Server Security for E-Commerce Sites: DDoS and Firewall Installations

Server Security for E-Commerce Sites

Nowadays, e-commerce sites are highly vulnerable to cyber attacks. Particularly, DDoS attacks can lead to service outages by consuming server resources. Therefore, ensuring server security for e-commerce sites is crucial. In this article, we will address methods to close security vulnerabilities for servers.

1. Diagnosing the Problem

To diagnose any security vulnerability or attack situation on your server, you can use the following commands:

• top: Shows the current workload on your server.
• htop: Provides a more detailed visual interface; if not installed, you can install it with sudo apt install htop.
• dmesg: Used for hardware errors and kernel messages.
• netstat -tuln: Shows active connections and listening ports.

2. Firewall Settings

Setting up a firewall is essential to enhance your server's security. You can follow these steps to install UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall):

• sudo apt install ufw to install UFW.
• sudo ufw allow 22 to allow the SSH port.
• sudo ufw allow 80 to allow the HTTP port.
• sudo ufw allow 443 to allow the HTTPS port.
• sudo ufw enable to enable the firewall.

3. DDoS Protection

You can use Fail2Ban to provide protection against DDoS attacks. Follow these steps:

• sudo apt install fail2ban to install Fail2Ban.
• Create the configuration file as /etc/fail2ban/jail.local and add the following settings:

[sshd]
enabled = true
port = ssh
filter = sshd
logpath = /var/log/auth.log
maxretry = 3
findtime = 600
bantime = 3600

• sudo systemctl restart fail2ban to restart the service.

4. Web Application Firewall (WAF) Installation

To add another layer of protection against attacks, you should use WAF. You can install ModSecurity by following these steps:

• sudo apt install libapache2-mod-security2 to install ModSecurity.
• Enable ModSecurity: sudo a2enmod security2
• Edit the configuration file as /etc/modsecurity/modsecurity.conf and check the SecRuleEngine On setting.
• sudo systemctl restart apache2 to restart Apache.

5. SSL Certificate Installation

It is also necessary to install an SSL certificate to secure your server. Use Let's Encrypt to follow these steps:

• sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache to install the necessary packages.
• Run sudo certbot --apache to obtain the certificate.

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined above, you can enhance the security of servers for e-commerce sites and become resilient to potential attacks. Remember, server security is an ongoing process, and staying updated is a must.