Today’s increasing reliance on Internet of Things (IoT) devices has led to a broadening of the cyber threats landscape. Various economic and social crises only contribute to making both businesses and individuals more vulnerable to hacking incidents. The scary number of data breaches in 2020 is proof of that.

This digital trend drives the demand for advanced security methods and tools that guarantee maximum privacy for consumer and company data. There is no doubt that our business world lacks a satisfactory security-focused mindset, which could result in fewer data breaches worldwide. At the moment, 50% of companies track security metrics on a moderate level, while 20% are heavy security users.

Thus we are halfway on the road to a much-needed cyber security revolution. Cyber security challenges require the highest level of IT and legal expertise, which is why it is difficult for many companies to achieve the most desirable data protection standard.

However, this is becoming less of a problem as now there are numerous self-hosted security software solutions at affordable prices. By paying the monthly subscription fee, you can  drastically lower your IT and legal costs! With these tools, you can reduce your security departments’ staff by half and hire professionals who will supervise, track results and take actions based on the app performance.  

But what is self-hosted security software and why should you seek those types of data protection solutions? Let’s figure that out!

A.What is a self-hosted security software?

Self-hosting implies single-tenant security software solutions, or private cloud-based apps, where a company has its own locally hosted database instead of renting a space from SaaS providers. The SaaS or shared server solutions are becoming less popular because they aren’t practical. They host data spaces for millions of companies and they are becoming traditional tools.

Additionally, SaaS are far less secure than self-hosting tools because you have too many data neighbours, resulting in more weak links and cyber threats. In choosing a self-hosting security software, you decide to be the boss of your own database within your data house. This security option enables a centralized data control center where you can track all the actions within your database on a modern and user-friendly platform.

While the IT department is the least favorable among malicious attackers, your customer support is their main target! This is usually the largest department in a company with the highest employee turnover. It’s a place where the first and the majority of data collection steps are taken.

To shield your customer support you need to:

• Establish a data privacy policy
• Conduct thorough support rep training
• Add a self-hosted security software
• Create a security culture among your employees

A data privacy policy will ensure your data law compliance and the support training will enable your agents to protect the privacy of your customers. However, you won’t get the best of these efforts if you don’t develop a security culture and strengthen your company’s assets with a self-hosted security software. Let’s discuss more!

B. The top self-hosted security software types

Self-hosted security software is the future! Its isolated computing environment allows you to take control over your company’s data mining and organize your data infrastructure according to your business needs.

Here are the top types of self-hosted security software to upgrade your data privacy and protection procedures.

1.Network security tools

Network security tools involve practices such as monitoring data processing and analysing collected data. ssThey provide companies with the necessary visibility within their network to control the authorized accesses and detect intruders. With this type of self-hosted security software, you can react immediately to cyber attack and prevent or block a data breach. One of such tools is called Snort; it’s a tool for both home and business use. This software monitors network protocols in real time while guaranteeing maximum protection.

2. Encryption tools

The latest cybersecurity technique is encryption, which disables hackers from identifying your customers’ data in case they gain access to your database. This is another security wall that you should establish. Encryption tools provide you with a decryption key, which only you possess, to make your data readable again. With this set of self-hosted tools you make it even more difficult for hackers to profit from selling your data.

There are public server SaaS solutions too. However, the self-hosted option delivers encryption in your private area. Self-hosted VPN solutions such as Pritnul are a great addition to the protection arsenal for your online presence. This tool encrypts everything you do online, no matter the country or timezone. Any time you connect to the internet or WiFi it can automatically activate and make you invisible to hackers, or even to your family and friends who share the same internet connection.

3. Web vulnerability scanning tools

Web Vulnerability Scanners are automated security tools that inspect the processes of your web apps to identify your cyber vulnerabilities. These apps include SQL injection, cross-site scripting, path traversal, command injection, and insecure server configuration.

These scanners’ main characteristic is the use of a database while scanning. They use a specific set of data to compare details about the target attack surface. When activated, the database sends notifications about the coding, bugs, flaws, pocket construction anomalies, default configurations, and potential paths to sensitive data that hackers could exploit.

This type of self-hosted security software helps your company detect network and application security issues, and it provides estimates on how likely they are to expose your database to attackers. Not only does it find your security holes in computers, networks, and communications, it also classifies them and provides accurate predictions and effective countermeasures to help you cope with them.

One of the best self-hosted Web Vulnerability Scanners is Intruder, which can detect over 9,000 security vulnerabilities and warn you about all application flaws. Its offer includes smart recon, network view, and PCI ASV scans.

4. Network defense wireless tools

Network security tools help organizations prevent cyber attacks by establishing defensive measures in advance to protect critical cyber infrastructure, databases, and networks. These tools include intrusion detection systems, firewalls, and network-based antivirus programs. Again, the self-hosted options are better. The more protection measures, the merrier!

5. Antivirus software

Antivirus self-hosted security software offers the maximum protection against multiple cyber viruses such as trojans,, adware, and spyware. It also shields against ransomware, which was the biggest problem last year and doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. This is a must-have tool to keep your business sustainable during the pandemic and afterwards.

6. Security-focused customer support software

Customer support is the most vulnerable, yet the most attractive target to hackers. This is the place where direct data collection happens while you’re taking the first steps toward building your loyal customer group and database. During this phase your customers put their trust in your company, believing you will protect their personal  data and use it only for legitimate business as you agreed upon taking any data action.

To ensure you have their approval and you’re in compliance with data regulations at the same time, you need a customer support software to ask them for their consent and to store that document in a self-hosted database. Plus this kind of self-hosted security software can do a lot more!

It can be your place to go when you want to provide live chat experiences, AI-enabled conversations, and knowledge base self-service. You can also improve your reps’ productivity with a ticketing system and enjoy the cost-effective and efficient automations. A secure and advanced customer support software would include all of these together with a modern CRM platform. Yes, you can have all these apps from separate providers or take a shared server spot.

However, security-wise, having one self-hosted customer support software is the better option. It will store the data from all of these places, meaning that you will only have one attack surface to protect. SSO-powered, self-hosted support software makes this surface impossible to hack while also giving  your reps and IT experts a break from worrying about multiple login credentials. With this option, The IT experts can also track them to take control over the authorization.

Helpy self-hosted support software is an all-in-one support tool. It complies with all data laws and has the ability to anonymise all of your customer data, eliminating any chance to reveal your customers’ identity to your staff or, even worse, to hackers. You can still use this data to provide better service; however, there is now minimal risk for a data breach and no need to deal with customer data deletion requests.

In case you want or need to store customer PII, such as name or home address, Helpy will store all the data on a private cloud, making the data available only to you. That’s right, not even Helpy can have access to your data. This data practice is undoubtedly the most secure on the market. In this case, your software provider gives you a secure cyberspace and everything that happens inside belongs only to you!

C. How to build a security culture?

Having a data policy and a top-notch security software is not enough! You need to educate your staff on the importance of cybersecurity. From IT professions to HR staff and customer support representatives, all employees need to be educated. If you work together, you can create a security culture that normalizes security protocols and makes them desirable among your employees.

A successful security culture needs to be disruptive and deliberate. It must be disruptive because it needs to foster a change, and it should be deliberate in that it requires a set of procedures and measures to enable improvement. Your culture also needs to be fun and enjoyable to make it easier for employees to embrace it. Lastly, it needs to be rewarding to motivate your staff to devote their best work and strive for a profitable time-investment.