PCI-compliant (and trustworthy) Web-Hosts

amy_damnit

Can someone recommend one or more Web-Hosting Companies that are...

Established
PCI-compliant
U.S.-based
Actually TRUSTWORTHY!!

I hope to start a new side-business soon, and need a reliable Web-Host that I can trust with a basic website and eventually an e-commerce website.

(The whole concept of trusting any corporation, and especially a web-hosting company with My Dreams, My Data, and My Customers' Data makes me ~NAUSEOUS~)

I knew someone who used HostGator.com a few years ago and loved them because they were U.S.-based with friendly U.S. Techs and great pricing and features. HOWEVER, it turned out that HostGator.com stored account passwords in PLAIN-TEXT :eek: and gave access to said passwords to all Techs :eek: and one of the Techs told my friend his password on the phone without a thought?! :eek: My friend wrote and corresponded with the 20-something CEO from HostGator who apologized, but never offered a reasonable explanation for this act of gross negligence on their part?!

Needless to say, I would never use Hostgator after that, and now wonder how many hundreds and/or thousands of other Web-Hosts may be just as bad?! 😕

**NOTE: Of course if I had several million laying around, I could build my own data-center, hire my own staff, buy my own connection to the Internet-backbone, buy my own web-servers and I'd be set, but that (obviously) is NOT an option!!

I tend to shy away from the 1&1 and GoDaddy's of the world because they are targeted towards teens, bloggers, and people who have nothing at stake.

It would be a real bummer to find out a Web-Host tech hacked into my Web Directory, or Customer Database, or compromised my account password or whatever and then I got sued or lost people's trust?! (Or that a hacker easily got through their firewalls and hacked into my Web Root.)

whew

So, can anyone recommend a decent, respectable Web-Host that they have personal experience with and can truly say they trust them with their Business/Customer Data??

Thanks as always,

Amy

P.S. I will NOT be storing Credit card information, but still will be holding lots of sensitive customer data and copyrighted content.

dagon

check out the echo lounge there have been dozens of threads on this topic.

bpat1434

The only thing I can think of is either RackSpace, LayeredTech, or Logicworks. It's all dedicated solutions (some managed, others not managed) but the PCI compliance is really up to you and not your host.

Getting a dedicated box affords you the ability to do whatever you want to it (up to locking out your datacenter). So if you don't want to use Plesk or cPanel, you don't have to.

Weedpacket

Contrariwise, shared hosting leaves you potentially open to vulnerabilities in the sites you're sharing the host with (as well as pushing you towards lowest-common-denominator configurations).

mpb001

It might also be worth having a play in the sitepoint forums

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums

As it is more general in knowledge.

Really what you want is a hardened virtual server ( eg. http://host4u2.com/vps/ claim to offer one ) with a high level support service to help you keep it updated. Then all you should have to worry about is your PHP code when it comes to the self certification.