Web Hosting and Site Security: How to Stay Safe

Website security is one of the greatest concerns for websites owners and visitors. Owners fear that hackers could infiltrate and mess their core mandate, while users are always wary of sites where their personal details could be stolen.

In mid-2020, Twitter, one the world’s largest websites, saw its site hacked and verified accounts compromised. This means that not even the best-maintained websites are 100 per cent safe. While looking at the avenues where hackers could infiltrate through, it is important to consider the site host.

Does a Host Determine the Security Threat of a Website?

To some extent, the web host does determine how secure a site is. When a site is hosted on a shared web hosting platform, it means that all websites on that server share the same resources. These include disk space and storage among others. In that case, if one website on the server is affected, the threat is also shared. It is for this reason that websites which carry sensitive information are recommended to use dedicated/managed hosts.

Also, when choosing a web host, it is important to find out what other sites are served by the same host. If a server’s sites have been experiencing regular attacks, there is no reason to believe that your site won’t be subjected to the same.

Personal Responsibility

That said, most of the security measures come from your end as the site owner. If you do not keep instituting security measures from the front end, even the best web host will not be enough to save you.

When using platforms like WordPress, for instance, you should be keen to update your themes as they come. New versions come with better security measures. Sticking to outdated themes places you at risk no matter what hosting plan you are using. Things like plugins should be checked often too!