Website security is a crucial aspect of web hosting. Whilst it’s tempting to leave everything up to your hosting company regarding security, it helps to know about the basics of website security yourself.

Examples of threats against websites range from “defacing” attacks, whereby hackers remotely break in to the web server and vandalise the sites it hosts, to viruses penetrating the web application software, (e.g. databases, discussion forums) which powers your site, and hackers breaking in to the “cache” of web pages on your server, then extracting private user information. These are just some of the nasty security risks that are out there.

The most effective way to counter such threats is with a firewall. A firewall is a piece of software, or hardware engineering, which monitors your internet ports and filters inbound and outbound traffic.

If the firewall is good at its job it will block the bad stuff, and allow through the good. In a web hosting environment you can see the vital role that a firewall plays. Whilst the firewall deals with intruders, antivirus software should also be installed to protect the web server applications.

Furthermore, you should ensure that your website is regularly and securely backed up, so it can be restored with a clean version in the event of any security breach.

As website hosting specialists, at CWCS we guarantee robust firewall and antivirus protection, along with regular backups of your site. Finally, you can do your own bit by changing your control panel password regularly, and keeping it private.