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Security is perhaps one of the most important aspects of a web hosting plan, especially for webmasters that conduct a significant volume of e-commerce on a daily basis. A single security lapse could lead to widespread data loss, site downtime, slow loading pages, and a reduction in daily traffic levels. However, one security issue that is often overlooked and underestimated is spam, which is defined as any excessive and/or forceful communication with or use of a Web server or online system. Although web hosting providers offer integrated modules that are specifically designed to help webmasters maximize spam prevention, there are certain measures that website owners can take to completely eliminate site spam.

Why Should Spam Be Prevented?

Spam is a threat not only to the security but also to the productivity of every online business. Most websites become successful because of their continually updated content, which is of a high quality that visitors gain interest in. However, if your site becomes heavily populated with unmoderated spam comments and low-quality content, it is possible to experience a significant reduction in daily traffic levels and search engine rankings. In fact, it is even possible to be completely de-indexed from some search engines because of a large volume of spam on your site. Spam can also be seen in the form of automated e-mails that are submitted through contact forms on your website. E-mail spam can cause webmasters to waste a lot of time in cleaning up their inbox, reducing productivity and ultimately lowering the value and responsiveness of their customer service.

What Is a Captcha Script?

A captcha script is basically a script that is installed on your website which displays a unique image containing a random combination of characters (including letters, numbers, and sometimes symbols), which visitors must input into a form box to verify that they are not automated robots. Since captcha scripts actually create unique images spontaneously, bots are not able to read or decode them as they would be able to do with regular text. As computer programs are not able to actually view and interpret images, it is extremely unlikely that a bot will be created in the future that can decipher captcha images. Thus, captcha scripts are an effective long-term way to prevent automated spam and ensure that all of your site commenters and anyone sending you an e-mail is actually a human being.

How to Use Captcha Scripts

To use a captcha script you simply need to paste the code snippet into the coding of any form or input field. This will cause the script to randomly generate a captcha image any time the form is loaded on a webpage, making it so no information can be successfully entered into the form without the visitor first solving the associated captcha. Captcha codes can be generated in various programming languages, including PHP, ASP, and NET, making it a flexible and highly compatible spam prevention tool that can be utilized on any web site.

Industry-leading open-source blogging platform WordPress was hit by a major Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Thursday, March 3^rd, 2011. The report released by “The Register” states that the attack caused major disruptions and performance issues for sites that totally rely on the platform for creating and publishing content.

The Largest DDoS in Company History

Another web hosting source, TechCrunch, released further information stating that WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg claimed this DDoS attack was by far the largest he had seen. He believes this strike was politically motivated against one or many of the non-English speaking blogs. However, there is no evidence to the reason. This assault was so large; it affected all three of the company’s data centers in Dallas, San Antonio and Chicago.

The Size was Incredible

According to Sara Rosso, a representative for WordPress, the company is being targeted by large-scaled DDoS attacks affecting the connectivity to many blogs and websites. The sheer size of the harassment was multiple Gigabytes per second and tens of millions of packets per second. This is definitely in the record books of being one of the largest DDoS attacks ever on a content management system.

Quick Turnaround Time

According to Lloyd Budd, the WordPress.com VIP hosting services lead, Rosso released this statement to the public at 3:30 PM on Thursday with the site being 100 percent functional with no connectivity issues by 7:30 PM the same day. That is an extremely quick turnaround following such a major assault.

VIP Sites to have Priority

The upstream service providers have been working on preventing these types of attacks in the future. The company also announced they will be giving their VIP sites priority following the recovery from an attack such as this.

10 Percent of the World’s Websites

The WordPress platform currently services over 30 million publishers making them responsible for almost 10 percent of all websites in the world! WordPress.com boasts over 300 million unique visits each month. Therefore, when a disaster such as the aforementioned occurs, the results can be devastating.

DDoS attacks can have a major impact on the site or network they are attacking. Since this type of assault freezes or shuts down the server due to overload, it is difficult to defend against and impossible to predict. The best defense is being able to switch web accounts to a different server as soon as this occurs thus minimizing downtime and continuing to uphold performance.

Most webmasters understand the importance of protecting their personal computer from viruses, as a compromised operating system is the first security flaw that often leads to stolen hosting credentials and hijacked domains. However, many people aren’t aware of the fact that web servers that are responsible for hosting sites can also be infected with malicious scripts rather easily. Although web hosting providers take all the necessary precautions to ensure that this does not happen on a regular basis, it remains rather common, especially for webmasters that utilize cheap shared hosting services. When a website is infected with a malicious script or virus it can be impossible for visitors to access pages, as their antivirus software, or the integrated protection included within some search engines such as Google, may automatically notify them that the page is high-risk. To prevent loss of traffic due to such an occurrence it is important to follow the tips below to keep your website free of malicious scripts.

Create Routine Backups

The first step in protecting your website’s data from being affected by malicious scripts is to create routine backups. By doing this you can effectively eliminate the possible negative repercussions associated with having your site infected, as you’ll be able to instantly restore it to the state it was in before the security lapse. Some malicious scripts are specifically designed to erase data on the server, while others give the hacker access to the server and allow them to “deface” the site by placing their own content on the home page and other pages. Fortunately, within your control panel you’ll be able to use the backup utility to backup your entire portion of the web server or a specific website individually. In addition to storing these backups on your local hard drive, it is recommended to have redundant copies stored on external media like a USB flash drive, external hard drive, or even an online file hosting service.

Utilize Reputable and Powerful Hosting Plans

It is well known that the most reputable hosting providers are the most secure, and have the most qualified staff to deal with security issues 24 hours a day. If you choose to utilize a cheap form of web hosting, such as plan that operates within the shared hosting environment, you’re placing your website at a much higher risk. This is because with shared hosting you are sharing a web server with dozens or even hundreds of other webmasters, and if one of their sites becomes infected with a malicious script and proper safeguards are not in place, it is possible for the script to become “contagious” and begin spreading to other sites on the server. In fact, this is the most common cause of websites being infected with malicious scripts.

What Do Malicious Scripts Do and Why Is It Important to Avoid Them?

Malicious scripts can perform a variety of functions for the hacker, including gaining administrative access to a server or site by installing a fraudulent login page that collects the credentials of the website owner, defacing the site with embarrassing or inappropriate content, installing spyware, adware, or viruses on the computers of individuals that visit the site, and simply causing site downtime and loss of sales for competition. If you do not take the proper precautions and deal with a web hosting company that is known for providing top-notch security, you could experience a significant loss in sales and reputation.

Although the current state of the global economy is prompting many business owners to cut costs in various areas of business management, no expense should be spared when it comes to securing your web hosting plan, especially if you are an online business owner that relies on the Internet for full time income. Many people don’t realize that hackers usually intrude the operating system of a webmaster’s personal computer with a virus (such as a key logger) before retrieving the login credentials of their hosting account. Fortunately, it is possible to completely secure the Windows operating system within without spending a lot of money or time in the process. The following tips should help you secure Windows to protect your hosting operating system from intruders.

Initiating Automatic Updates

Windows provides automatic updates for their operating systems, which include important security fixes. Without these updates the operating system is essentially incomplete, and there may be many exploits in existence that could be utilized by hackers to gain access to the user interface of your operating system. Although web hosting providers do an excellent job of encrypting data and protecting your web server from being intruded, without antivirus software and the appropriate Windows security updates your personal computer could be vulnerable to hackers. Thus, the first step in securing the Windows operating system is installing a robust antivirus software and ensuring that automatic updates have been initiated.

Using Generated Passwords

Hackers also use powerful software that is designed to continuously send and receive requests from web servers in order to guess a password through trial and error using databases of existing words and number combinations. The effectiveness of such software, also commonly referred to as brute force hacking tools, can be significantly reduced by using automatically generated passwords, which are far more random, complex, and difficult to guess than actual words and number strings. Password generators can be found on many websites online for free, and web hosting providers usually offer such tools as well. Ideally, you’ll want to use a randomly generated password for your personal computer’s operating system, and your web hosting account. To remember the password it is recommended that it be stored in a secured location on external media within an encrypted file (this encrypted file should use a password that you’ll remember, as it will contain your generated passwords).

User Settings and permissions

There are also various user settings related to the security of the Windows operating system, which can be adjusted according to your preference within the control panel. Unfortunately, the majority of webmasters are not familiar with these administrative preferences, so it is not recommended to adjust security settings without first researching the topic. Perhaps the most important aspect of user settings is the permissions granted to each user. By restricting the capabilities of each user within your Windows operating system, you can prevent employees and/or other members of your household from downloading malicious software accidentally.

The majority of web hosting security issues are caused by flaws within web application. In fact, producing a 100% secure Web application is a very difficult task that only the most experienced developers can accomplish. In many cases, web developers are paid on a per project basis, and therefore rush to finish the project without putting a large emphasis on the security of the application and whether or not it will compromise the safety of the user’s web hosting account and computer. Thus, most of the serious security lapses caused by such applications are not recognized or realized until they cause a significant amount of loss or damage to a webmaster. To avoid becoming such a webmaster and to secure your online operations, you may want to consider the following information about securing web applications.

Utilizing Complex Programming Languages

One way programmers make web applications more secure is by developing them in more complex programming languages that are less popular amongst hackers. For example, the PHP programming language is extremely popular and can be found in nearly every content management system web application promoted online. However, this popularity makes it much easier for novice and experienced hackers to exploit the weaknesses of a web application developed using PHP. While not all PHP web applications are unsafe, by utilizing less popular programming languages such as Microsoft ASP it is possible to significantly reduce the likelihood of having your site or web hosting account hacked.

Testing the Security of a Web Application

Before utilizing a web application it is important to ensure that it is completely secured, and does not provide any loopholes through which hackers can gain access to the administrative interface of your web hosting account. Hackers are known for using any means necessary to infiltrate online interfaces and gain control of websites, and the most popular types of web hosting exploit used today relies upon web hosting applications. Hackers may distribute dangerous web applications that are installed on the victims’ Web servers, at which point the hacker can request and send information to and from the server freely. Once this happens, an entire universe of opportunities opens up for the hacker, giving them the ability to extract information from your website’s databases, and even change the content of the sites (a tactic known as ‘defacing’). To test the security of the web application you may need to hire your own programmer, or use proprietary packing software to test security holes.

Working with Reputable Programmers

Perhaps one of the best ways to avoid unsecured web applications is to utilize the services of a reputable programmers, rather than installing free applications that are in the public domain. Hackers distribute free applications with the hopes that webmasters will install them on their server, thereby giving them the aforementioned access needed to carry out a variety of nefarious tasks. By working with a team of reliable and reputable programmers you can ensure that your web applications are developed to accommodate all of your specific requirements and specifications.