As an online site, WordPress is safe and safe to use. WordPress security isn’t only about technology but also the human aspects. Whatever the security of WordPress is it is susceptible to hacking when you don’t implement other security precautions.
In reality this is because the WordPress website is targeted so often due to the fact that it’s utilized by half of currently operating websites. A lot of WordPress websites don’t adhere to the most fundamental security standards, inadequate use of passwords is common and old software is commonly employed.
Just putting in just one or two security precautions will not suffice, you have to be aware of a variety of measures and perform it often, such as:
- Disable PHP error reporting
- Switch to a safer Webhost
- Editing files is off
- Restrict Access by using the .htaccess file.
- Modify your WordPress default WordPress database prefix
- Disable XML-RPC
- Hide the version of WP.
- Block hotlinking
- Manage file permission
Some of these require code, and others may be unfamiliar to you and you’ve never heard of. This is the point where Plugin is able to help your from the humiliation of not knowing how to code or security measures.
The initial step in security is your WordPress hosting provider because it plays the largest part in protecting your WordPress website. A reputable shared hosting company has extra security measures in place to guard its servers from common threats.
Also, WordPress Security is a really scary thought for those who are just beginning.
Do I Need A WordPress Security Plugin?
You’ve invested a lot of effort, time and also money… which is that’s enough to ensure the security of your site. This isn’t to say that WordPress isn’t secure however, it is there are hacks, so we must improve our security.
Keep in mind that nothing is 100% safe, if the websites of government agencies are vulnerable to hacking, also yours.
They won’t be going away anytime in the near future. Therefore, in order to secure your website, you require only the top WordPress Security plugins.
Hackers all over across the globe are always looking for a way to get into the security of the site. However, thankfully, a reliable WordPress security plugin will stop hackers from doing this.
Why do hackers Hack Websites?
Let’s get started with the most fundamental facts that every day around 30,000 websites are attacked each day. Every 39 seconds, an attack is made on a website and it’s not doing any hurt and don’t believe that yours isn’t vulnerable.
- Uber reported to have lost the data of 57 million passengers and drivers due to an incident in the year the year 2016.
- Harbour Plaza Hotel Management, a company that manages hotels located in Hong Kong, suffered a security breach in its reservation databasesthat affected around 1.2 million guests.
- A hacker group has breached the security system for the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) for the Republic of the Philippines, infringing 60 gigabytes worth of sensitive voter data.
There are now a few who believe that their website is secure since they don’t include important or sensitive data. In reality, smaller websites are more prone to being targeted by hackers due to the fact that they do not take any security measures. In this moment your site is likely receiving attacks, but you don’t even know about it.
Let me tell you that hackers do not only hack for sensitive data, however there are many reasons for hackers to do so:
- To spread malware
- black-hat search engine optimization
- Just for Practice and fun
When the website is online, it’s vulnerable, and all we can do is prevent from being attacked again.
The most popular types of cyberattacks targeting WordPress sites are:
- Brute-Force Login attempts A brute force attack a form of cyber-attack that employs a method of trial and error to discover every possible combination of the password, encryption key or login details. The term “brute force” is used to describe “brute force” because the criminal will employ repeated and forceful methods to gain access without authorization for an account.
- Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): is an attack where an attacker inserts malicious executable scripts into code of an approved application or web site. The attackers typically initiate an XSS attack through sending a malicious link to a user , and then entice the user to click.
- database injection allows attackers to utilize an error page that is returned from the server for database in order to ask an array of True and False questions with SQL statements to gain complete control over the database, or to execute command on the system.
- Backdoors Backdoors: A backdoor is a type of malware that thwarts the normal authentication process to gain access to the system. This means that the remote user is granted access to the resources within the application, like files servers and databases which allows the perpetrators to remotely send commands to the system and to update malware.
- DoS attacks: (DoS) attack are an attack designed to shut down a computer or network, rendering it unaccessible to the intended users. DoS attacks do this by inundating targets with data, or sending information to it that causes the crash
- Phishing is an attack designed take your cash or your identity, by requiring you to divulge personal information like the number of your credit card, banking account information or passwords on sites that claim to be authentic.
- Hotlinking is the process that copies assets typically images and linking them directly to other websites, without authorization. This is a shady practice which can have a negative impact on web administrators.
This is a brief review of the top plugins to use for your WordPress site’s security.
Best of Security plugins for WordPress
1. Sucuri Security:
Sucuri Security is a complete security system. Sucuri Security is a hugely popular product with reasons that are well-founded. It’s utilized by major sites like WPBeginner and WPBeginner, which is an excellent indicator of the type of traffic it’s able to handle.
They shield your website from malware, hackers, DDoS, and blacklists. If you activate Sucuri, all of your website’s traffic will pass via the cloud proxy firewall prior to arriving at the hosting servers. This lets them prevent all malicious attacks and send only legitimate traffic.
The plugin is perfect for protection of websites in general and Active Monitoring.
Features:
- Blocks all attacks. Sucuri’s firewall stops all attacks before even touching our server.
- Website Integrity Monitoring checks the website every 3 hours to make sure that it’s free of malware and malicious JavaScript Iframes that are malicious as well as suspicious redirections and spammy link injections etc.
- Site Audit Log Site Audit Log; Sucuri’s WordPress plugin tracks all the activities that occur on your website.
- Server-side scanning. Sucuri’s Server-side scanner scans every file (even non-WordPress-related files) to make sure that nothing is suspicious has been found on your server.
- Service for malware cleanup Clean-up service for malware with no limits on pages, as well as blacklist removal.
Sucuri Security plugin offers both paid and free versions, however, the majority of websites will be fine using the free version. For the features that are free it includes the ability to monitor file integrity, blocklist monitoring, security notifications along with security hardening.
Premium plans offer support channels for customers and more frequent scans. monitoring, and the automatic deletion of any malware. DNS Change detection as well as Web Application Firewall (WAF) to ensure your site is protected against DDoS attacks.
Sucuri provides a no-cost plan with a 30 day money-back assurance if you decide to change your plan and aren’t satisfied. Pricing starts at $9.99/month up to $499.99/month.
2. iThemes:
It is focused on identifying plugin vulnerabilities as well as outdated software and weak passwords, which makes it a comprehensive security tool for all kinds of WordPress websites.
Its IThemes Security installation and onboarding process is designed to enable anyone to protect the security of their WordPress website in just 10 minutes. It also makes frequent backups of the WordPress database which allows you to be back on the internet quickly in case of a security breach.
It includes integrity checks for files as well as security hardening, a limit on access to logins and strong password enforcement. It also includes detection of 404s and brute force protection and much more. This plugin is ideal to protect your website from all threats and Active Monitoring.
iThemes allows you to alter the WordPress database table prefix as well as the wp content path. This stops dangerous spiders and bots as well as preventing attacks using brute force and backups your database.
It doesn’t include the security of a website. It also doesn’t have its own malware detector. Instead, it employs the Sucuri Sitecheck Malware scanner.
Features:
- Scans for plugins that are vulnerable and themes to update the plugins and themes
- Automatically takes action on behalf of your site to protect your website
- Blocks bots that are malicious and reduces spam
- Stops Automated Attacks
- Monitors for suspicious activity
- Strengthens user credentials.
iThemes provides a no-cost plan with a 30 day money-back assurance if you decide to upgrade but don’t like it. Pricing starts at $80/year up to $199/year.
3. Wordfence security:
Wordfence is equipped with the complete WordPress firewall as well as malware signatures and stops malware-infected IPs from accessing the site. It is also referred to as the top free security plugin even though it’s freemium. The free version is strong enough for small websites.
The plugin is also equipped with a unique feature, such as real-time live traffic. It lets you get real-time updates of traffic, as well as the idea of hacking into your website.
The plugin is equipped with its own firewall, which is running within your web server. This plugin is ideal for protection of your website in general and Active Monitoring.
Wordfence’s free version Wordfence also comes with limit on login attempts to prevent brute force attacks, as well as live monitoring of traffic that tracks who’s visiting your website and reports any malicious attempts at intrusion in real-time.
Wordfence Security offers a premium version with spam filters for comments, country blocking Remote scanning, 2-factor authentication and premium customer service.
Features:
- The Basic version is free to use on as many websites as you require.
- Track visits and hack attempts by using an analytics dashboard
- Interface that is easy to use
- Monitoring the integrity of files for malicious malware
- Protect against attacks with Brute Force by restricting attempts to log in
- WordPress firewall blocks and detects the unauthorized traffic
- Real-time update of malware signature
- Two-factor authentication to log in.
- Security for logins by using secure password enforcers and 2-factor verification.
- Alerts you to the use of passwords that have been compromised so you can make a fresh strong password as soon as possible.
- Be sure to check your website regularly for any threats
- WordPress malware scanner
Because it’s an open source plugin, the premium plans start at $99/year, and then goes to $950 per year. For websites with small amounts of traffic the free version is sufficient.
4. Jetpack:
Jetpack Security is a user-friendly, complete WordPress site security , including the ability to backup your site, scan for malware and spam security.
In addition to the backup, scanning for malware and spam protection for comments, Jetpack Security includes:
- Brute force attack protection We block all attempts to hack into your site from millions of malicious hackers.
- Monitoring of downtime – We’ll notify you know immediately in the event that your website is down, so you’ll be able to know before your visitors are affected.
- Activity logs – Know each site’s changes and eliminate the guesswork of maintaining and fixing your site.
- Secure authentication – Log into WordPress websites quickly and safely and also add two-factor authentication.
Backup your entire website in real time, with no storage restrictions. The program even restores your entire site in one click.
It comes with both versions, pro and free. For free it comes with site downtime monitoring as well as brute force security. For the management of your website and its performance, you are able to use its hundreds of WordPress themes that are free. WordPress themes, check out the latest activityand get statistics on revenue and traffic.
It’s also a freemium plugin. The plan starts at just $4/month and goes up to $39/month.
5. Hide My WP:
One of the most effective methods to secure your website is to disguise the fact that your website is operating on WordPress. Because the Hide My WP is a great WordPress plugin to hide that your website actually is an WordPress website This makes it more difficult for hackers to access your site.
Hide My WordPress blocks the WordPress server from attacks as well as spammers and theme detection tools. It also hides your login URL for WordPress and change it to your admin’s URL. It blocks and detects XSS, SQL Injection type of security threats for the WordPress website.
You can conceal by hiding the fact that the site is using WordPress. Hide WordPress module does not alter the original structure of your files. It’s just going to hide it.
From a security standpoint from a security perspective, this is extremely useful. Users who are malicious can exploit vulnerability in a theme or plugin to steal information from the security of your WordPress website.
Features:
- Block direct access to PHP files
- Clean up the WP classes
- Disable directory listing
- Minify HTML
- Intrusion detection using a intelligent IDS engine.
- Import/Export settings
- Very simple to use and is compatible with all themes and security plugins
- Anti-Spam features are included
- Be aware of security breaches and prevent them by using IDS Firewall
- Alter the default sender of emails
It’s a premium plug-in therefore the price starts at $22/year and goes up to $99 per year.
6. All In One WP Security & firewall:
To lessen the risk of vulnerability for your website This plugin implements the most current security practices and also checks for vulnerabilities.
The solution includes a powerful firewall to ensure your site is secure, enhancing your site’s security. Any alteration to the WordPress code that is caused by malicious software is blocked by this firewall.
Being one of the best feature-packed Free security plug-ins All in One Security & Firewall from WP Security & Firewall provides an easy-to-use interface and good support for customers without a price tag.
This plugin works by safeguarding your accounts from unauthorized access, blocking any attempts to forcefully access your login as well as enhancing your user registration security. Security for files and databases are integrated into the plugin.
The plugin will show an image to show the strength of your site as well as another graph that highlights specific areas of concern of your website. It’s among the top tools for users to understand what’s going on regarding the security of a website.
Features:
- There’s a lockdown button that can be used temporarily in case of emergency
- Free plugin, no sells
- Monitoring of user accounts
- Logout all users after a time limit that can be set.
- It is possible to manually blacklist suspect IP addresses.
- Check out a list of locked out users and unlock them with just a few clicks.
- It is possible to hide information on websites from intruders, bots and hackers.
This plugin lets you easily add security for your website by using the htaccess files. The htaccess files are handled by the webserver prior to any other code you have on your website.
7. Security with bulletproof protection:
Security that is bulletproof is quite effective as an all-purpose WordPress security plug-in, specifically since it can handle the backup of databases and login security.
It’s not the most user-friendly WordPress security plug-in. However, it can do the job for developers who wish to benefit from unique settings and features , such as the security guard against malware and FTP lock on files.
It’s an ideal option for those who want a more sophisticated hand-on security program. This plugin accomplishes its work via the .htaccess file. Its primary features increase the security of databases as well as firewall security and hardening logins.
Bulletproof Security can be viewed as a proactive tool that instantly fixes more than 100 known problems/conflicts that are caused by other plugins.
Features:
- One-Click Setup Wizard
- Setup Wizard Auto Fix (Auto Whitelist/Auto Setup/Auto Cleanup)
- MScan Malware Scanner
- WordPress Automatic Update Options
- Force Strong Passwords
- HTTP Error Logging
- Frontend/Backend Maintenance Mode
- .htaccess Website Security Protection (Firewalls)
- Hidden Plugin Folders/Files Cron (HPF)
- Login Security & Monitoring
- Idle Session Logout
- Auth Cookie Expiration
- Security Logging
- Extensive System Info (System Info page)
It’s a no-cost plugin and you can get it downloaded from WordPress directory.
8. WP Scan:
WPScan can be the best to scan and block malware, viruses, and suspicious IPs. It scans your website and warns you if it detects any vulnerability within the WordPress core or the themes or plugins installed.
They look over your site for more than 21,000 security flaws in WordPress themes, plugins and the essential software.
You can schedule automatic daily scans and receive emails with the results. They offer an API for security free that can be used on all websites. However, you can upgrade to a paid plan if you’ve got an extensive site and utilize a variety of plugins.
Features:
- Automatically checks for WordPress plugins, plugins, and theme vulnerability
- Databases updated for known WordPress security threats
- Open-source tool that has unique functionality that allows you to analyze remote WordPress installations to identify security problems.
- Notifications via email
- Scans to debug log files and passwords that are weak
- Check for themes and plugins security holes
- Get risk scores for more insight into the vulnerability of your website.
- Utilize Security scanners to determine what hackers see in attempting to hack your website.
- Each vulnerability is accompanied by the links and resources to help you on how to correct the issue.
- Their database of vulnerabilities is regularly updated every day by members of the community along with dedicated WordPress security experts.
It’s a freemium plug-in when you’ve got a modest site you can make use of its free version. If you require more advanced features, you can choose a premium option that costs $2.31/month.
9. Malcare security:
Malcare is a full scan that provides instant security and cleanup of malware WordPress Security Service. It continuously checks to see if the website is compromised and informs you instantly.
The plugin includes a one-click removal tool that can take care of cleaning your website prior to search engines identifying any issues with it.
MalCare Security also sends you an email whenever your website is unavailable, giving you the time needed to react to any attack.
- Malware Scanner
- Malware Removal
- WordPress Firewall
- Bot Protection
- Vulnerability scanner
- WordPress Backup.
- Activity log
- Emergency Cleanup
- Deep scans every day WordPress website for signs of malware
- Clean malware automatically with just one click
- Get rid of malware and backdoors in order to stop the spread of infection
It’s also a freemium plugin, and the premium plan begins at $99 per year.
10. Security Ninja:
Security Ninja is the Best to Scan for and Block Malware, Viruses, and Suspicious IPs.
This plugin runs more than 50 security tests on your primary files and themes, as well as plugins and password strength. It it reports the security condition of your website on your dashboard.
It makes use of the vast list of bad IPS and blocks these.
This version, which is free of charge Security Ninja only reports problems and doesn’t alter your website or alter your site in any manner. Additionally the free version includes the security tester feature which runs greater than fifty security checks across your website.
However you may require an application that will implement fixes for these issues look into another option or upgrade up to Security Ninja Pro for $39.99 annually. Apart from automated fixer feature, Security Ninja Pro professional version also comes with a firewall events logger, malware scanner and scheduled scans.
Features:
- You can schedule scans to be performed regularly.
- To speed up your website You can also optimize your Database.
- The Free version does not alter your website
- Complete over 50 security tests in one click
- Secure login form from brute-force attacks
- Scan WP’s core files in order to determine the problematic files
- Restore files that have been modified with a single click
It’s a no-cost plugin and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee , the premium plan ranges from $39.99/year up to $199.99/year.
