The Positive Correlation Between Security and Web Hosting
First, a huge thanks to theWHIR for their invitation; I consider this opportunity an honor and a great chance to contribute to a unique resource. My primary focus here is security. Many web hosts handle questions about security with the most bare strokes. Perhaps they have a right to be vague. After all, what is security if everyone knows the details? Still though, the lack of transparency leaves a number of questions open, questions that could be answered without compromising existing policies. What do hosts do to secure servers and client accounts? Who handles it? Is security just a task for the CSO, or part of a top down initiative? How much security is sufficient to protect an account? My objective is to lift the fog that blankets security in web hosting. Security is not just a firewall or a routine vulnerability scan. It encompasses many technologies, standards, resources and protocols. Flashy acronyms aside, it need not intimidate or confuse a new customer. In future articles, I will explain in non technical terms, standard preventive offerings, provide real world examples of security issues in shared hosting environments, and outline tactics that can resolve and prevent breaches. And last, I will cite emerging trends in hosting, a fast growing field, in an even faster growing industry. ______________________________________
This post brought to you by KaylaFleming.com and SurpassHosting.com
Feel free to leave comments or ask any questions, I will reply.
As a director at Surpass Hosting, Kayla has experience in all areas of web hosting from conducting market research to securing server environments. Kayla has worked with Internet companies for ten years and has been involved in the web hosting industry since 2002. Under Kayla's direction, Sur... (Read full bio)
Read Back Issues of WHIR Magazine
October 2009 - Web Hosting's All Star Team
This has been, for us, one of the most interesting, exciting and challenging build-ups to an issue of the magazine yet, Web Hosting's All Star Team. The balloting process was our first experiment with a kind of user participation we're planning to do a lot more with in the months to come. We had thousands of ballots submitted, with hundreds of write-in suggestions and a demonstration of user engagement that has us feeling super positive about the project.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
July 2009 - What am I Worth?
One of the interesting luxuries of working on a project like the printed WHIR magazine is that it allows us to play with things like our point of view from one issue to the next. In recent months we've been giving added attention to the kind of practical and applicable advice aimed at smaller hosts and resellers. This issue carries on with that point of view, asking, in our cover story, "what am I worth?" It's a complicated question without a clear-cut answer.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
May 2009 - The Blueprint for a Small Web Host
I was a little surprised by how difficult it became to see this idea through. We set out to assemble a blueprint for a small hosting business, but butted up pretty quickly against the general impossibility of covering all the territory that was out there to be covered. The basic constraints of a printed magazine, and the less-than-infinite amount of time we had available forced us to face the fact that we could never produce an exhaustive guide to starting a hosting company.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
Read more WHIR Magazine back issues
Comment anonymously or log into your WHIR account
Logging in allows enhanced commenting features (such as external linking) in news, features, blogs and more.
Comment by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Welcome aboard KAYLA...
Comment by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Thank you, I look forward to many great discussions!
Comment by Anonymous on Saturday, January 20, 2007
Hey Kayla,
I was hoping to be the first to officially comment on the new blog space, but it looks like I was beat out!
From XOOPS, to Surpass, and now here. I just seem to keep running into you!
Congrats on the new article series, I'll be checking up on it from time to time!
Comment by Anonymous on Sunday, January 21, 2007
Hi Stew, it's funny to see you here as well! I think I'll pop over to the XOOPS forums in a bit. Thank you - and keep reading my blog! :]
Comment by Anonymous on Sunday, February 04, 2007
Heya Kayla, good to see you blogging on this subject! I hope we can learn from your experiences and maybe provide some insights into the customer view of how webhosting service providers handle and deal with security related issues.
Herko, also from XOOPS... we're like chewinggum stuck to the sole of your shoe ;-)
Comment by Anonymous on Saturday, August 15, 2009
This article was written in January of 2007. Where are the follow on articles stored that you mention?
Donald Sutherland
donsuth@mac.com