Five Main Security Threats In Shared Web Hosting

   A web server has the capability to store files of thousands of sites to make these accessible to users. This enables shared hosting providers to give services at affordable prices. This is what makes it the least expensive form of website hosting. However, there are also security risks in a shared hosting environment, and we will take a closer look at these threats.

Shared Directory

There is a folder for each WordPress-based site that stores its data, and it is in a server directory. In sharedserver hosting, a directory has many sites’ files. There are separate content and domain for each website, but sharing the directory makes it linked to every other site on the system. So, in the event of a hacker accessing the directory, they could target every site hosted on it. To do this, they run software to discover any vulnerability on every site in that directory. Should they discover it, they will take advantage of it to unauthorizedly access the website.

Slow Page Load Time

A website hosted on the server being hacked could cause problems to all other sites on it. A hacker could utilize the compromised site to do malicious things such as storing illegal folders and files, sending spams, and attacking a different site. Thus, the hacked site uses too many resources of the system, which would have a negative effect on all other websites. For instance, it would make each site considerably slower, and even unresponsive.

DDoS Attack

A website could run slower in the event of other sites hosted on the server having an increase in traffic. To bring a site down, a hacker could send much fake traffic to it using numerous malicious programs and devices. To deal with the traffic increase, the targeted site would begin to use more server resources, thereby affecting the performance of all other sites on it. Top web hosts such as HostSailor deal with this situation by offering DDoS protection service.

Shared Internet Protocol Address

Web servers also utilize the internet, so each of these systems has its IP address. There will only be a single IP address for a shared web server, so every site hosted on the system will share it. In the event of something illegal or malicious happening on a website being hosted on it, the address would be blacklisted. This would bring issues for all the sites.

Unreliable Neighbors

You will not know which other websites share the server resources with your site. So, a malicious party could buy a shared web hosting package, thereby becoming your neighboring site. This presents a potential threat to every other site hosted on it. Now, does this mean your website should be on a dedicated web server instead of a shared one? Not necessarily. Just do whatever it takes to keep the site as safe as possible in the shared hosting environment.