Please note we make every effort to protect our servers including the operating systems and services that run on them. However this does not mean your content or software on your hosting account is safe from malicious activity and you should ensure your own security measures and backups are taken at all times. There are two main reasons for this:
- You possesses full login information to your account. This means that if a password is stolen from you we are in-capable of protecting anything on your hosting account.
- You may not update your website regularly and you are free to install software on your website. If you do not keep your website up to date or install an application that has vulnerabilities, your website and hosting account could be open to risk.
Please be aware there are lots of hackers, viruses and malware online setup and ready to take advantage of someone else’s information given the opportunity. There is no miracle solution for protecting yourself from everything, but there are definitely a many things you can do to ensure better website, email and hosting security. In this article we will recommend essential security tips you should follow.
Essential Security Tips
1. Use a secure password and change it every regularly (every 3 months ideally).
A secure password should be at least 8 characters long, contain numbers and letters, make use of uppercase and lowercase, as well as contain symbols. Do not use full words and common character combinations like “pass”, “password”, “12345678”, etc.
2. All passwords you use should be stored in encrypted password program on your computer.
These are freely available but you should only ever use software you can trust. We have found "Last Pass" a useful free software service http://lastpass.com as of the time of writing this article. You should use your own discretion when choosing software right for your needs.
3. Keep ALL scripts on your account up to date to the latest versions.
If updates are not freely available for your software you should seek professional help to upgrade regularly.
4. Backup your files and databases regularly and download the backups to your own computer for safekeeping.
We provide access and tools to help you with this process. Please refer to our video on using cPanel to create backups. You are responsible for your own backups at all times and should make this a regular priority.
http://clients.websitedesigncentre.com.au/knowledgebase.php?action=displayarticle&id=10091
5. Use Index Manager in cPanel to disable the showing of indexes in all folders. Please refer to our video on how to do this below.
http://clients.websitedesigncentre.com.au/knowledgebase.php?action=displayarticle&id=10103
6. If your CMS tells you there are updates available, make sure you update. Remember to always create a backup first.
7. If you create a database, do NOT use your control panel login as your database username and password.
