Why Safe and Secure Websites
Websites are vital for any business or individual, as to a certain extent, it reflects the image or reputation of the same person or organization and leaves some impression on the mind of its visitors. However, only good design or themes used are not important, data or information they contain is quite relevant as its visitors while focusing on its design, read the matter also they contain to know about that person or business organization. So, it is necessary that information must be stored in a secure way.
If we talk in the context of e-commerce sites, clients usually submit their personal information such as name, contact no., address and financial information like credit card or debit card no. , bank account no. etc. These type of information are important as well as confidential for any person, and he expects the safety of the same while doing any transaction with these online companies.
Security and reliability are the two most important aspects of any website and website which is not safe and secure permit the entry of malware such as a virus, worms, trojan horse, which disturbs the whole website and accessibility by unauthorized users or hackers leads to steal the information for their personal lives or to cause disruption.
From the above, it is understood that protection or security of websites is essential.
Role of Secure Web Hosting
To make any website accessible over the web, so that it can be seen by anyone and at any time, across the world, Web hosting is required.
However, with websites, web hosting also must be safe, as the internet is highly insecure, and as we have discussed above, hackers are entering our websites to harm them, this is through servers on which a website is hosting, and web hosting companies offer these servers.
Therefore, it is required that web hosting companies must adhere to some security mechanisms to protect the server or website from malware and hackers or others.
Safety Mechanisms considered by Secure Web Hosting Companies
A website to be safe and secure must be hosted by a safe and secure web hosting company. Moreover, thus a specific web host in order to ensure security and reliability to a certain extent, must adhere to the following security mechanisms or required to consider these security issues to keep the website safe and secure.
·1 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)- A secure web host must provide an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate in their web hosting plans. SSL is the secure-technology used for encrypting the data which is transmitted between a website and web browser. It offers optimal protection to sensitive information or data from being accessed by unauthorized users or hackers and malware. In E-Commerce websites, while doing any financial transaction or making any payment, or when submitting personal information such as name, address, contact no. to the site, all these info will remain safe using SSL.
·2 A reliable clustered firewall need to be configured – A website can be kept secure when web host hosting the same configure a trustworthy clustered firewall. It is required to deny the unnecessary traffic; block threats caused to sites and server. With this, security controls must be tested time to time from inside and outside of a network, and a trained security personnel must be there to handle security issues.
·3 ‘S' in HTTPS:// – Your website URL must be preceded by “https://” as it is a symbol or a sign of secure website. A Web host needs to take care of this.
·4 Daily Backup of Website- As data is essential for any website, so a secure web host always offers a backup of clients site on daily basis. Data must be restored on the entire network by a web host. Most web hosts provide a tool in users control panel by which user can himself take the backup of its website. Moreover, if a web host offers their own backup procedures, it is more beneficial and secure.
·5 SFTP- Secure File Transfer Protocol is more secure and vulnerable than FTP. It will securely upload the files to web hosting account. Moreover, a secure hosting company must offer this.
·6 Server maintenance- To ensure the security of sites,a server on which site is hosted must be maintained properly time to time as site performance and safety is dependent on how much server is safe. Thus, it is recommended that servers must be monitored for all the time to see if any malicious code uploaded to a website. It is necessary that servers and network must be monitored for 24 hrs a day so that it can be available all the time. With this, if any attack on the same is incurred it can be resolve at the same time. A company must publish security protocol for patches and upgrades, if any.
Conclusion
If any web host considers these security issues or follows these mechanisms, they may keep their servers safe and secure which results in websites security too.
I hope after reading this article, one can understand what kind of site security issues must be considered and which type of web host be selected to ensure secure website hosting.