Shared hosting is the most popular and most prone to security flaws of all the ASP.NET hosting options.
Find out how to protect yours.
It’s a fact that most people would rather remain ignorant about web security. “I know I’m not that unlucky,” “I’m too small to be hacked,” “We’ll see about it when I have more time”—the list of justifications we can come up with to avoid the arduous, time-consuming task of strengthening the security on your website is endless.
Yes, the mere notion of backing up our data is enough to put us to sleep.
What then might spur us to give security more thought?
Perhaps write information about the most destructive hacks in history on our walls? Then, though, the thoughts of “I’m too small to be hacked” will take over. One concept that I believe could be implemented someplace is a counter that displays the total number of hours you have invested in your company or website.
Though habits and motivation are not the focus of this post, I felt a brief discussion was appropriate. I’m not sure what will frighten and inspire you more if that doesn’t. ?
Anyway, let’s move on to how you can strengthen the security of your shared hosting account for those who were sufficiently alarmed or worried about their security in general.
Note that what we are discussing here is not a virtual or physical server (or even a collection of them), but rather a shared hosting account. While I am addressing the majority of non-technical people in this post whose income comes from digital properties, independent servers are a different story.
1. Always Backup Periodically
Although it’s difficult to accept, backups and security are related.
Frequently, the hacks are so severe that they completely erase your data; on occasion, even after the best professional cleanup.
In these situations, there’s nothing better than pressing the restore button: access a backup that you previously trusted, make a complete system restore, reinstall everything, and import the data. What losses do you incur? The data collected since the backup. What benefits do you receive? the entire company!
Having said that, there are a few considerations regarding backups.
Restoration
If there is no mechanism in place for a prompt and reliable restoration, backups are useless. Your ASP.NET hosting provider probably offers a restore option, but are you certain it functions?
And do you know how to restore everything if there isn’t a restore button?
You will undoubtedly be taken aback because gathering vast volumes of data over time can make restoration difficult. There are additional factors to take into account, such as the database and software versions, the compatibility of these versions. You most likely lack the energy and skill set necessary to engage in all of this.
If not, even though it may seem expensive, I strongly advise you to choose a management service that will handle everything. However, even if you are sure that you can pull it off, I must ask that you practice frequently (every six months, for example). Trust me, no matter how experienced one is, they can still make a mistake.
Give ASPHostPortal a try if you’re searching for a dependable shared ASP.NET hosting company that offers daily backups.
Frequency
How frequently ought one to backup? Here, there are two factors to take into account: the volume of data you have gathered and the importance of your company.
Assume that the business requires 40 GB of data in total to function. You will use 40 x 30 = 1200 GB or 1.2 TB of data in the first month if you plan daily backups.
It would have increased to 3.6 TB by the end of the first quarter; wherever you decide to store this much data, you will undoubtedly burn a hole in your pocket.
The answer?
Trash data that is more than a certain amount of time. The length of this period will depend entirely on your business, but in most cases, twice-weekly backups that have been stored for the last two months will suffice.
Even so, the costs associated with backups won’t be insignificant, and you’ll need to confirm that only valuable data—and in a format that can be reused—is being backed up. If not, you already know the dangers…
2. Make Strong Password
The issue is that the “strong” passwords we generate are not secure at all.
It is very likely that the shell can be broken with a Dictionary Attack and a little knowledge of your personal life.
The answer?
I advise making use of a trustworthy and free service like LastPass’s password generator, which lets you customize the length and complexity of the password. Please give the tool as much exercise as possible to fully extend its muscles.
Those days of remembering a password are long gone, so forget about it. Memorable passwords are the easiest to guess. Rather, try the password generator a few times and choose a password that makes you sick to your stomach.
3. Keep Update Software
It is highly recommended that you upgrade the installed software if your shared hosting account has an administration panel.
Why? Not because doing so makes you feel superior, but rather because security flaws found in earlier versions of the program are mostly fixed in new releases (Aha! You now understand why Windows cries out for you to update constantly.
Please don’t disregard this, or really any of the article’s suggestions. It’s impossible to estimate the number of installations, applications, servers, and gadgets that are running outdated software and are sitting time bombs.
I understand if you’re rolling your eyes at this, but there’s nothing worse than having to continuously test, update, and throw away anything that doesn’t work. But this is the “tax” we pay on digital infrastructure because, compared to other things we’re used to, our digital properties are far more powerful and sensitive, necessitating special care.
Once more, choose a managed offering if you can afford it.
4. Choose Reliable Hosting Provider
Not all hosting companies are made equal, and it can be challenging to distinguish between the good and the bad in this age of aggressive advertising and affiliate marketing.
In that case, how do you determine which hosting company is “better”?
I wish I had a magical measuring stick, but alas, I don’t.
Ratings, reviews, website design, and customer friendliness are not reliable indicators of the complexity of hosting infrastructures. I will say this though: don’t be afraid to try something different if you’re having issues. If anything, I would suggest that you give some younger, more eager businesses a chance and avoid very old, very large companies that sell domains and hosting.
I’m trying to sell it too much.
Making the monthly switch to a more reliable, secure service provider can save you hours of headaches and restless nights.
5. Use DDOS Services
The Web’s drawback is that it’s the “World Wide” Web. Anyone can try to break into your website or access it from anywhere.
even automata.
Now, you have an issue on your hands if, of the several thousand hits your website receives each hour, 99% are bots attempting to gain access. These pointless requests will not only use up system resources but also bandwidth that is deducted from your allotted amount.
Although shared hosting websites advertise “unlimited” bandwidth, nothing is truly unlimited.
Remember that the physical networks that link everything have a limited capacity, even if we grant them the benefit of unlimited data transfer each month. Put another way, the maximum amount of users your website can support is limited, so even if you have unlimited monthly usage, users will always experience extremely slow or unavailable access to your website.
And really, who would want to visit such a website?
The situation I just described is technically known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack (more information available here). Despite its technical name, this type of attack is still one of the most annoying because it can be mistaken for a large volume of users requesting content from your website.
Nevertheless, some businesses, such as Cloudflare has developed superior defense systems that surround it and are capable of intelligently analyzing and thwarting DDoS attacks by using historical traffic patterns.
Once more, a lot of people will find this pricey, but ultimately, you have to determine whether it is worth taking the chance of losing all of your business.
Your Security is Important!
That’s it. I have explained few ways to secure your Asp.net shared hosting account. I hope above article give you many insight. If you found this post helpful, please feel free to share it or if you have other great method, please feel free to comment below. Thank you.
