Choosing an inefficient webhosting option may come up with a lot of risks including low performance speed, low loading speed, server shutdown, failure to connect the data and a lot of others. But the biggest risk you may face is of data loss and inefficiency to retrieve the lost data. Your website data is lost in two ways. Firstly, server breakage or shutdown may result in loss of data which has not been saved yet. The second risk is more common and therefore more important. It is inefficient to protect against security breach or website hacking.
Understanding the Security Risks
Security problems occur mostly when we choose cheaper webhosting services. It is an old concept that choosing a cheap webhosting service saves you money on a monthly basis. Now, understanding the importance of effective webhosting services for improving conversions and increasing Return on Investments, successful businesses prefer purchasing effective webhosting over saving money.
There are different ways to breach the security of a website. The hacker may try to log in to the administrator’s account to interfere by changing the log in password. Another way is to create malicious content like a virus and infect the website. The hackers also technically interfere with website’s coding without using an administrator’s password. Another common way is network spamming, which mostly occurs when you use shared webhosting services.
An efficient webhosting company will not only provide you high security against hackers, but also technically protect your website at the backend. Efficient serves blacklist the malicious websites and block them from reaching your website in all ways including infomercials, advertising, emails and back linking.
Symptoms of a Risked Website
There are different symptoms to know that your website is fully protected or not.
- Loss of data
- Foreign interference with administrator’s controls and authority
- Unexpected or uncontrolled change in privacy settings
- Appearance of visual data which administrator did not upload
- Unsolicited emails to the customers
- Too many pop-up ads on webpages
- Frequent server breakdown or no data connection
If you frequently find all or some of the aforementioned problems in your website then it is a clear sign that your website is not fully protected by the webhosting service. It is a clear sign that this is the time to switch.
Protecting Your Ecommerce Site from Security Risks
Given here is a complete package of information on how to protect your ecommerce site from security issues and risks.
1. Profile Screening
Ecommerce websites need to be warm-hearted to welcome people from all around the world, therefore blocking IP addresses of specific region is not always a good option. The best way to protect your website is to carefully screen the visitor and subscriber profiles. Request of proof of identity in the subscriber’s form is an easy way out.
2. Avoid Sponsored Advertisement or Free Hosting
Free webhosting services run on the sponsored advertisements which appear as pop-up ads on your web pages. In other words, it is an open access entitlement to advertising hosts which may result in creating malicious content on your website or even creating malicious web pages.
3. Personal Security
A responsible ecommerce business will not rely completely on server security and choose firewall for personal security. Firewall authentication helps you block DDoS attacks.
4. Choose Linux VPS Hosting for Security Software Installation
As dedicated servers are expensive and free webhosts are more vulnerable to hackers’ attack, businesses often choose from VPS hosting or shared webhosting. The latter provides you limited access to server resources including limited access to integrate and run software on the website. In contrast, VPS hosting provides you free resource allocation to integrate and run the software. Linux software is mostly heavier than others. VPS is also advantageous in a way that it provides operating system based hosting. Choose Linux VPS hosting for freely integrate software to your website being operated from Linux.
5. Password Security
As a responsible website administrator would often change the password, it is also essential for a server administrator to change the server password. An unsecured server definitely puts your website at risk.
6. Faster Server Response
Make sure to choose a server, which immediately responds to your security requests. An unresponsive server is itself a threat to the security of your website. One of the biggest benefits of VPS hosting over shared hosting is that it offers faster response and quickest data recovery 24×7.
7. Server Security Extensions
Server security extensions are used to protect your data and website against foreign attacks, even when it is offline. A VPS provides server security extensions for both Windows and Linux.
More Server Security Tips
Here are some more hosting server security tips for website owners.
SSL – Secured Socket Layer is an encrypted path between web server and a web browser. For ecommerce websites, SSL is necessary. Make sure that you have an SSL certificate if you want to collect personal information and data of the customers.
SFTP – FTP refers to File Transfer Protocol. Most of the hackers use FTP to transfer the data of your website, including administrator’s password to breach the security. FTP risks can be reduced by setting the FTP to SFTP or Secured File Transfer Protocol in HTML or XHTML settings.
Backup – the worst circumstances like loss of data due to hacking, backup saves you the fortune. This security measure can be taken by choosing a webhosting server, which provides you error-free data retrieval in all circumstances.
Server Security– An unsecure server may be hacked, putting all websites on that server at risk. You can escape this risk by choosing a webhosting server with an established and certified Security Protocol. Internet Security Protocol acts like Firewall for your server. It creates a security layer on the server and protects it from foreign intrusion, intervention and hacker’s attack. When a webhosting server is protected by Internet Security Protocol, all the customers on the server are also automatically protected by it.
Increase C-Panel Security – Linux based hosting servers and accounts can be further protected by increasing the security of the Control Panel or C-Panel. Keep your C-Panel updated and disable anonymous access to FTP. Increase the password strength by going to Security Center in WHM and selecting Password Strength Configuration. Installing an antivirus or firewall is also essential to keep the server safe.
The year 2014 was declared Year of the Hacks because of a maximum number of hacker attacks, which means that your website security is one of the prime things to consider and maintain for efficient business performance. When you choose webhosting, your website automatically becomes a part of the shared network, but webhosting is also the most essential ingredient for boosting your online sales. So the best way is to win over the hackers by opting out for webhosting along with all the security measures. Remember that this is one of your major milestones to become a market leader.
Security problems occur mostly when we choose cheaper webhosting services. To protect your website, it’s imperative to know how to choose you web hosting wisely to improve conversion and to avoid loss of data.