Computers connected to the internet are prone to attacks unless they are well secured in the network. Email frauds, identity thefts, data thefts, terrorism and many other illegal activities are happening daily. Many of the present day websites are vulnerable to online attacks from unscrupulous elements. Website security is most important for a hosting company, the website owner and the end users alike. The severity of internet security is higher in countries like Thailand and other Asian countries.

What Types of Risks are Associated with Servers?

Hackers may try to upload malware or malicious codes mainly onto the shared hosting or VPS servers. It can be activated automatically once uploaded or cause to activate inadvertently during a routine server maintenance. In other cases they take advantages of securities flaws in a client’s website, enter into the server and hijack the entire hosting server through Denial of Service attack.

Website hijacking is another common threat where the hackers change the text of the main page and let the visitors know that the website had been hacked. Spammers may send automated programs called spam bots to search the website content for telephone numbers, email ids and mailing addresses. In a cross-site scripting attack, an attacker can alter the behavior of the website if it contains dynamic HTML pages containing JavaScript or Visual Basic script and without adequate security measures.

Common Security Measures for Websites:

Every good web hosting company must take adequate security protection before hosting a website. Server security is most important for thaihosting, the leading web hosting company in Thailand, and therefore it has taken several measures to protect the hosted websites. The general and most important security measures are,

• Careful screening of all hosting new accounts by demanding proof of identity and telephone verification.
• Keeping all free hosting accounts separate because most hackers don’t want to spend money and hence may use the free accounts provided by the hosting company.
• A good firewall is the first preventive measure for any server which blocks most of the outside threats including banning of IP addresses from unsecured proxy servers.
• Install software to prevent denial of service attacks.
• The use of executable commands should be very less in shared hosting to reduce the accidental access by the account holder.
• Website monitoring service to help detect uploading of malicious codes. Inform the account holder through automatic alerts if there is a hacking attempt.
• Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) encrypts all data being uploaded and so many reputed hosting companies provide this protection.
• SSL certificate is another important security measure which can encrypt critical data like credit card number, passwords, and email ids during the uploading process.
• Most of the web hosting companies provide backup service by providing tools in the control panel to restore the website content in case of any failure