In today’s connected world, a website has become as necessary as a sound business plan. Businesses without websites miss out on the opportunities to connect with their customers and engage potential new ones. Getting a new website is easy enough. But it is important to sign up with a reputed and proven hosting provider for several reasons. The chief among them is security.
A Shared Hosting web service is a good place to start your online journey. Shared Hosting is not only the most affordable hosting platform but is also one of the easiest to use, especially Linux Hosting with cPanel. All good web hosting services offer a certain degree of security for your website, but not all of them are the same.
Here are five security features that your website hosting must have for optimum protection.
1. Firewall Protection
A firewall is your website’s first line of defence. But it does much more than just securing your site from malware. It can also monitor your site traffic to keep it secure and prevent unauthorised access to your website. Ensure that your website hosting offers firewall protection. Ask for a live firewall that can detect and deter malware and hacking attacks in real-time.
2. Malware Scanning
Once malware gets into your hosting server, it can wreak havoc, and you could end up losing all your data. An effective anti-malware regularly scans your server for any suspicious activity or unauthorised changes. Make sure that your website hosting provides a robust malware scanning mechanism which is regularly updated with the latest virus definitions. Also, check whether you have access to the malware scanning reports.
3. DDoS Protection
A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack can quickly overwhelm your website hosting and crash your website if left unchecked. It doesn’t matter if you have a slow or fast web hosting, a DDoS attack doesn’t distinguish. One of the best ways to mitigate such an attack is to use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) that duplicates your data on multiple servers. Choose a hosting provider with CDN support.
4. Backup and Restore Functionality
In the unlikely event that every other security measure fails, you must rely on your backups to restore your website data. Linux web hosting allows you to back up your website by using the cPanel. You can even automate backups so that all your data is backed up regularly and stored at a remote location for easy retrieval. Check whether your hosting provider offers a reliable backup and restore solution.
5. Secure Server Protocols
In addition to a firewall and other security measures, a server must also implement certain security protocols that ensure protection from data theft. An SSL certificate ensures that your data is secured while in transit, while Secure FTP (SFTP) access makes sure that there is no unauthorised access to your files. Ensure that all communication to and from your server is secured against any type of spoofing or hacking attempts.
Give your website a secure hosting environment by ensuring that your hosting plan offers you these security measures. Preventive security is always the better option rather than reactive measures.