Many businesses and enterprises prefer dedicated hosting services for their data storage solutions. They do so for multiple reasons but one of the common factors is control. Unlike shared server hosting, in case of dedicated hosting you get a dedicated server that can be configured and maintained entirely by you just the way your business demands. Although this brings you full control and complete access, it also brings along certain responsibilities.
If a virtual private server or shared hosting server has multiple accounts then it is the duty of the service provider to monitor its security and performance. However, in case of dedicated servers, it becomes your duty to take care of all the security and performance related issues all by yourself. You should protect the server and thus your data from all kinds of online security threats and should take the required steps to prevent any type of security breach.
So, it becomes extremely important to know in and out of the present server security landscape to run and maintain a server all by yourself.
Mentioned below are 3 of the biggest security threats to your dedicated hosting plan.
1. Password Breach: Criminals and hackers are getting more sophisticated with each passing day, and they now have access to advanced technological tools that can help them in destroying your data; not to mention your reputation in the world of Internet.
Most of the hackers, however, still make use of the oldest and the most effective hacking tool, which is nothing but hacking your password with brute force. It is unfortunate that most of the users of dedicated server don’t implement a robust policy for passwords, and this makes the lives of the hackers much simpler as with the help of few hacking scripts, and sometimes even without them, they easily sneak into your server accounts. In case a password breach is detected, it’s crucial to reset all the passwords, and then prevent any further intrusion.
2. Denial of Service: DoS attacks are the biggest threat to the website, which is growing in popularity. If you are going for one of the dedicated servers, it is quite possible that the website to be hosted is witnessing a consistent growth in online reputation. A website with growing reputation is often the prime target of DoS attacks. This type of attack causes unavailability and server failure by directing an overwhelming stream of traffic to the system. DDoS or distributed denial of service often has many malicious systems working in a sync to overwhelm your server with extremely high traffic. This leads to bad experience of your legitimate customers and waste of hardware resources.
3. Creepy Malware: As the customers who use dedicated servers can easily install applications, the servers are prone to different kinds of malware.
Malware is nothing but a piece of creepy software, which is coded only to disrupt the server data or to steal stuff. This term is normally used for viruses, Trojans, worms and all kinds of spyware. All these vary in terms of their functionality, but the common roles are recording all your important moves, copying confidential and sensitive database etc. Sometimes, these malware attacks are also bundled with different legitimate scripts and applications. So, it is always advised to scan all the files before running them on the server.
4. Sneaky Redirects: Some malware like the blackhole exploit kits even redirect your website visitors to a malicious site, which tricks the users into entering confidential information such as credit card numbers, or net banking passwords etc.
These are just 3 security threats to your dedicated server but actually there are many more. So, it is important to keep a track of various developments in the world of server security threats, and keep your dedicated server protected from all the known threats.