What are Shared Hosting Security Risks & Concerns?

Decided to opt for the Shared Hosting! Once have a look at this article to get in-depth knowledge about the risks in the most popular shared hosting service and how to prevent it.

Shared Hosting is the most pocket-friendly among all the web hosting services. But at some point, you may have to consider whether shared hosting is the right choice for you or not. If you go for a reliable hosting provider like NETFORCHOICE, then shared hosting is perfectly safe & secure as it has its own data center with potential Network & Physical security features.

Now coming back to the topic, data security in any hosting service is a primary concern. Users accept Shared hosting as the most economical solution for their business, but it has some serious threat too! But Compromise in hosting may lead to some major concern and can be a serious threat to their websites. To understand more better about security issues of shared hosting, keep reading this article and also learn how to overcome those risks.

Let’s get started and understand the term “Shared Web Server Hosting Service”

What is Shared Hosting in Networking?

Shared Hosting is a common server which is used by multiple numbers of websites. The resources like Hardware, Software, Emails, E-commerce, etc which are provided by this server are shared with all the other websites. In other words, we can also say that Shared hosting is like renting an apartment with several other renters and utilizing the services together. All-in-all, this Hosting is cost-effective as compared to other hosting services.

There are two types of Hosting Solutions:

• Linux Shared Hosting– It is a type of hosting service in which the hosting providers use Linux as an Operating system to provide hosting services to the clients. Linux web hosting is the most popular and widely used hosting service.

• Windows Shared Hosting– It is referred to like the website that is hosted through the Windows Operating system and offers Windows-specific technologies such as ASP.NET.

Related: What is the importance of Web hosting Services.

Shared Hosting Security Risks: Major Threats & Problems

Shared Hosting is cost-effective as compared to other hosting services, but every coin has two faces.

Thus, Shared hosting also has some downsides.

There are many ways of hacking a site, but the hacker always finds the easiest path before going for an advanced attack. From the performance point of view, you don’t have any idea regarding which websites you will share the resources with. Every user will have a limit on the total volume of the server resources they can use. Here are some of the reasons that your site is more prone to hackers on a Shared Hosting server.

Risk 1: Single-use of IP Address

In shared hosting, all the websites share the same IP address. If you are running a small business website of a shared web host, your business IP address is going to be the same as other websites being hosted on the plan. So, you get in problem if any other website is involved in bad practices such as sending spam emails or hosting illegal content. And thus your website may get blocked, blacklisted or downgraded in the search engine ranking.

Risk 2: Lack of Resources

Hosting companies usually put hundred or sometimes even thousands of websites on the same shared hosting server, so you can imagine why this increases the chance of being hacked. In addition to the security issues, websites share their resources with other websites, it can hamper your website performance. With the same limited amount of server resources, your website has to compete with other websites and if one of the websites experience high traffic it could slow down your app, and website too.

Risk 3: Reverse IP lookup

Since the attacker targets the shared hosting sites, the crucial step is, to sum up, the list of other websites running on the same server. Through reverse IP lookup, this can be easily done. Reverse IP lookup reverses the IP address to Domain name and through this, the hacker can sum up other websites. Through those websites, they gain access from the sites which are running on the server.

Risk 4: Blind trust on Hosting Provider

The hosting provider will never disclose the website’s name from whom you are sharing your resources . Although the hosting provider claims that they have hosted the websites of well-known companies. It’s rare, but the other websites might pose a threat to your website.

Risk 5: Hacker can be your neighbor

As you are not knowing with whom you are sharing your server’s resources. An attacker can also purchase the hosting service through a hosting provider. Once a hosting account is created, then they can start accessing the server and disrupt the services of the server. Attackers may have harmful data on their account which may cause harm to other websites. Since they already control one site on the server, it is very easy for them to proceed with the attack.

Closing Thought On Shared Hosting Security Concerns

It is evident from above, the Shared Hosting is the most inexpensive and affordable option for hosting the website. However, it has various security risks that lead to some dangerous results. Therefore, we have discussed the top security threats of Shared Web Hosting. As stated above NetForChoice gives you secure hosting solutions along with email services. As it has own Data Centers with 8 zone security. Opting for NetForChoice for web hosting, will not put you in trouble regarding the security risks which come in hosting services.