. We recommend finding a host that uses SFTP; the same basic concept, but with an added security layer. As the name says – it’s a Secure File Transfer Protocol. While FTP is relatively secure, if you care about data privacy, SFTP is a better option. It has no vulnerabilities that allow nefarious parties to intercept and alter files.
SSL
Yes, we’re continuing with the acronyms – but SSL is also an important one. Standing for Secure Sockets Layer, it gives you an important layer of encryption on the path data takes between the web server and the browser. Any website worth its salt has an SSL certificate – especially if we’re talking about an e-commerce one. Such websites deal with incredibly sensitive personal information, like credit card numbers or individual addresses. So, take care to have SSL capabilities with your hosting provider.
Backup Policy
Anyone who maintains a website has two goals – the highest possible traffic, with the lowest possible downtime. And that’s true regardless of what you intend to use your website for. However, over a longer time period – it’s inevitable that something will go wrong with your website.
Even the best web designers and the most vigilant owners experience some technical difficulties. And in such a situation, if you don’t want data to be lost on your website – you should make sure that your web hosting provider has a regular and useful backup policy. That way, any website crash won’t mean sustaining damage that you’re not able to recover from. So, see the regularity of the host’s server backups before putting down money for their services.
Conclusion
As you might suspect, there are plenty of other factors to consider regarding web hosting security, and the security policies of your website in general. However, we’ve tried to outline the most important ones here, so that you have a general idea of where you should start while shoring up your online safety.
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