The new generation of technology is here; we are using voice commands to perform tasks, we are accessing households with the touch of a smartphone. Every communication flows through the internet and millions of requests are hitting the Server. "How do you protect your servers?" is the topic always on one's mind. Here is my small guide to protect your humongous Server, which can protect your data from any catastrophic events.
7 most important ways to secure a server
- Implementation of Firewalls
A firewall is a piece of software or hardware which controls and manages what is entering or leaving the network. This means blocking or restricting the access based on the roles informed to the device or software. Every port access apart from the ones allowed will be blocked. They safeguard and monitor everything and determine if the request made is appropriate. They secure the perimeters.
- VPN and Private Networks
Private networks are only available to those who have direct access to the certain servers and users. A VPN is a tunneling of a public network to create secure connections between remote servers if they are the local private servers.
Utilizing private instead of pubic communication for internal communications is simple. VPN setup does take time in getting configured but it pays off with an enhanced and robust security.
- SSL/ TLS Encryption
Public Key Infrastructure, or PKI, is a system designed to secure the connection between the server and the end customer. SSL certificate encrypts all the data that travels using HTTPs protocol on the Web. It’s used to authenticate the different entities with one another. After the authentication completes, the data is encrypted. Here is a small video guide that I found good to understand this.
Each device can be configured to obtain or send a specific set of certificates as to validate another member before they could start transacting. This helps in preventing Man-in-the-middle-attack (MITM) where the attacker intercepts the connection in between and imitates a server or the client to obtain the details.
- Isolated Testing Environments
Testing work in the production environment can invite more risks.
Developers deal with sensitive data during testing and development. If a mistake is made, the complete date can go public. The perils of such activity can challenge the server security with dying results.
The testing environment should always be on test servers who have no link up with the production environment.
- Permissions
A limited number of people provided access to the server reduces the server risk. In other words, lesser people should have minimum permissions related only to their workgroup.
- Audits
Auditing the server logs is an important way of finding out the major issues as these reports can indicate strange entries/access which must be monitored and mitigated before it’s too late. This way, the System administrator combats against pending attacks.
- Automatic Security & Software Updates
One of the major threats that top the charts are outdated software. The reason why the software OEM’s update or release patches is to make sure the software is well-equipped to combat threats. The important way to confirm the health of the server security is to check that all the software installed are updated.
There are arguments for and against automatic updates on servers. The risk of automatic updates can be minimal if it is limited to security updates. You may find it worthy to update the Test Servers who are the replica of the production and check the issues if any before applying to Production Servers.
Conclusion
Security measures cannot be an afterthought and must be implemented from the start alongside the services you are providing. Security measures prove to be less effective if it takes longer to get implemented.