Shared Responsibility Model for Crucial Hosting

Introduction

At Crucial Hosting, we prioritize the security, performance, and reliability of your web hosting experience. This document provides an overview of the roles and responsibilities we share with you, our valued customer, to ensure the safest and most efficient use of our services.

Overview of the Shared Responsibility Model

The shared responsibility model is a partnership between Crucial Hosting and its customers. While we take on the primary task of managing the infrastructure, including the cPanel/WHM platform, we rely on our customers to manage the safety and security of their individual applications.

Crucial Hosting's Responsibilities:

  • Maintain and secure the underlying infrastructure.
  • Manage the cPanel/WHM platform.
  • Manage root access and related services, like LiteSpeed and MySQL.
  • Ensure security at the physical, network, and service layers.
  • Regular updates and patches to the cPanel/WHM platform as available to meet customer needs.

Customer's Responsibilities:

  • Manage the safety, security, and functionality of applications and websites.
  • Maintain secure practices at the application level, including regular updates and patches.

In some situations, we provide customers with the ability to run security software with root privileges on a case-by-case basis.

Details of Shared Responsibilities

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - cPanel/WHM

Crucial Hosting:

  • Infrastructure Security: Ensure the physical security of data centers and protect against unauthorized access. We partner with companies like PhoenixNAP and IBM for data center security.
  • Platform Maintenance: Regular updates, security patches, and maintenance of the cPanel/WHM platform.
  • Networking: Ensuring high availability, managing traffic and routing, and providing protection against network-based attacks through our partner networks like Network Solutions, NetActuate, and Hurricane Electric.
  • Access Management: Granting only non-root access to customers, while managing and securing root access.

Customer:

  • Application Security: Ensuring that web applications, CMS systems, and plugins are regularly updated and secured against vulnerabilities.
  • Data Management: Protecting sensitive data, understanding data storage best practices, and managing data within the confines of the cPanel environment.
  • Access Management: Using strong password policies, monitoring user activity, and ensuring only necessary individuals have access to your cPanel account.
  • Configuration: Setting up email, FTP, databases, and other cPanel features as per best security practices.

Security and Compliance

Crucial Hosting: We commit to maintaining the highest security standards for our infrastructure. This includes adhering to industry best practices and maintaining compliance with local laws and regulations. Our priority is to provide a safe hosting environment, from the core of our servers to the cPanel user-level interface the customer interacts with.

Customer: While we take care of infrastructure security, it's crucial for customers to maintain robust security practices at the application level. This includes understanding the nuances of the applications you run, being aware of their vulnerabilities, and promptly updating or patching them.

Conclusion

Our shared responsibility model is a testament to the collaborative relationship we seek with our customers. By understanding and upholding our respective roles, we can together ensure a safe, secure, and high-performance hosting environment. Our support team is always available for any clarifications or assistance you may require.