Many house owners of small and medium sized companies make the error of believing that as a result of their web site is small, cyber criminals gained’t trouble attacking them. This couldn’t be farther from the reality.

In 2021 alone, small and medium-sized enterprise web sites skilled 228 million safety threats a month — double the quantity recorded in 2020.

Such a dramatic improve in quantity begs the query, how are cybercriminals attacking web sites so effectively?

The reply is robots — or simply bots.

Bots, not people, would be the most frequent guests to your new web site. Actually, that’s an understatement: The annual safety report put out by SiteLock estimates that web sites obtain 5.5 instances extra visitors from bots than from people — about 2,306 visits per week on common.

And to make issues worse, SiteLock stories that 60% of these bots come to hurt your web site. That’s roughly 1,384 malicious bot visits per week, or somewhat over 70 thousand a yr.

Clearly, you have to do every little thing attainable to guard your web site from cyberattacks. And step one is to decide on a safe internet hosting supplier.

On this article, we’ll clarify what safe internet hosting is, why it’s necessary, and what components you need to take into account when selecting a safe internet host.

What’s safe internet hosting?

Safe internet hosting describes internet hosting companies that concentrate on defending your web site and its guests from cybersecurity incidents. Safe internet hosts make that attainable by providing security measures like:

• Firewalls.
• Community monitoring.
• Malware detection.
• Common backups.
• DDoS safety.

When trying to find an internet host, it’s necessary to search for ones whose plans include a wide range of these options already in place. In any other case, you could be answerable for paying for these safety requirements out of pocket to guard your web site and its guests.

Why is safe internet hosting necessary?

Your internet host’s in-built security measures are the primary line of protection towards malicious bot assaults.

And much from diminishing, these bot assaults have gotten extra widespread and harmful. SiteLock estimates that in 2021 the speed of an infection of internet sites with high-severity malware — which targets the info of holiday makers — was 26%. That’s double what the speed was in 2020.

It’s no shock then that individuals are changing into extra cautious about what varieties of web sites they go to.

In response to knowledge collected by the Baymard Institute, 18% of individuals opted to not buy on an internet site as a result of they didn’t belief it with their bank card info.

The simplest method to fight that is to make your web site as safe as attainable, on the entrance finish and the again. And which means internet hosting your web site with an internet host that prioritizes safety.

Potential clients gained’t be the one ones scrutinizing your web site’s safety both. Many states and international locations now have legal guidelines to guard how individuals’s digital info is used and saved.

Fail to conform, and also you and your online business may face authorized ramifications.

Safe internet hosting: What must you search for?

Listed below are the important components you need to take into account when figuring out if an internet host is safe:

• Safe info switch.
• Firewalls.
• Bodily server safety.
• Community and useful resource monitoring.
• Area identify safety.
• Kind of internet hosting service.
• Malware detection and elimination.
• Backups.
• DDoS safety.
• Buyer assist.

Safe info switch

Safe internet hosting suppliers usually use the Safe Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Safety (TLS) protocols to encrypt community visitors, to make it unreadable (and due to this fact unexploitable) by malicious actors.

A safe internet host ought to embody SSL certificates with its internet hosting packages without spending a dime. On this means, any web site you create will use HTTPS in its internet handle to let the customers know their info might be protected.

The online host also needs to assist Safe Shell (SSH) and SSH File Switch Protocol (SFTP) to encrypt distant communication with its servers.

Firewalls

An internet software firewall (WAF) helps block undesirable guests from accessing your web site by monitoring and filtering the incoming web visitors.

Along with blocking visitors from blacklisted IP addresses, a WAF also can monitor and detect malicious content material, in addition to analyze community visitors to detect present and rising cyberattack patterns that hackers use to compromise methods and trigger downtime.

If the worst occurs and your web site is compromised, a firewall also can detect and stop dangerous content material from leaving your web site and spreading additional.

Website hosting suppliers embody WAFs as a part of their infrastructure, however realizing extra about how they’re configured might help decide how safe the host is. At Nexcess, we use the net software firewall ModSecurity to guard your web sites from intrusion.

Bodily server safety

A internet hosting firm’s bodily safety is simply as necessary as its community and software program safety. When speaking a couple of internet host’s bodily safety, we imply its workplaces,  servers, and different infrastructure important for retaining its web sites up and operating.

A safe internet host could have the mandatory measures in place at its amenities to forestall unauthorized entry. These measures embody:

• Safety doorways.
• Entry management methods.
• Cameras.

Mainly, the net host ought to monitor all bodily server interactions and operations to forestall tampering.

Along with these safety measures, a safe internet host also needs to have catastrophe restoration and enterprise continuity plans if every little thing else fails.

Earlier than deciding on a internet hosting supplier, examine the way it handles bodily safety. Some fast analysis on its web site ought to reveal what you have to know.

As an illustration, Nexcess discloses that it selected all its knowledge facilities with safety in thoughts. Every Nexcess knowledge middle is protected by superior safety instruments, further redundancies, and a 24/7 assist crew.

Community and useful resource monitoring

Monitoring methods are designed to tell you of safety incidents and enable you perceive the potential impression.

Relying on the internet hosting plan you choose, the monitoring methods out there to you could range from easy alerts to notifications of outages to extra advanced dashboards that present real-time useful resource utilization, server uptime, and community visitors.

Ensure the internet hosting supplier you go for helps you to customise notifications. For instance, it’s your decision one kind of alert for when bandwidth use is excessive and one other for detecting an intrusion try.

Area identify safety

Some internet hosts present area identify administration as a part of their companies, letting you buy, switch, and handle domains to your web sites.

However area identify administration comes with a bunch of safety dangers together with:

• Register hacking.
• Cache poisoning.
• Area identify system (DNS) spoofing.
• Denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults.

Widespread security measures that defend towards these assaults are a registrar lock to cease your area from being transferred with out your permission, renewal notifications to warn you earlier than your area expires, and privateness companies to cover the contact info related together with your area.

Ensure the internet hosting supplier you go for contains these safety functionalities.

Kind of internet hosting service

Each internet hosting plan has its inherent strengths and weaknesses.

As an illustration, a shared internet hosting plan is usually cheap and seems as an easy alternative for a budget-conscious buyer. Nonetheless, a shared internet hosting plan means there’s a single internet server housing a number of web sites — which suggests there’s a threat of malware spreading from the neighboring web sites.

Alternatively, managed internet hosting plans, which generally embody monitoring companies and a extra hands-on strategy to safety from the service supplier, are usually safer.

Malware detection and elimination

Malicious software program, also called malware, is a standard assault instrument for hackers, with over 5.4 billion malware assaults detected in 2022.

To safeguard buyer web sites towards this type of assault, internet hosts embody malware scanners as a part of their safety arsenal. These instruments routinely scan your web site’s varied information and folders to detect dangerous content material.

After they detect malware, relying on their configuration, a scanner will both completely take away the malware or quarantine it and warn you of its existence. Nonetheless, auto-quarantine is just not but enabled on all cloud hosts. If malware is detected, you’ll be notified however it could be as much as you to take the subsequent steps on cleansing up and securing your web site.

Backups

For those who ever expertise a knowledge loss or your web site is compromised and turns into unrecoverable, backups are what is going to enable you get again up and operating. The very best internet hosts provide automated day by day backups to make sure that your final restoration level isn’t too way back.

One other backup function you need to take note of is the retention time. In different phrases, how lengthy does the net host firm hold web site backups earlier than deleting them? The longer the retention time, the higher for you.

DDoS safety

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) is one other widespread assault vector for hackers. These happen when a hacker makes use of a number of sources to flood a sufferer’s community or web site with a lot visitors that it turns into unavailable to common customers.

Most hosts use content material supply networks (CDNs) like Cloudflare to guard towards DDoS assaults.

Buyer assist

Issues will inevitably go unsuitable together with your web site. It’s simply the best way it’s. And whilst you can most likely troubleshoot most points by yourself, it’s good to know that your internet host has your again if the necessity arises.

Most internet hosts provide some tech assist, however not all of them make it straightforward or handy to obtain help.

What units internet hosts with good buyer assist other than these with out it’s the responsiveness of the crew and the standard of the assist.

Responsiveness means you may request assist any time of the day, and also you’re assured to obtain a response. As an illustration, Nexcess gives 24/7 cellphone assist as a result of it’s simply quicker to resolve points by means of speech than textual content.

Likewise, the standard of the assist you obtain is simply as necessary as its availability. You wish to know the particular person helping you is an professional of their area who can rapidly diagnose and resolve any downside you might need.

Checking buyer opinions (from a number of sources) is an efficient method to gauge the extent of buyer assist an internet host would possibly provide.

Don’t fear if there are a few unhealthy opinions — these are certain to occur. But when each overview has one thing unfavorable about customer support, it’s greatest to search out one other internet host.

The right way to establish and defend towards safety vulnerabilities

Whereas a safe host bears the majority of the burden in making certain the safety of its internet hosting companies, as an internet site proprietor, you even have a task to play in sustaining your web site’s safety.

In response to a 2022 Verizon report, 82% of information breaches concerned some stage of human error.

Listed below are some safety measures you should utilize to guard your web site towards cybersecurity threats:

• Take advantage of the account safety offered by your internet hosting service. Use a safe password to your internet hosting account, web site management panel, databases, and all different elements of your web site internet hosting plan that require safe entry.
• Allow two-factor authentication the place relevant for elevated safety. Use an authenticator app like Google Authenticator as a substitute of a textual content message or e mail account to your second authentication technique.
• Replace your web site commonly. This would possibly take the type of plugin updates to your web site’s content material administration system, PHP model updates, antivirus updates, or safety fixes for different elements of your web site. However make sure that to check the updates on a growth setting earlier than pushing them to your stay web site. 

• Do your individual handbook backups. Even when your host has automated backup plans, you may by no means have too many backups.
• Set up safety plugins. For those who use a content material administration system like WordPress, you may set up a number of safety plugins to enhance your web site’s safety. Word: all managed WordPress and WooCommerce plans from Nexcess include iThemes Safety Professional freed from cost.

Closing ideas: Safe internet hosting

Cybersecurity threats are a relentless problem in our more and more related world.

As malicious brokers develop extra superior methods to assault methods and compromise knowledge, it’s extra important than ever that you simply do every little thing attainable to maintain your web site’s, your web site’s guests’, and your knowledge safe.

To keep away from changing into a sufferer, you need to choose a internet hosting companion that may enable you beat the chances with up to date safety options to your web site. At Nexcess, we pleasure ourselves on complying with trade requirements to offer the very best internet hosting safety.

Strive our managed internet hosting options for the very best in safe internet hosting.