An organization can adopt the following policy to protect itself against web server attacks.
Patch management– this involves installing patches to help secure the server. A patch is an update that fixes a bug in the software. The patches can be applied to the operating system and the web server system.
Secure installation and configuration of the operating system
Secure installation and configuration of the web server software
Vulnerability scanning system– these include tools such as Snort, NMap, Scanner Access Now Easy (SANE)
Firewalls can be used to stop simple DoS attacks by blocking all traffic coming the identify source IP addresses of the attacker.
Antivirus software can be used to remove malicious software on the server
Disabling Remote Administration
Default accounts and unused accounts must be removed from the system
Default ports & settings (like FTP at port 21) should be changed to custom port & settings (FTP port at 5069)