Why is it important to control the security of your server?
Servers are the storage spaces for corporate databases, which play an essential role in the organization of web hosting processes. Therefore, the functionality of the corporate website largely depends on the availability of information stored in these databases.
The loss of database information can lead to catastrophic consequences for a company in the online world: website downtime, loss of customer data, and malfunction of the online store and applications. Thus, maintaining maximum server security is essential.
How can we protect servers?
- Access
It is important to limit access to the database; ideally, each user should be granted a set of permissions and privileges. Only certain users should have access to sensitive data and key procedures. This is a particularly critical point for keeping the database away from potential attackers.
- Sensitive Data
Another tip for protecting servers is to know exactly which information needs protection; this way, everything becomes much simpler. To maximize database security, it’s helpful to understand the structure and logic of the database; once sensitive data is identified, it’s easier to understand where and how it is stored.
- Anonymize Non-Production Databases
Most companies invest a lot of time and resources in providing the best protection for production databases. However, databases used only for testing receive much less attention.
A good corporate IT security tip is to anonymize these databases. This involves creating a similar version that maintains the structure of the original but alters sensitive data to keep it protected.
- Activity Monitoring
Of course, to maintain database security, it’s essential to keep a rigorous record of activity around it. It’s critical to know how and which user has manipulated the information to detect any type of suspicious action in real time.
- Encrypted Information
To maintain maximum server security, a good tip is to use the latest algorithms available to encrypt information stored in databases. When a hacker gains access to a server, the first thing they try to steal is the stored databases; if the data becomes unreadable, no one will be able to access it without authorization.
- Backup
Given that databases play a key role in any web hosting process, it is essential to perform backups. It’s advisable to periodically perform a complete backup that copies all data.
- Updates
To protect a server, continuous attention is essential. Many websites are at risk of being hacked simply because they run on outdated software, which offers no security. Therefore, it is very important to carry out all available updates.
- Server Configuration Files
It’s important to know the configuration files of the web server in question. Apache servers use the .htaccess file, located in the root web directory. This file allows you to execute server rules.
- SSL
Today, it is essential to install the SSL security protocol, which encrypts communication between the web server and the browser. This is especially critical for e-commerce websites, where users must enter sensitive information, both banking and personal identification. Information encryption plays a key role as it prevents a cyber-attacker from intercepting traffic.
- Passwords
Finally, a well-known server security tip, but one often overlooked, leading to countless issues. It’s important to set 100% secure passwords and change them regularly. Incredibly, some corporate users choose passwords as simple as “1234” or “qwerty”; these are very easy to hack and should be avoided.
What Controls Can Be Implemented?
- SSH Keys
SSH keys are a pair of cryptographic keys that can be used to authenticate to an SSH server; this method is an alternative to using passwords. The creation of the public and private key pair is done as a preliminary step to authentication. The private key is kept secret and secure by the user, while the public key can be shared with other users without restriction.
To configure authentication using SSH keys, you must place the user's public key in a specific directory on the server. When the user connects to the server, it will require proof that the client has the associated private key. The SSH client will use the private key, responding in such a way that it verifies ownership of the private key.
When using SSH, any type of authentication, including password authentication, will be fully encrypted. However, by allowing password-based authentication, malicious users could attempt repeated access to the server. Thanks to current computational power, it is possible to access a server through automated password guessing attempts, one keyword after another, until finding the valid one for that server.
- Firewalls
A firewall is a piece of software (or hardware) that controls which services are exposed to the network. In other words, it blocks or restricts access to all ports except for those that must be open to the public.
The firewall can ensure that your software has the restrictions appropriate for the previous categories. Public services can be opened without restriction and made available to all, while private services can be restricted based on different criteria. Internal services can be configured to be completely inaccessible to the outside world. For ports that are not in use, the most common configuration is a complete block to access.
The firewall is an essential part of any server configuration. Even if your services implement security or are limited to the interfaces where you want them to run, a firewall will always serve as an extra layer of protection.
A well-configured firewall will restrict access to everything except for the specific services you require to remain open. By exposing only the necessary software, the points where your server can be attacked are reduced, thereby limiting the vulnerable components to exploitation.
- VPNs and Private Networks
Private networks are those that are enabled only for certain users or servers. For example, in DigitalOcean, the private network is available in some regions with the same reach as the Data Center network.
A VPN, short for Virtual Private Network, is one way to create secure connections between remote computers, making it appear as if they are on a local private network. This allows you to configure your services as if they were on a private network, as well as securely connect servers.
If possible, private networks are always preferred over public ones for internal communications. However, since other users within the Data Center have access to the same network, you must still implement additional measures to secure communication between your servers.
Using a VPN is, in fact, a way to map a private network that only your servers can see. Communications will be completely private and secure. Other applications can be configured to direct their traffic to the virtual interface that the VPN software exposes. In this way, only the services designed to be consumed by clients on the public internet will need to be exposed on the public network.
- Public Key Infrastructure and SSL/TLS Encryption
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) refers to a system designed to create, manage, and validate certificates that identify individuals and encrypt communication. SSL or TLS certificates can be used to authenticate different entities to each other. Once authentication has been performed, they can also be used to establish encrypted communication.
Establishing a Certificate Authority and managing certificates for your servers allows each entity within your infrastructure to validate the identity of other members and encrypt their traffic. This can prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, where an attacker impersonates a server within your infrastructure to intercept traffic.
Each server can be configured to trust a central Certificate Authority. From that point forward, any certificate signed by that authority will be implicitly trusted. If the applications and protocols you use for communication support TLS/SSL encryption, you can save the excess information generated by a VPN tunnel (which often uses SSL internally).
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