How to Develop a Secure Web Server for Business?

To minimize the risk of your business losing data to hackers and breaches, it is crucial to make sure your web server is configured as securely as possible. If your server's security is compromised, it could result in anything from spam ad injections on the company website, to interception and theft of user data on submitted forms.

What is a Secure Web Server?

A secure web server generally falls into one of these two categories. The most common is that it is a server on the public web that supports security protocols such as SSL, which means that the sensitive data transmitted to and from the server is encrypted for the protection of the user. Alternatively, it can mean a web server used only by a team of employees within a local network, protected against external threats.

To keep your web servers safe, and to keep potential threats at bay, it's important to keep up with the ever-evolving security landscape.

What Security Risks Can a Web Server Face?

Web servers are one of the most important parts of an organization's network, due to the sensitive data they usually host. As a result, it is important that, in addition to securing web applications and your entire network, comprehensive measures are taken to secure the web servers themselves.

There are several key threats to web servers that are important to be aware of, prevent, and mitigate. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

DoS and DDoS attacks. Denial of service attacks and distributed denial of service attacks are techniques that cybercriminals will use to crush your servers with traffic until they are unresponsive, rendering your website or network unusable.

SQL injections. The SQL injections can be used to attack websites and web applications, sending requests for Structured Query Language through web forms to create, read, update, alter or delete data stored on its servers, and financial information.

Unpatched software. Software updates and security patches are designed to fix vulnerabilities in older versions of that software. However, once a new patch is released, would-be hackers can reverse engineer attacks based on the changes, leaving unpatched versions in a vulnerable position. This is why we recommend using a trusted patch management service to ensure that you are always up to date.

Cross-site scripting. Cross-site scripting, also known as XSS, is a technique similar to SQL injection: code is injected into server-side scripts to collect sensitive data or to run malicious client-side scripts.

However, one of the most frequent threats to server security is human error or carelessness. Whether it's poorly written code, easy-to-guess passwords, or a failure to install and update firewalls and other security programs, the human element in cybersecurity is often the weakest link.

You also have to consider the physical security of the computers that act as web servers: regardless of the security software you use, it could be undermined if physical access to your servers is not properly controlled.

What Types of Web Servers Are Available?

Some of the more popular web server software options include Apache, LiteSpeed, IIS, Nginx, and Lighttpd. It is also possible to use "virtual servers", or virtual web hosting services, to run multiple servers from a single computer.

Different types of web servers meet different user needs, but all are typically compatible with major operating systems like Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Apache Web Server

Apache is open source and, with a 37.4% market share (June 2020), it is generally considered the most popular web server in the world. It supports Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac OS X, Ubuntu, and other operating systems, and can be easily customized thanks to its modular structure.

Apache is highly stable compared to other web servers.

Nginx Web Server

Nginx is another open-source solution, known for its high performance, stability, low resource usage, and highly scalable event-driven architecture. Compatible with most major operating systems, Nginx can also be used as a reverse proxy, mail proxy, HTTP cache, and load balancer.

Lighttpd

A key benefit of the Lighttpd is its small CPU load and speed optimization. With an event-based architecture similar to that of Nginx, Lighttpd is designed to handle a large number of parallel connections and can support features such as outbound compression, FastCGI, Auth, SCGI, and URL rewriting among other things.

Virtual Web Servers

If you need to manage multiple web domains, it may be more efficient to do so from one machine through virtual web servers, rather than having a separate, dedicated server for each. Virtual servers, or virtual web hosting, can be profitable and generally do not affect site performance. However, if too many virtual servers are hosted on the same computer, it can cause web pages to be delivered more slowly.

What is the Difference Between Network Security and Server Security?

Server security is only one part of a broader and more holistic network security strategy. While server security specifically refers to the measures taken to protect your web servers and the data they process, network security also includes things like firewalls and antivirus software to protect other parts of the network.

Employee laptops, smartphones, and other Internet-connected devices are all parts of your network that must be protected against threats. Emails from phishing, fake websites, and malicious applications are just some of the risks, so it is important to use comprehensive protection of endpoints in addition to the security of the webserver. This includes perimeter security such as firewalls, as well as software that prevents potential threats from entering your network undetected.

How to Secure Your Web Server

To establish a new secure web server, or improve the security of your company's existing web servers, there are several simple steps you can take.

Eliminate unnecessary services. Operating systems and default configurations lack full security. In general, there are many network services included in a default installation that will not be used, from remote registry services to print server service and other features. The more services running on your server's operating system, the more ports will be left open, meaning there will be more doors on the network that a malicious hacker could exploit. In addition to helping with security, removing unnecessary services can also increase the performance of your server.

Create separate environments for development, testing, and production. Development and testing are often done on production servers, so you can sometimes find websites or online pages that present details like / new / or / test / in the URL. Web applications that are in their early stages of development often have security vulnerabilities and can be exploited using freely accessible online tools. You can help minimize the risk of a breach by keeping development and testing on servers isolated from the public Internet, and not connecting them to important data and databases.

Set permissions and privileges. Network service permissions, and file permissions, play a crucial role in your security. If your web server is compromised via network service software, the bad actor can use whatever account the network service is running to carry out tasks. Therefore, simply setting minimum privileges for users to access web application files and back-end databases can be instrumental in preventing data loss or manipulation.

Keep the patches updated. As mentioned in this article, if your software is not kept up to date with the latest patches, cybercriminals can reverse engineer your network.

Segregate and monitor server logs. As part of your regular security tests, store your server logs in segregation, and monitor and check them frequently. Unusual entries in the log files reveal information about successful attack attempts and should be investigated as they occur.

Install a firewall. Software-based firewalls are easy to configure and manage and will protect your web servers from unauthorized communication and intrusions.

Automate backups. Taking regular server backups ensures that if your security defenses are compromised, you can quickly recover and restore data. Automation can improve efficiency, but an IT employee should check for issues that may have disrupted the process.

Server Security Software

The cybersecurity of your business is only as strong as its weakest link. Along with regular training for system administrators and IT professionals to ensure knowledge is up-to-date with the latest threats, all entry points into your network must be protected and secured with professional endpoint protection like total security.