Server Security 101: Best Practices to Secure Your Server

Server-level security is essential in today's increasingly hostile web world. Complete protection is critical because your server and IT infrastructure are subject to various online threats. Hackers are always looking for vulnerabilities in a company’s security system. They always seem to know what to do to be one step ahead. Therefore, you need to stay vigilant and always keep up to date with your server security.

On the other hand, neglecting security may result in negative effects: A pricey risk could harm your company's reputation and stakeholders. Because most company transactions are conducted electronically, prioritizing server security ensures that your data and your customers are secured.

Below are some suggestions for efficiently addressing the security demands of your server infrastructure to keep your servers in good shape.

Six Best Practices for Ensuring Server Security

The strength of your online security is just as strong as its weakest component. That means you must defend your website, keep your web apps up to date, utilize firewalls to protect your network, and think about the security of your server or hosting agency.

And then, you may ask: "Why?" The answer is quite simple: Hackers can attack your website and the web server that hosts it directly.

Direct hacking attempts, phishing, invasions, and viruses can cause concern. As a result, your hosting service or IT department must take proactive measures to defend your server/s against assault. Hackers are well aware that servers typically contain sensitive information.

In the end, your choice of the host agency, server, and operating system (OS) will determine what you need to do to comply with current security best practices. As a result, every operation component must be reviewed and configured.

With that, here are six measures you can take that will increase your server security:

Examine the Status of Your Server

A regular monitoring approach can detect a problem before it becomes a major issue. Begin by checking the condition of your server, looking for any difficulties with its CPU, RAM, disk utilization, running processes, and other metrics, as they can often detect server security vulnerabilities.

Store network services logs, site access logs, and database logs safely and often examine them. Then look into the cause of any unusual log entries you come across. Scripts should always be kept on a separate drive, away from your operating system, logs, and other system files. If a hacker gains access to your webroot directory, they will not use an operating system command to take control of the server.

Automate Your Security Updates and Upgrades

The majority of vulnerabilities have a zero-day status. It just takes a little time for a public vulnerability to get exploited to launch an attack. However, you may reduce the risk by installing automatic security updates and patches as soon as they become available.

Establish Perimeter Security with Firewalls

Known dangers, automated attacks, malicious traffic, DDoS filters, fraudulent IPs, and untrusted networks can be filtered using applications like border routers and firewalls.

Your local firewall can detect and block attacks such as port scans and SSH password guessing, as well as any other security concern. Incoming web page requests will get filtered by a web application firewall, which can block those produced with the intent of breaking or compromising your website.

Employ Security Tools

Administrators can put up security tools such as URL scan and mod security in web server software to safeguard the web server's installation. These tools can take some effort to set up, especially for specialized online applications, but they will provide you peace of mind.

Scanners can perform advanced security checks against open ports and network services to help secure your server and online applications. They can look for SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting, and web server setup issues, among other things. Some can also automatically audit shopping carts, examine forms and dynamic online content, and alert you to any discovered errors.

Disable Unnecessary Services

For example, remote Registry Services, Print Server Service, and RAS are not secure default operating system installs and network setups. With more services running on an operating system, ports become more prone to misuse. As a result, it is preferable to turn off all superfluous services.

Control Who Has Access to Your Server

Access control is significant because it is a useful security strategy for limiting who can see or use a given resource.

The ultimate goal of access control is to provide security that helps keep buildings, data, and people secure, reducing risk to a business or organization. This feature is why access control is linked to information technology security and should be a top priority for any business owner. Without adequate access control, you risk exposing your employees and your firm to issues such as data loss, theft, and violations of privacy and data protection regulations.

In this respect, Werbot can assist you if you find yourself amid an access control crisis that needs to get resolved. Werbot provides a variety of easy-to-use and powerful tools for founding organizations, adding servers and distributing access, inviting employees, auditing work, monitoring server security, conducting programmable operations, and various other tasks.

Remember that the sum is always greater than the parts; hence, each combination of procedures will add another layer to your defenses, contrary to just one.

Conclusion

The strategies listed above are only a few of the actions you may take to increase your system's security. It is vital to remember that the longer you delay deploying security measures, the less effective they become. As a result, security should not be an afterthought; it should deploy as soon as your infrastructure gets set up. Once you have established a secure foundation on which to build, you can begin deploying your services and apps with the knowledge that they will run in a secure environment by default.

Moreover, even if you start with a safe environment, remember that security is continuous and iterative. A constant state of vigilance and awareness gets required for good security.

Try Werbot today and experience what difference it can make!