The Best 5 Things to Do to Secure Your Cloud Server
Cloud servers are robust and accessible infrastructures that provide storage for processing applications and information. Using virtualization software, could servers are made by dividing a physical server into several virtual servers. This service is a cost-efficient, time-saving, and scalable solution for organizations that are becoming increasingly popular.
Settings up a virtual server can be done in a blink of an eye. Once your web server is up and running, you should follow some steps to keep it safe and functioning at its peak performance. Read on to find out more information about your online presence’s security through cloud servers.
Before continuing with the article, it is recommended that you first read about cloud servers in the article “Introduction to cloud virtual server” and then read.
What Are the Security Advantages of Cloud Servers?
Whether you are a tech-savvy specialist or not, we all agree that security has always been our top priority. The cloud platforms often come with advanced and high-level features for protection, such as regular backups, a 24/7 support team, and data encryptions. Using a cloud web server means no matter what happens to your hardware, your data is always safe and sound.
Data transfer, which is highly vital for some websites, is also safer on cloud servers. You don’t have to use email for sending and receiving data which entails the risk of sensitive information being downloaded by others. In simple words, all data is always kept protected within the cloud without getting disposed to users other than the ones you want.
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How To Increase the Cloud Server’s Security?
Aside from all the default security options of could servers, the five suggestions mentioned below can minimize risks and help you maintain your web server with the best functions.
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Activate Automatic Upgrades
When new vulnerabilities are detected, developers publish updates to make their services secure against them. That’s why IT experts always advise users to use the latest version of software and applications and not keep using the old version for a long time. These conditions apply to websites and servers, too.
If you want to be sure about your web server’s defence against hacks and data breaches, you should enable automatic updates and upgrades. Since you might not always be able to check your control panel and confirm these updates soon, you’d better prompt automatic promotions without permission request. Fortunately, all hosting and web server services support this feature. Let it be Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, or Fedora; helpful guides show you how to activate these automatic upgrades.
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Revoke Root Password Login Permissions
SSH authentication for connecting to a server is a robust login method that relies on secure algorithms generating a key pair. This pair of separate keys consist of two parts, public and private. The private key can be secretly kept on your computer while you can share the public one with other users without causing any security problems for you. As a result, you have no worries about getting hacked by hackers or malware anymore.
On the other hand, login by passwords is highly vulnerable to all types of hacks and attacks. If you experience keylogger attacks or brute force hacks, replacing root password logins with SSH keys brings you more security and convenience. Luckily, many hosting service providers are now equipped with this technology, and you can only allow keys to login by choosing a good company.
Set up Fail2ban
The Fail2ban software framework is written in the Python language and can protect you from brute force attacks. This intrusion prevention tool scans all the log files and bans the IPs indicating malicious activities such as too many wrong passwords. It is then used to update the firewall rules to block those IP addresses for a specified period, while other actions such as sending emails could be configured to perform.
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The framework supports both IPv4 and IPv6. It has different filters by default for various services such as ssh, Lighttpd, Courier Mail Service, and Apache. Although these services may not be activated right out of the box, you should check them on yourself and ensure that everything is functioning correctly.
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Install and Use Logwatch
This program is dedicated to analyzing logs and generates bespoke reports on specific intervals set by the user. The words are produced right after the system runs and can be sent to the admins via email. These reports are summaries of the logs from various machines gathered in one single file. Logwatch was initially written for Linux, but it supports services for other platforms as well.
The framework supports both IPv4 and IPv6. It has different filters by default for various services such as ssh, Lighttpd, Courier Mail Service, and Apache. Although these services may not be activated right out of the box, you should check them on yourself and ensure that everything is functioning correctly.
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Use Security Groups and IDS
Security groups are the other practical tools that filter the cloud server traffic coming from the internet. This way, only the necessary traffic will be allowed to pass. Similar to some other security tools, it is activated by default on the services of some companies. You can follow the guidelines and consult with the web server experts to configure and use this feature.
Opting for IDSs (Intrusion Detection Systems) can likewise increase the safety of newly-launched servers. Another outstanding service of this kind, called Tripwire, automatically controls your reports and system files if they are modified or destroyed by hacks or mistakes. It allows you to get notified about what has changed instantly and lets you take action towards fixing it. The system stores the checksums and exact sizes of the database on the first run and then compares the sizes by systematic analysis.
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Conclusion
Security should be the highest priority of a website owner at all costs. With all the compelling advantages they offer, virtual servers are widely being used by companies or even average users as an excellent option for their websites. In this review, we went through a helpful guide in this regard. We introduced five essential factors to apply on your web server to minimize data breaches or hacks considerably. Use these services today and always keep them updated for the safest experience on the internet.
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