CMS Security Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide for WordPress®, Joomla!®, Drupal™, and Plone®

Securely Configuring the Linux Operating System

As you are aware, the primary focus of this book is to help small and medium-sized business owners who are running a CMS-enabled website to be more secure. Although entire books are written on this subject, the discussion in this section addresses only those areas that require the attention of those website owners. The aim here is to give you a good framework, while addressing some common issues to help protect you.

Securing your server entails more than making technical changes. It also involves taking into consideration a bit of strategy.

Think about the value of your information. Is the information pertinent to an industrial company secret? Or is your company's site dedicated to selling quilting supplies? Both are important. However, one may be a hacker's target because of the value of the information contained on the server and potential credit card information, whereas the other may contain information of value to a competitor.

Consider employing every possible measure to protect all of your company's valuable information, including strong cryptography to protect the data. A hacker may be after credit card information you have or may want to use your server for disseminating spam. They may want to lurk on your site and sell their own wares.

Identify for yourself where your company falls on that spectrum and keep it in mind as this discussion examines how to protect the Linux operating system. You can take some preventative measures ...