| By :
Dirik Hameed
A dedicated server can be secured in all sorts of manners, done by yourself or by making use of a server hosting company for your dedicated server security needs. Your server should have a firewall and for the best security it should have a hardware firewall as well as a software firewall. Advanced Policy Firewall (APF) is great for Linux-based servers. The easy to configure APF policy-based iptables system is also simple to use. Another handy installation for your server is Brute Force Detection (BFD). BFD is set up to detect whether there are numerous failed login attempts coming from the same IP address within a short amount of time and if there are then BFD blocks the address in the server firewall which means that the address cannot connect to the server. APF needs to be installed before installing BFD as BFD works in conjunction with APF and needs some of the APF files to function properly. Users should be made to login through other user accounts instead of being able to login to root directly. SU to the root can then be done on an as required basis. Doing this helps to keep your server safe from possible hackers. You can organise to have e-mails delivered to you each time there is a root login to your server. This system means you can simultaneously monitor authorised and unauthorised logins to your server. This system works best if you utilise an off-site e-mail account so that hackers who have gained entry to the server cannot access your e-mail account. Bear in mind that this system is not 100% secure because hackers can create their own SSH connection to gain SSH login access and therefore all the server security should be regularly updated. Remember as well to change the default SSH port. Install a root kit checker and run it once or twice a month on your dedicated hosts server or alternately check that your server hosting company does it. You can download this software tool for free. There are a range of these tools, such as Rootkit Hunter. PHP functions that are not being used or are dangerous should not be enabled. You should also have Apache DOS Resistance tuning (mod_evasive) and Apache Security enhancement (mod_security). Mod_security is embedded into the web server and detects intrusions and protects web applications from attacks. The mod_evasive module provides evasive action when there is an HTTP DoS, DDoS or brute force attack. It also serves as a detection and network management tool, and can be configured easily to communicate with firewalls, routers, ipchains and so forth. Server abuse is reported through emails and syslog facilities. Dedicated servers can have further increased security by having virus scanners and making sure all FTP uploads are scanned, as well as disabling all services that are not required. Passwords can be strengthened by making them at least ten characters long and using special characters in them. There is a range of security methods in addition to the ones discussed above that can assist in keeping a dedicated server secure. Remember, if you're not comfortable with installing these measures yourself you can make use of a secure dedicated server through a server hosting company.
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articleforbacklinks.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
