One of the main topics of discussion between web developers, tech enthusiasts and site owners is security. If you own a server, a website or a small business, it’s up to you to protect your interests against any evildoers. How?
Here are ClusterCS we recommend to all our customers and collaborators to take these first three steps to make your website safer.
Step 1: Always keep your software up to date
You hear it often but don’t do it enough: it’s mandatory to always use the latest version of any software you install. Every day bad guys are getting more and more creative on the internet and web developers take counter-measures by releasing constant updates.
Always choose the latest version for your operating system, control panels like ClusterCS or web content management systems like Drupal or WordPress.
It can be a chore to keep up with so many things to update so choose software that serves multiple goals. For example, the ClusterCS panel keeps track of security updates and allows you to manage multiple servers in a single location, offering valuable insights, analytics and security measures against any attack. And that’s just the security part of this control panel. The full list of features is much more impressive!
Step 2: Use a firewall
Black-hat users love to take advantage of websites that aren’t protected by firewalls. You’d be very surprised to know that are still millions and millions of websites with no such protection, even though it is a very simple security measure to implement.
Our newly launched update, 1.1, now offers you the ability to see the current default rules set up by the control panel AND define custom firewall rules.
Step 3: Get a CDN
Ever heard of DDoS? A distributed denial of service attack is one of the most famous techniques used by hackers or internet vigilantes to bring down a website. Sometimes you’re not even the target: you run your own business on a server and in the same data center there is a another website targeted by malicious people. A strong DDoS attack can affect everyone in a datacenter so you need to be prepared.
You can protect yourself against such a common threat by using a CDN (Content Deliver Network) which takes the unnaturally high traffic directed against your website and distributes that DDoS attack back out across the web. Cloudflare is one of the most famous CDN. It even has a free plan that can be easily set-up in a manner of minutes.
So here they are: the first three steps to make your website safer and make sure your business runs smoothly, with no unwelcome distractions.
And speaking of free plans, we invite you to try ClusterCS (no cc info required!) and see what a modern control panel can do for you and your projects.