How Secure Is Shared Hosting?

[annamae]

I currently have a personal interest site up and running using shared hosting.  I am working on developing a second site which will be geared toward some more personal issues.  Is information shared on sites using shared hosting as secure as information on a dedicated hosting server.

[FrankSpencer]

I would hope that in theory it is, however, I have heard of times that a hacker got into one site and brought down all that were hosted on that server. A well managed system however should protect your data.

[trying hard]

I guess shared hosting is as secure as any other hosting service because they both have a reputation and clients to protect from hackers and viruses.

[greeny]

I currently have a personal interest site up and running using shared hosting.  I am working on developing a second site which will be geared toward some more personal issues.  Is information shared on sites using shared hosting as secure as information on a dedicated hosting server.

The fact is that using a dedicated server, the client will be responsible for its security and system updates. So a dedicated server can be more or less secure than a shared hosting server, depending on how the user sets its security system.

[trying hard]

At times I wonder how secure our websites and our computer files can be, when even the US military computers can be target by hackers.

[dave]

Honestly it really depends on your environment and your software. For instance our billing software requires our accounting staff to enter a hash code every time they make a financial transaction that is used to decode the customers financial information. This key is not stored in a database or on a web server it is something that is used every time they want to process a transaction. That is 1 level of security that we feel protects our customers.

There is more security on a vps than a shared hosting account because a VPS is segregated from all other customers. In a shared environment there are lots of sites that dont update their software and the admins of the server try their best to keep the whole server secured and prevent attacks by using technologies like suphp and brute force detectors and log scanners but in the end you are only as secure as the software that you are running.

A VPS is inherently more secure because you dont have to worry about your neighbors old copy of forum software/etc. However the VPS owner does need to take security into their own hands and make sure that they themselves run a secure environment because they dont have server admins looking over their shoulder.

[abender]

Please correct me if I'm wrong in what I understand here. If one of the clients in a shared hosting server had been infected by a virus then there is a possibility that the other clients who are in that same server will get infected as well. Is this correct?

[dave]

That is possible if there is a kernel level exploit out that has not been patched. It's VERY rare and in our environment w run suPHP for extra security.

[cenin]

So then, moving into a shared server is kind of like moving into a new neighborhood when you have no idea how your neighbors are at keeping tidy? That is what I get from it.

[dave]

Kind of, we keep things pretty tidy though