21 Oct

Increase the Security of Your Linux Servers With BitNinja Server Security

Last Updated on October 21, 2020 by Joanna Isac

We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with BitNinja to bring you the ultimate server protection against WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal infections. 

The BitNinja server security solution has been around since 2014. It started as an in-house project when its CEO George Egri wanted to protect their own hosting company against malicious threats and cyberattacks. Today the company protects over 20.000 servers worldwide and their WAF has blocked over 40 million HTTP attacks.  

What Is BitNinja and How Can It Take Your Server Security to the Next Level?  

Security breaches can put your business at risk. Stolen databases, password hacks, malware, SQL injections, malicious scripts that can change your user’s passwords and gain access to your user’s accounts, you name it!   

Today’s digital world is full of security threats that can impact your business’ revenue and reputation.   

BitNinja server security helps you maintain a successful business by taking 100% responsibility of keeping your Linux server clean.  

“We were in search of an enterprise-grade security tool to provide all-round protection to our customers’ business servers. BitNinja turned out to be the perfect partner to help us address the ever-growing security vulnerabilities and hacks. We tune and tweak BitNinja based on our customers’ specific requirements and we are happy to say it has provided 100% protection! We are beyond excited to have partnered with BitNinja!” Ruchir Shastri, President & Founder @ SoftSys Hosting 

BitNinja Will Significantly Increase the Security of Your Websites! 

Here’s how BitNinja can help: it’s an all-in-one security solution that provides one of the BEST server security defenses available on the market today!  It’s supported on all popular Linux distributions (CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, etc.) and requires zero changes to your server.  

Backed by machine learning technology that adapts to the latest threats, BitNinja combines a set of integrated defense modules into a single security suite that provides complete protection at the application layer, prevents your server from becoming part of a botnet, and protects you from incoming and outgoing DoS and DDoS attacks.  

Being a layered security system, BitNinja blocks server attacks at any threat level automatically, allowing you to protect your websites from unforeseen security threats and focusing on growing your business.   

Server Security

Easy to install and use BitNinja offers the following benefits:  

  • Improves your server’s load. 
  • Reduces spam. 
  • Protects your web application. 
  • Scans your web files for malware. 
  • Protects yourself from viruses (including email-based viruses). 
  • Detects and blocks port-scans. 
  • Protects yourself from Distributed Blacklists such as DNSBL. 
  • Proactively monitors malicious scripts & more. 

Protect Your Business and Customers from Security Breaches. Get Started with BitNinja Server Security Solution Today!

Achieve system stability and reduce the server load by activating the BitNinja proactive security defense shield and fixing your IP reputation for good.

The BitNinja security solution is available to SoftSys Hosting customers who own a Linux based VPS (fully managed or unmanaged) or a Linux-based dedicated server.  

The service can be added to a new or existing VPS account for as low as $16 USD per month. To help you get started we offer a 7-day free trial with full functionality. During this period, you can test it and see doing its magic. To get started with your free trial, please contact us at [email protected].

Once the service is activated, our team will install BitNinja on your server and provide you access to a dedicated dashboard where you can configure and manage your server’s security.

Secure Linux Server

If you’re not a SoftSys Hosting customer, and want to protect your business from hacks, data theft, IP blacklisting & more get in touch with us as well.

We’d love to help keep your business secure and profitable!

09 Oct

Why Online Security Should Be One Of Your Primary Business Concerns?

Last Updated on October 9, 2020 by Joanna Isac

One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist in order to understand why cyber security is important for your business. We are living in a digital age and we are so much dependent on the tech devices that we carry everywhere we go. The sensitive data on these devices can make your business and ruin it also. So, the data is always vulnerable to some extent.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cases of cybercrime increased up to 600%, and October is marked as Cyber Security Month hence this is the perfect time for online businesses to take steps forward securing their business data.

In this blog post, we will discuss the types of various cyber-attacks and show you some serious statistics which will surely make you think about the importance of cyber security for your business.

Malware Or Malicious Software

Malware is software that is specifically designed to harm data and devices. There are different types of malware including computer viruses, trojans, spyware, ransomware, adware, worms, etc.

The total malware infections have been on the rise for the last five years:

  • 2014 – 308.96 million
  • 2015 – 452.93 million
  • 2016 – 580.40 million
  • 2017 – 702.06 million
  • 2018 – 812.67 million
  • 92% of malware is delivered by email.
  • Mobile malware on the rise with the number of new malware variants for mobile increased by 54% in 2018.
  • Third-party app stores host 99.9% of discovered mobile malware.
  • More than 250,000 unique users were attacked by Trojan-Banker.AndroidOS.Asacub malware application.
  • 98% of mobile malware targets Android devices.
  • Over the last year, MacOS malware has increased by 165%.
  • Malware development rates for Windows decreased by 11.6% since reaching an all-time high in 2015.

Ransomware

Ransomware is another form of malicious software. Unlike malware, ransomware threatens you with harm and by first encrypting your data to preventing you to access your data.

Ransomware attacks are usually deployed via social engineering tactics. Once a user falls victim to the attack, their data is encrypted and the attacker then demands a ransom from the victim, with the promise to restore access to the data upon payment.

  • Ransomware attacks worldwide rose by 350% in 2018.
  • Ransomware attacks are estimated to cost $6 trillion annually by 2021.
  • 50% of a surveyed 582 information security professionals do not believe their organization is prepared to repel a ransomware attack.
  • 81% of cyber security experts believe there will be more ransomware attacks than ever in 2020.
  • Ransomware costs businesses more than $75 billion per year.
  • The average cost of a ransomware attack on businesses was $133,000.
  • Businesses lost around $8,500 per hour due to ransomware-induced downtime.
  • 25% of business executives would be willing to pay between $20,000 and $50,000 to regain access to encrypted data.

Social Engineering

Social engineering is the act of tricking someone into divulging information or taking action, usually through technology. The idea behind social engineering is to take advantage of a potential victim’s natural tendencies and emotional reactions.

  • 98% of cyber attacks rely on social engineering.
  • Recent data breach statistics found that 63% of successful attacks come from internal sources, either control, errors, or fraud.
  • 43% of the IT professionals said they had been targeted by social engineering schemes in the last year.
  • New employees are the most susceptible to socially engineered attacks, with 60% of IT professionals citing recent hires as being at high risk.

Phishing

One of the most common types of online fraud is known as phishing, a term that arose in the 1990s. Put simply, phishing is a deliberate attempt to obtain sensitive information like login credentials or credit card numbers by masquerading as someone trustworthy. Targeted emails, or spear phishing, are reported by businesses to be used in 91% of successful data breaches and 95% of all enterprise networks.

  • 56% of IT decision-makers say targeted phishing attacks are their top security threat.
  • 83% of global infosec respondents experienced phishing attacks in 2018, an increase from 76% in 2017.
  • Business email compromise (BEC) scams cost organizations $676 million in 2017.
  • CEO fraud is now a $12 billion scam.
  • 30% of phishing messages get opened by targeted users and 12% of those users click on the malicious attachment or link.
  • Only 3% of targeted users report malicious emails to management.   53% of IT and security professionals say they have experienced a targeted phishing attack in 2017.

How To Ensure The Security

Cyber security solutions

Since cyber security is a major threat to all the small and large companies around the globe, the companies are now hiring professional cyber security experts, ethical hackers to fight with it, but small businesses still can’t afford to do it.

So here are some basic points which will help small businesses to tighten the security of their data.

  • Ensure the security of your staff information like passwords and usernames.
  • Arrange a proper training session and educate your staff about the precautions that they should take while using the company’s devices.
  • Keep your computers up-to-date and always use paid anti-virus and encryption software for maximum security.
  • Keep updating the security on employee’s devices.
  • Change your computer passwords and every account that you use every 60 days and ensure that the changed password is stronger than the previous ones.
  • Do not allow everyone to have access to the company’s sensitive documents.
  • If you can’t hire them permanently, at least hire the cyber security professionals on the contract base for 2 to 3 months every year so they can assist your IT security.

If you have any cyber security related issues, Softsys Hosting can address major part of them. Just take a moment and contact us.

04 Oct

The Best Killer Features You Should Expect From A Hosting Service

Last Updated on October 5, 2020 by Ruchir Shastri

There was a time when having a website for your business was optional. Today, many businesses can’t afford even a few minutes of downtime when their customers can’t access their site. That means, choosing a reliable web hosting service has become mission critical for most business owners. But that can be easier said than done, given the hundreds of options out there that range from providers , all of which differ in terms of their price and service offerings. But how do you know whether you need to spend $10 a month or $100 when it comes to a web hosting service? We would like to mention here some of the key tips, from business owners and experts alike, about the types of questions and issues you want to think about before deciding where to host your website:

Support

cloud hosting support

Nobody can guarantee a 100% uptime. Incidents happen and the worst thing for a customer is having their business-critical website down. These are the times when support can truly make a difference. “Support has always been quick with everything and understood what I was asking them meaning they are knowledgeable as well. Never felt like these guys were reading from a script, they are real bonafied human beings and I like that.” says Yves Lacombe a long-time SoftSys customer.    
That means looking for providers that offer 24/7 support with customer service reps who are available for assistance immediately. SoftSys Hosting support has a stellar background, as we are always willing to go one step ahead in providing a fast and speedy resolution to customer issues.

Parking Service

Most companies buy their .com, .net, .org, etc. versions of their brand name, misspellings, service names, and more. It’s most efficient and convenient for brand management to have these in one control panel and know that you’re not going to lose any traffic. Softsys Hosting offers multiple domain aliases even on basic hosting plans thus allows even the smallest customers to park multiple domains on their plans without any additional charges.

Backup

Make sure your web hosting service provides adequate backup. There have been instances when customers mistakenly delete the entire  directory of their website. Some have their websites compromised, while some got their account terminated and removed from the server due to payment glitches and came back later expected their account worked as before after making the payment. A regular backup is always able to save from these losses. Softsys Hosting provides multiple backup options including R1Soft and Acronis that  offer the ability to restore backups with just a click and  bring the website back up within no time. Support also plays a critical role in this time in assisting customer in faster recovery and restoring services with minimal downtime.

Uptime Guarantee

The last thing you want your customers to experience is a blank/error message when they type in your URL, so a hosting service with a strong reputation for uptime and redundancy is the one you should be looking for Opt for an uptime guarantee of 99 percent or more.

Accessibility

Accessibility

You might find that some hosting services make it difficult to make changes to your site. If so, avoid them. Make sure the host you choose gives you access to the server so that you can easily create new email accounts, make changes to server settings, etc. Softsys Hosting uses Plesk, cPanel, etc. which provides customers with the ability to have complete control over their hosting account. Almost all the features are available so customers are able to manage hosting themselves without the need to contact support frequently.

Shared Or VPS

For small websites and on a limited budget, customers prefer a shared hosting service, which basically means that your site is being hosted along with dozens  of other sites which is why you might pay as little as $7 a month for hosting fees. The downside, though, can be that troubles with one of those sites could lead to problems for all the sites hosted on that . Having a fast website response time is crucial so that your visitors don’t grow impatient and click away and that Google uses page load speed as one of its many factors in determining whether your page will be shown high in search results. That’s why some customers prefer to pay more for access to a Virtual Private Server (VPS). VPS is a bit more complicated to set up, but from as low as $8 a month, customers have a much higher quality web server and faster performance.

Scalability

While you might be shopping for a hosting service for your small business, you should consider partnering with a service that can scale with you as you get bigger. That can mean that the service offers different tiers of service based on the number of expected visitors you receive each month where, as your business takes off, you can easily upgrade your plan. You must make sure that your service provider – or at least your service plan – are capable of dealing with spikes.

Exit Strategy

Even if you’re excited about everything your new web hosting service has to offer, make sure you read the fine print about what they will say if you decide to take your business elsewhere. Softsys Hosting offers such services when most of customers are able to cancel their service simply by submitting a cancellation request.