reading the info via CGminer API is nice, but you need to open the API to the local network. Then, if hosted, you have to make sure no one switches your pools from your accounts to theirs with it .
You can open the RPC API in CGMiner and BFGMiner to a single IP or only the local IP. There's no need to open it up to the entire network. In addition, you can specify which IPs and IP ranges are actually allowed write-access (for things like changing pools).