Web hosting companies have spent a lot of money trying to keep their clients as well as web users safe from cyber attacks. Yet there are those who also profit from customers’ misfortunes, for example, Godaddy sells a “Malware removal service” to solve a problem that it’s competitors are not very vulnerable to. At a government level, the White House announced very specific cybersecurity measures too – something that the next government will most likely have to step up.
Cybersecurity has become a focus point when business owners choose the right web hosting company for their business. We discuss what cybersecurity is and why it is such a concern in the web hosting industry and we discuss the best web hosting companies that are secure.
What is cybersecurity and why is it needed?
Cybersecurity is the practices that companies use to protect servers, computers, networks, data and electronic devices from malevolent attacks. Cybersecurity is a big concern within the web hosting industry. Without the best security in place hackers and cyber-thieves can access sensitive information. Businesses risk attacks on websites, networks and other IT services without a proactive cybersecurity strategy in place. Cybersecurity and what web hosting companies spend to keep their servers and infrastructure secure is immense. Worldwide the spending on cybersecurity is estimated at $124 billion per year. In 2019 the U.S. President’s budget for cybersecurity alone was $15 billion. Malware removal and penetration testing have become absolute necessities for most companies with an online presence.
Web Hosting and Cybersecurity
A website is the most vulnerable part of any company’s IT systems and every company has a website, and every website needs a web hosting company. This is why the decision of which hosting company is best will definitely be determined by their security.
What to Look Out for When Choosing a Web Hosting Company
Watch out for upsells. By upselling web hosting companies trick consumers. They lure them in by advertising free or very cheap website builders which forces the client to use their web hosting services at a very expensive price. Web Hosting companies also lure in clients with cheap web hosting packages and then have many hidden costs. That expensive web hosting then pays for their cybersecurity. A company known for selling cheap packages, then hitting customers with expansive upsells to secure their websites is GoDaddy. They make loads of profits from upsells and hidden costs. Rather look at companies that have cybersecurity included in their packages, they might seem more expensive at first however, with no upsells and hidden costs will probably save the business owner money in the end.
What Should be Included in the Web Hosting Package?
A good web hosting company will alert business owners as soon as unusual traffic is spotted on the website. They will monitor all internal networks for intrusions and have the best malware for their servers and programs. A secure hosting company’s security will be backed up by a good website builder. A very common form of cyberattacks are DDoS (Distributed-Denial-of-Service) in which enormous amounts of data is requested from the website, it overwhelms the webserver and the website becomes unreachable, a good web hosting company will have firewalls in place protecting this major security risk. Web hosting companies should also have antivirus and malware protection in place. The web hosting company should have protected DNS protocols to help protect the website being duplicated and used for phishing attacks.
Read reviews before you buy or switch hosting providers:
Still unsure of how to go by choosing a secure web hosting company? Firstly, ask them if their products are secure and what they offer with the packages in terms of security. A good web hosting company will help you gladly.
Another great way of determining how secure the web hosting services are is by reading reviews. Analysts line Adriaan Brits and his team at Sitetrail determine the top hosting providers in the world by taking into consideration how good their level of cybersecurity is.