How select the right server for your application? What are the possible attacks on servers?

 How to protect your servers from attacks:

I have come across business that compare the rates and select the server partners, they look for space, speed, infrastructure scalability but they miss chekcing the security feature of the server, many server provide all the following server security features at an additional cost, few of them are unique to select hosting providers.

The following are the possible attacks on the server and you can select your hosting server partner who offers protection from such attacks:

Denial-of-service attack

A denial-of-service attack floods systems, servers, or networks with traffic to exhaust resources and bandwidth. As a result, the system is unable to fulfill legitimate requests. Attackers can also use multiple compromised devices to launch this attack. This is known as a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

SQL injection

A Structured Query Language (SQL) injection occurs when an attacker inserts malicious code into a server that uses SQL and forces the server to reveal information it normally would not. An attacker could carry out a SQL injection simply by submitting malicious code into a vulnerable website search box.

Zero-day exploit

A zero-day exploit hits after a network vulnerability is announced but before a patch or solution is implemented. Attackers target the disclosed vulnerability during this window of time. Zero-day vulnerability threat detection requires constant awareness.

IP Blacklisting & White listing.

This is a protection that enables only certain IPs that are pre-configured on the server and denies access to other IP that try to access the server. If a certain IP is known as vulnerable you can create a table of IP addresses and these IPs will be refused access or any kind of communication with the server.

Risks of settling on a cost effective or cheap server:

Once your server is compromised there is not much options that you may have to bring back the old reputation. You end up negotiating with the hacker in cryptocurrency or bitcoins that he is passionate about. All set and done, you end up losing money, your reputation and the invaluable data assests, if you haven't backed it up, then thats the biggest loss of this entire transaction along with the loss of your credibility with your direct and indirect stakeholders.

Solution:

Considering the alarmic rise of cyber threats its suggested to go for a server space that offers you all these protection else, demand all these from your software solutions partner and stay heads up and tension free.

Author is a Cyber security specialist and he manages a software solutions company you can reach him for any support on software application, servers or networking.