Reviewing host companies – Which one is more secure?
Posted in bluehost, dreamhost, godaddy, netsol, review, security on September 2nd, 2010 by fseek – Be the first to commentThere are many hosting companies out there and many articles reviewing them. However, I am yet to see a review that includes security as their primary focus. What is the most secure (shared) hosting company out there? Which one should you use if you really care about security?
**Note that for this article, I am focusing on shared hosting, not dedicated or virtual servers.
Security is hard to measure, but we can choose a good metric to evaluate it: Google safe browsing. Google reports for each hosting company how many sites are blacklisted (for hosting malware, virus, phishing, etc) and we can tell a lot about the company by looking at it.
Companies evaluated: Godaddy, Network Solutions, Bluehost, DreamHost, Rackspace and Media Temple.
The winner: Network Solutions. Netsol had some serious security issues in the past, but it looks like they got their things right. Only 1% of their sites were blacklisted in the last 90 days, and only 0.04% distributed malware.
The loser(s): Media Temple and Rackspace. They really shocked me. 21% of the sites hosted at Rackspace and 18% of the sites hosted at (mt) got hacked and blacklisted in the last 90 days. That’s very bad news for their customers. It also means that somehow their infrastructure got hacked (even if they deny it). Hopefully they will get their things fixed soon, but right now, they are not recommended for anyone that cares about security.
Results:
#1- Network Solutions (most safe)
Blacklisted: 1.38%
Distributing malware: 0.04%
Of the 65257 site(s) we tested on this network over the past 90 days, 907 site(s) served content that resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent.
#2 – GoDaddy (close second place)
Blacklisted: 2.06%
Distributing malware: 0.16%
Of the 591259 site(s) we tested on this network over the past 90 days, 12204 site(s) served content that resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent.
#3 – DreamHost (technical tie for third)
Blacklisted: 3.26%
Distributing malware: 0.14%
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#3 – Bluehost (technical tie for third)
Blacklisted: 3.18%
Distributing malware: 0.29%
#5 – Media Temple
Blacklisted: 18%
Distributing malware: 0.45%
Of the 64010 site(s) we tested on this network over the past 90 days, 11582 site(s) served content that resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent.
#6 – Rackspace (shame medal)
Blacklisted: 21%
Of the 13121 site(s) we tested on this network over the past 90 days, 2770 site(s) served content that resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent.
That’s it. Any comments, or suggestions let us know. If you want us to add another hosting company, just mention them in the comments and we will see how they are doing in terms of security.
