WordPress Hosting & Security

Updated March 4, 2020 - Written By Steven Ayers

Hosting Is Your First Line Of Defense In Security

If you are trying to save money by buying the cheapest hosting package available, you may placing your website at risk of getting hacked. Your hosting provider is the first line of defence for website security.

The hosting server is where multiple firewalls exist to prevent a large portion of attackers from even reaching your website. It takes a high level of skill and knowledge to install, configure, and maintain these firewalls. Due to lack of revenue that cheap hosting is making per server, it is very unlikely that the server is being maintained properly or regularly. A cheap server is often considered low priority compared to hosting clients that pay much more for their hosting servers.

When a server is a low priority, the firewall is not the only thing that gets neglected. There are software packages such as the server operating system, web servers (Apache, NGINX, etc.), PHP, and more that need to be updated as security updates are released. If these packages have a vulnerability and goes unpatched for months or even years, the server becomes an easy target for hackers.

Daily Backups Will Save You

Ask you host how many daily backups do they keep of your site. Also, ask if there is a fee for restoring a backup. You do have the option of using a backup plugin, but be aware that backups can sometimes get large and use up your available hosting space causing you to need a more costly hosting solution.

We recommend keeping at least 30 days of daily backups and even a couple of months worth of monthlu backups as a safeguard. Backups are often your easiest saving grace when it comes to recovering from a hacked website.

Use An SSL

Almost all hosting companies provide this for free now. Check to see if your website is protected by an SSL. Also check to see if your website is forcing the use of the SSL.

Hosting Can Affect Your Speed

If you are using budget hosting, then it is almost a given that your hosting cannot handle massive amounts of traffic. To make matters worse, if your website is slow to load due to large images and improper or lack of caching, then the website may be even more susceptible to a DoS attack.