Having the perfect hosting solution is only the first step to running a successful website or company online. You also need to make sure that you have secured your Windows hosting service to reduce your risk of any unwanted attacks or breaches.
As cybersecurity continues to emerge as a significant problem for major brands around the world, now is the perfect time to start thinking about the steps you have taken to defend your online web space, and whether there’s anything else you can do to make your company more secure. The following 7 tips will help to get you started.
1. Control Your Administrator Settings
When you sign up for Windows hosting, your provider will install your operating system and create your default administrator account. This is the typical way to set up your system – the only problem is that it means your account can be very easily attacked through brute-force efforts. There are also some automated attacks that can make life difficult for your brand.
The good news is that you can defend yourself by disabling your default account and creating a new user with all the administrative privileges you need. This way, you can create a new username, and follow up with our next tip.
2. Always Use Strong Passwords
While security problems online sometimes come down to problems with your host or the programmes that you use, they’re far more commonly associated with something known as “human error”. This is when a problem happens because of something you’ve done wrong. The need for a strong password is crucial to protecting your hosting system, and you should always generate a password after you change your administrator username.
Remember that your password should be around 10 characters long, and not a copy of a password you’ve used elsewhere. Try to use a combination of numbers, special characters, and capital letters too.
3. Use Spyware Protection
Spyware isn’t talked about today as often as it should be, but it can infect your hosting software with ease. Many hosting providers often receive complaints that spyware has somehow gotten into their system, but you can prevent this from happening by installing the right spyware protection on your host environment.
There are plenty of different options out there, so make sure that you search for something with a good reputation and background.
4. Turn on the Windows Firewall
The next step in protecting your Windows hosting solution is installing a firewall. For those who aren’t familiar with strategies for online security, a firewall is a system that’s designed to protect your Windows hosting solution against unwanted access from outside of your business.
Firewalls work by controlling the traffic you get into the host through a specific set of rules that you set for your company. Microsoft provides their Firewall service with all Windows Servers, although not all providers will automatically enable this feature. Make sure that you have the service enabled to help with the security of your server and set your policies to “Deny all” to enable only what you need.
5. Lock Remote Desktop Ports
No-one should be gaining access to your desktop except for you. With that in mind, it’s important to take the time to lock down access to any Windows Remote Desktop services that link to certain IPs like your office or home. Remember, you’re going to need a dedicated IP for your website to use this feature, and you should change the listing on the default port to a randomly selected number of five digits. You can change these features through the Advanced options on Windows Firewall.
6. Invest in a Prevention/Detection Tool
An intrusion prevention and detection tool for your cheap web hosting service won’t be the right way to go for everyone, but it’s something that experts in the field seem to enjoy using. The good news is that you can contact your hosting provider if you’re having trouble setting your system up.
Make sure that you have a firewall solution already set up and analysing the real-time traffic that you send to your host environment.
7. Frequently Update Windows
Finally, when you’re trying to maintain the security of your windows server, make sure that you take the time to update the host as often as possible. So many people end up overlooking this process, but it’s a crucial part of ensuring that you have access to the latest patches and updates that can protect your company and your system online.
