Putting a website online is one thing; keeping it secure is at least as important. Cyberattacks, data breaches, and technical failures can cause significant damage to your business and your reputation. In this article, we discuss three essential pillars of a secure web hosting environment: SSL certificates, backups, and general security.

What is an SSL certificate and why do you need one?

An SSL certificate ensures an encrypted connection between your visitor's browser and your server. You can recognize this by the padlock icon in the address bar and the "https" before your domain name.

Why is SSL important?

Trust: visitors immediately see that your website is secure.
Data protection: sensitive information such as passwords and payment details is transmitted encrypted.
SEO benefit: search engines prefer secure websites in search results.
Mandatory for webshops: without SSL, it is impossible to process online payments securely.

Mediawax currently offers free SSL certificates, for example via Let's Encrypt.

Why backups are indispensable

A backup is a reserve copy of your website and associated database. Without a backup, you risk permanently losing all your content, customer data, or orders in the event of a hack, technical problem, or human error.

What should you look out for regarding backups?

Frequency: are backups created daily, weekly, or only on demand?
Retention period: how far back in time can you restore a backup?
Location: are backups stored in an external location, separate from your main server?
Ease of recovery: can you quickly restore a backup yourself, or do you need to contact the hosting provider for this?

Other important security measures

Firewall A firewall filters malicious traffic before it reaches your server, thereby protecting against attacks such as DDoS attacks.

Malware scanning Regular scans detect malicious code before it can cause damage to your website or visitors. Strong passwords and two-factor authentication

Ensure that access to your hosting environment, CMS, and email is always secured with strong passwords and, where possible, two-factor authentication.

Updates and patches

Outdated software, plugins, or CMS versions are a popular target for hackers. Ensure that everything remains up to date.

Security is a shared responsibility

Although Mediawax is responsible for the security of the server and infrastructure, the security of your website itself, such as CMS updates, plugins, and passwords, remains your responsibility.