Sucuri CloudProxy

While I am discussing security and Sucuri, I’d like to talk to you about CloudProxy.  CloudProxy is a firewall for your website.

You are no doubt familiar with denial of service attacks.  These attacks are used to take even the most robust of websites down. There are other kinds of attacks that can also put malware on your website.  While the Sucuri scanning and malware service I mentioned in a previous post acts to find and help you remove malware, the CloudProxy service exists to prevent malware from occurring in the first place.  The service also provides additional protections for your site.

You might ask, well if I have CloudProxy to prevent myself from getting infected in the first place, why do I need scanning too? The answer is, you could end up infecting your own website while installing plugins. Or you could have a weakness in your site and not know about it. Think of this as having both a belt and suspenders for your site.

How CloudProxy Works

CloudProxy reroutes your traffic so it goes through Sucuri’s servers. This allows Sucuri to scan for and block any malware. As a result, no external malware or denial of service attacks ever reach your site. In addition, the service keeps anyone who is trying to access the control Dashboard of your site from even logging in. No ability to log in to your dashboard, no hijacking of your site. In addition, because your site is running through CloudProxy, the speed of your site will be improved. This is because the servers Sucuri is using are faster than most (but not all) hosts out there.

When Should You Use CloudProxy

I use CloudProxy for my own site, which is hosted on Bluehost. I do not use it for my sites on WebSynthesis, because doing so would be redundant.  I checked with WebSynthesis to make sure of this. Remember, WebSynthesis works with Sucuri already.

Price

CloudProxy is $9.99 per month for the basic service. Additional options are available depending on number of sites and if you use https: instead of http:

Setup

Cloudproxy is very easy to setup. As long as you have access to your Domain Name Servers, you can make the necessary changes.  What you do is set up the service on Sucuri’s site first, test to make sure everything is working, and then create an A record to point to the new IP address Sucuri provides in the dashboard. If you don’t know how to create or change an A record, create a help ticket, and Sucuri will set this up for you.