The objective of a firewall is to shield access to unauthorized users and to block vulnerabilities that malicious hackers can take advantage of. As if a single firewall wasn't strong enough protection in itself, A2 Hosting utilizes a dual firewall. A2 Hosting Perpetual Security has an overall firewall for the network, as well as an individual firewall for every server on the network. If an exploit manages to penetrate the network firewall, the individual server firewall deflects the threat.

A brute force attack occurs when a countless amount of hacking efforts are used at one time, often in a programmed sequence, in an effort to gain access to a network. A2 Hosting continually monitors for this sort of activity to ensure that all ports are secure that a brute force attack could penetrate. Future attacks are minimized by permanently blocking the incoming IP address from which the attack was being sent.

The auto-heal protection portion of A2 Hosting's Perpetual Security enables us to set defaults for specific settings on our network, making these settings impossible to change. Auto-Heal Protection ensures that configuration files are properly configured at all times. If a default setting is altered, auto-heal protection automatically changes the setting back to the default configuration. This guarantees that major system files are protected from harmful alterations and it vital for safe web site hosting.

A2 Hosting support technicians do not use passwords to access our servers. Instead, keys are used. Keys have a significantly lower probability of being stolen by malevolent hackers compared to a common password. This severely reduces the risk of server access by unauthorized individuals.

Server Hardening is another key component of A2 Hosting Perpetual Security. Server hardening occurs when we remove or disable all components within our servers that are not necessary to the chief function(s) of the server. By reducing these unnecessary components, our servers are less vulnerable to outside attacks by intruders because of the lessened amount of potential exploits. Possible exploits are further reduced by maintaining the most current security patches and updates on all of our servers.

A2 Hosting utilizes a number of other applications that monitor each sever for strange activity that could become harmful by making our customers' data vulnerable. Our additional server monitoring applications seek potentially harmful activity and automatically terminate these processes whenever deemed necessary.

Data center security is a fundamental portion of A2 Hosting Perpetual Security in addition to our mandate to lock down our network and servers from unwarranted users. Visitors of our data center not only need security cards to merely gain entrance into the parking lot, but they also need security cards to enter the physical data center location. Our servers are fully enclosed by cages, making server rack security concerns a fear of the past. Keys are required to gain access to the physical server within the enclosed server rack. Our data center security comes full circle thanks to video surveillance monitoring.