How to do server defense? Common attack protection methods and practices

at the moment of rapid development of digital business, servers, as the core carrier of enterprise data storage and business operation, are always facing various network threats such as DDoS attacks, SQL injection, and brute force cracking. Once the defense fails, it will not only lead to business interruption, but also may lead to serious consequences such as data leakage. Many operation and maintenance personnel are often at a loss due to the lack of systematic defense ideas when facing various attacks. This article will disassemble the practical methods and practices of server defense from the basic configuration, targeted protection to daily operation and maintenance, and provide reference protection solutions for enterprises of different sizes.

First, server defense starts with basic configuration hardening?

basic configuration is the first line of defense for server defense, and it is also the most easily overlooked link. Doing this part of the work can greatly reduce the risk of being attacked.

1, Account and Rights Management

first disable or delete unnecessary default accounts to avoid attackers using known default accounts to attempt brute force cracking; set passwords of sufficient complexity for all reserved accounts, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters, and change passwords regularly; strictly allocate account permissions, follow the principle of least privilege, ordinary business accounts only open the necessary operating permissions to avoid the spread of attacks caused by excessive permissions.

2, system and software updates

install security patches for systems and various service software in a timely manner, many attackers will use public vulnerabilities to launch attacks, and regular updates can fix known security bugs; close unused ports and services on the server to reduce unnecessary attack entrances, such as only open the 80, 443, 22 ports required for business, and the rest of the ports are closed.

How does server defense respond to DDoS attacks?

DDoS attack is one of the common threats facing the current server. It occupies server resources through a large number of invalid requests, resulting in normal business inaccessibility. Targeted server defense strategies are required for such attacks.

1, flow cleaning and diversion

with the help of professional traffic cleaning equipment or DDoS protection services provided by Cloud as a Service providers, real-time monitoring of traffic entering the server, identifying and filtering out malicious attack traffic, and forwarding normal traffic to the server; for large-traffic attacks, multi-node shunting can be adopted.

2, threshold limits and alarm settings

set a reasonable request threshold on the server or protective equipment, when the amount of requests per unit time exceeds the threshold, the temporary interception mechanism is automatically triggered to restrict access to abnormal IP; at the same time configure real-time alarms, when abnormal traffic is detected, the first time Notify the operation and maintenance personnel in order to intervene in time to avoid attacks and cause greater impact.

Third, server defense needs to pay attention to Web application layer protection?

Web application layer attacks are precise attacks against business systems, such as SQL injection, XSS cross-site scripting, etc. Such attacks often bypass the basic defense and directly threaten business data, so server defense must cover the Web application layer.

1 Deploy web application firewall

Web application firewall can deeply detect HTTP/HTTPS requests, identify and intercept common Web attacks such as SQL injection, XSS cross-site scripting, path traversal, etc. At the same time, it supports custom protection rules, and can set targeted filtering conditions according to business characteristics to further improve the accuracy of server defense.

2, input validation and data encryption

input verification at the level of business code, format and content verification of all data submitted by the user, to avoid malicious code or illegal parameters into the system; sensitive data in the transmission process using HTTPS protocol encryption to prevent data in the transmission process is stolen or tampered with, while storing sensitive data stored in the server encryption, reduce the risk of data leakage.

4, server defense is inseparable from daily operation and maintenance monitoring?

server defense is not a one-and-done job, it is necessary to detect potential threats in a timely manner through daily operation and maintenance monitoring to ensure that the defense system continues to be effective.

1, log analysis and anomaly monitoring

start service logging function, regularly analyze system logs, access logs and application logs, from which abnormal access behavior is found, such as multiple failed login attempts, abnormal request path, etc.; with the help of professional security monitoring tools, real-time monitoring of server resource occupation and network traffic, and timely warning of abnormal fluctuations once they occur.

2, regular security audits and drills

regularly carry out server security audits to check whether there are omissions in defense configuration and whether the allocation of permissions is reasonable; organize emergency drills to simulate common attack scenarios, test the effectiveness of server defense systems, and improve the emergency response capabilities of operation and maintenance personnel to ensure that the actual attack can be dealt with quickly.

To sum up, server defense is a systematic project that requires multi-dimensional coordinated promotion from basic configuration reinforcement, targeted attack protection to daily operation and maintenance monitoring. By doing a good job in account rights management, system patch updates to build a solid basic defense line, with traffic cleaning, Web application firewall to deal with targeted attacks, and with daily log monitoring and security audits, a comprehensive server defense system can be built to effectively resist various network threats and ensure the stable operation of the business.