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Shared Hosting Security Risks Describing the basics of Shared Hosting Security

4/12/2013 Nz Paper – Linux and Web Application Security – nzpaper.blogspot.com Zeeshan Khan

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Abstract: The aim of this work is to educate everyone with basics of shared hosting measures. This white paper efficiently describes the need and ease to obtain shared hosting along with its security weaknesses. The paper points out why shared hosting is not a good choice if you have the scope to select a dedicated web hosting. Keywords: Shared Hosting, Security, Server Security

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Introduction For making your own online presence, you need to keep your files on a space from where they are accessible to the globe. The medium you want to select to keep your files, is completely dependent upon your Need and Interest, which is also enforced by the cost you can afford. If you are running a business with large data, keeping system online, you should, obviously, own your own VPS or dedicated servers to keep the system secured. Or if you are an individual and want to keep limited/controllable data files on the internet, your first choice will be, to buy space already offered by hosting companies online. But before discussing the security matters, this paper is going to make it clear that this article is not about discussing each one the above, as it is about the point most of us using in today's need, that is Buying a hosting space on Shared systems. To this point, we should know that the hosting space provided online will rely on a server where lots of clients like us, are given their own separate space, this system is also known as Shared Hosting. In a corporate data keeping, all the security and management matters of the servers are kept by the organization themselves, but in Shared hosting, the company which owns the server plus the clients both, are responsible for overall security, as well as, sometimes, your website may pay for the flaws occurred in other data. The shared hosting is cheap, but comes with lots of work and demerits. This article is about to discuss security related matters of Shared Hosting, keep reading.

Details In below lines, we will describe some points which can affect the overall Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Security of each website relying on a Shared Hosting service. 

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If a website on the Shared Hosting you rely is having any kind of dangerous materials, including security affecting files or infection attacks, the whole website will be flagged, and sometimes, the whole server is flagged by search engines. This situation can also be used for breaking into sites which are secure in their nature, but the existence of attackers on a shared hosting system can easily result in occupying all the data on the server. As the servers (specially shared systems) require continuous security auditing, the security staff of the server as well as the site admins are not fully aware of their responsibilities. Beyond this, Shared systems allow anyone to buy his own space on the server, so an intended attacker may also buy space to get his existence on the server, later he can use special scripts to perform his illegal actions to gain access to other sites on the server.

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As we know that, in Shared Hosting, each client resides in a family like situation, so if a website catches any sort of virus or bad scripts, your website may get it too, on the fly. This is what, you get bad things even if you know how to secure your own space on the server, which is sometimes, equal to perform your hard working with no positive results, if others are not serious about their responsibilities. If the server admins, sometimes apply a patch to the server, all the sites get offline till the process is completed. If you are planning to make your online existence have populated traffic, indeed you will not be in favor of this situation. Take some time to research about the top Shared Hosting companies you want to chose one from, and compare the characteristics of all to chose the one which suits your needs as well as the company which gives you some juicy fruits too.

The above were the points you must consider when you think about online presence. Each one of these points effect the sites directly or indirectly. So it is better to make a researched decision first, then to head around to make the problems solved later. Further, if your only option is to choose Shared Hosting, try to find a company with good records in the past, plus having a minimum number of websites hosted on it, and it is better if you pay a little higher for this, too.

Conclusion There should be a proper reason of why shared hosting is selected as your service, because shared hosting is less secured as compared to dedicated hosting. Moreover, proper attention is also required to assess and fix possible security risks in both shared and dedicated hosting services.

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Infosecinstitute.com. “Risks of Using a Shared Hosting Server.” Infosecinstitute.com. 2013. http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/risks-on-a-shared-hostingserver/ Webhostingpricewatch.com. “Typical Security Concerns in Shared Hosting.” Webhostingpricewatch.com. http://www.webhostingpricewatch.com/guides/typical-securityconcerns-shared-hosting/ Digitalcrunch.com. “How to Solve These 7 Common Problems With Shared Hosting.” Digitalcrunch.com. http://digitalcrunch.com/hosting/7-common-problems-sharedhosting/