php is such a popular and widely used scripting language that sometimes it seems as if it’s always been part of website development. It hasn’t, of course, but it’s wide use in many popular third party “canned apps,” and the fact that a lot of people continue to use very old versions, makes it a prime target for hackers.
So if you don’t use php in your site, or an application that is php based, you may want to disable php as a preventative security measure. The bad guys can’t exploit something that’s not there, right?
The good news is disabling php is easy and you can do it in about 30 seconds. Here’s how:
In the Site Tools section of Control Panel, click on PHP Version.
In the dropdown, select “None,” and click the “Update” button.
And that’s all there is to it.
See, maybe even less than 30 seconds. 😉
For what it’s worth, php isn’t inherently less secure than any other web technology. It’s popularity is what makes it a frequent target. But it’s certainly possible to safely run any php application, even those third part applications that are the favorite targets of hackers. We’ll be posting more security-related articles in the future.
If you want to take a look at other security measures that are available right now, check the website.
Finally, if you run a WordPress blog – one of the hackers favorite targets – and are concerned about security but don’t necessarily have the time or inclination to tackle all the details, we offer a WordPress Hardening Service that buttons up your WP installation and lets you carry on with your life worry-free. Well, at least you won’t have to worry about WordPress. Log in to the Support Portal and open up a tech support ticket, they can give you all the details.