Cyber crimes have become a household phenomenon and a major source of worry for internet users. One begins to wonder if the threat that these cyber crimes portends a great disadvantage to internet users in comparison with its advantages.
For what it is worth, every great invention has had to be abused at some point especially in a world where moral decadence is commonplace. Top in the ranks of these cybercrimes are hacking, copyright infringement, and child grooming. The activities of hackers have made the use of the internet a major risk for most individuals and organisations, who have confidential information that needs to be protected.
The quickest way to access these confidential information is through the server. The server is the central computer that gives access to other computers within a closed group. An unprotected server is highly prone to cyber-attacks, especially if it is a web server. Sadly, quite a number of software firms that offer this kind of protection have proven to be insufficient. The onus is now on the individual and organisation to creatively device means to protect their server from cyber-attacks.
Below are some suggested habits individuals and organisations can adopt to ensure their servers are protected from cyber-attacks.
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- Regular Operating System Updates
By now you should know that your operating system should be a genuine one that gives you room for updates. Operating System updates enable your server security protocol to have the latest security patches to withstand cyber-attacks. These updates also enable you to fix critical vulnerability patches and minor bugs that could expose your server to attacks.
Do not only go for the latest version, a stable version will do your server a world of good. Most Operating Systems now come with versions that give it automatic update access. However, if your Operating System does not have the full access to automatically update itself, you have to set it yourself.
- Access Restriction
The fewer the number of people who have access to your server, the more secure your server will be. As a matter of fact, the maximum number of people who have access to your server should not exceed five persons. This is because, when the server security is breached, it will be easier to detect a mole if the numbers of persons allowed access to the server are few.
If so much people have access to your server, it will be more difficult to detect a security breach. Regularly check for inactive users and remove their access to your server. On no account should there be an open-file sharing protocol as this can be inimical to your servers security. As a rule of thumb, it is advisable to regular change you server password.
- Regular Testing for Vulnerability
It is important to understand that the fact that your server is web based, it is highly vulnerable as such makes it prone to cyber-attack. There are a lot of network/operating system-level tools and Web-centric tools that can auto test for vulnerability.
However,it is not enough to have auto protections around your server; you need to constantly check how secure your server is on a regular basis. Recently, Apple offered up to $200,000 to hackers who can find bugs and cracks in their products. Web security testing is not something you do once; it should be a routine thing. It should be incorporated into your organisation’s risk management practice.
- Build a Firewall
Web-based servers are exposed to data traffic and that is one of the things that portend a security threat to the server. It is necessary to build a layer of protection to control incoming traffic (ingress protection) and outgoing traffic (egress protection). Incoming traffics have potentials of carrying malwares along with it that might jeopardize and compromise the security protocol of your server.
This should be avoided as much as possible to forestall external access to confidential data. Outgoing traffic can make confidential files available to the public, hence, the need to check and control it using a firewall. The generally advisable norm is to allow only necessary traffic and deny the rest.
- Look Out for Fishy Sites
By fishy sites, I mean websites with potentials of transferring malware to your server. Most of these sites do not have authentic internet certification. They usually come as pop-ups on any browser connected to your server with your cache interests.
This calls for carefulness when you are online, as the tendencies of these sites camouflaging into software that can attack your server are inherent. The firewall will play a great part here in helping you block these sites from even popping up on any browser connected to your server.
- Understand Your Server’s Performance
Every driver should know the optimum level of performance of his car. This will enable him to easily notice any change in performance. So also, you need to know and understand how your server performs.
When your server begins to perform below standard, your first point of call should be to check your server security. This entails that you keep regular track of your server’s normal running speed and bandwidth usage, so you can spot abnormalities easily.
- Use Dual Authentication
If you are living in a neighbourhood where hooligans are having a field day with the neighbours, you may want to have more than security posts leading to your residence.
So it is with your server. Since we can do less to stop the activities of cyber thieves, it is advised that for both user and administrator login double authentication features are enabled. This will really help you cub any excess problem that may arise from cyber-attacks who get access via single authentication action.
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