Website Hosting Security Concerns

Website security should be important to everyone who owns and runs a website - no matter how small their endeavour. It's not true that you'll be safe on the basis of being small and unremarkable; what is true, however, is that scammers, hackers and exploiters are looking out for sites that haven't protected themselves. You can keep your site from being an easy target just by taking a few simple measures.

Shared Servers, Dedicated Servers And Virtual Machines

The very cheapest way to host a website is on a shared server - but this comes with risks. One is that malicious code could be uploaded to that server by another user, which would then put every site stored there at risk. If you want to avoid this, you can do so by using a 'virtual machine'; this still involves storing several sites on one server, but the way it's done means that there will be far more effective partitions between each one.

If you're willing to spend a little more money than that, it's well worth looking into getting a dedicated server - one that has only your own site on it. These are definitely more costly, but they come with plenty of benefits; you'll not be sharing space with any other sites, you'll have more room for expansion in the future, you'll be better protected from some of the risks of being a website owner and you might even find that your website runs quicker and more smoothly than otherwise.

Windows And Linux Servers

There are benefits to running your website on a Windows server - most of them come from the use of a .NET framework, which might be a preference for your website's applications - but many web developers and site hosts agree that using a Linux server is a little easier in some ways. They experience less lag and downtime, they often run more quickly, and they're a lot cheaper to set up and to maintain - all of which means that they're a good choice. In the end, though, it comes down largely to personal preference; neither is objectively better than the other in many ways.

SQL Injection

If someone does attempt to attack your website, they're most likely to do it by sending a deliberately incorrect SQL query to the site's database in order to cause an error - and then doing it over and over again, till the database is overloaded and begins to break down. In some circumstances, this can allow an attacker to seize control of the server. This means that you need to ensure you're using SQL properly, with all of its security features implemented, to make this as unlikely as possible.

Planning For Security

Make sure that your security solution is in direct proportion to the sensitivity of data you're storing. If your webpage is simply informational, a few backups and some basic measures is really all you need - but if you're running a commercial site or one that otherwise holds sensitive data, like credit card details or addresses and other contact information, you really need to go the extra mile to ensure that all the data you hold is safe.

Should you fail to do this, you won't just be ruining your reputation and putting your customers in danger - you'll also be breaking the law. Data protection is taken very seriously indeed, and it's an important concern.