It’s understandable and almost expected for an owner of a WordPress website to be concerned with the security of their domain. Hackers are getting smarter every day and discovering new loops around protections in place causing panic in the online world and potentially hurting businesses. WordPress does have security in place on default, but there are plenty of additional actions you can take to make it even better than its vanilla version. There’s no doubt that understanding your needs and the different services available can be essential for the future of your site in this age of web vulnerability.
WordPress Security Plugins
Plugins are PHP scripts that can enhance the functionality of your WordPress website. These volunteer made free add-ons can greatly improve the look and capability of your site with little effort on your part. A good place to find plugins mentioned in this post, or for you to browse for your own needs, is the official WordPress site.
This first plugin is important for its lockdown feature that can ban an IP when it has too many failed login attempts. This puts a stop to brute force attempts where a hacker inputs numerous passwords hoping to eventually get the right one.
This one adds two-factor authentication (2FA) to ensure that the person logging on is who they say they are. 2FA is an effective security process where when somebody logs in they are asked to answer a second question that they had previously written the answer to, or input a code that is sent to their phone.
3. Wordfence
Wordfence is a favorite among many users due to its capability to make your website a claimed 50% faster. Additional features include that it scans all of your WordPress files, plugins, and traffic and notifies you if it detects anything malicious.
You can never have too much security and this plugin proves it. Providing the downloader with an incredible amount of features such as, but not limited to: malware scanner, firewall, login security, DB backup, and anti-spam.
Another plugin tailored to provide your website with security is the Acunetix WP Security plugin. It scans your website and suggests measures that you should take to secure your domain while providing other services.
WordPress Security Subscription Services
Besides plugins, there are plenty of security services out there that you can pay a subscription to. It’s important to research all of your options since many have prices depending on your setup and certain functions that you may need that you’ll find that others lack.
A personal favorite of Websults, this software has options for different levels of service such as professional, business, or basic. With plenty of features such as WAF protection, incident response, performance boost, and website monitoring Sucuri is a frontline defense against hackers.
2. Sitelock
Sitelock has subscription services each directed at the current situation of your website. For example, there is the SecureBlog+ subscription for those who have an existing problem on their site that needs action taken against it while accelerating and securing the website.
3. cWatch
This one lets you have one free malware removal before paying a monthly subscription fee for its service. CWatch provides most functions that other services do such as a managed firewall, malware detection and removal, and security information and event management.
What Can You Do Right Now?
There is always more you can do to protect yourself without explicitly seeking help from third parties such as plugins or subscription services.
- Passwords– When creating a password be sure to use special characters and numbers to ensure it would not be easy to guess. Play around with them and adjust your password regularly and make sure those who have their own login for the site do the same.
- Log idle users out of your site- When a user leaves their site open it can lead to problems if somebody gets access. Logging them out after they do not interact with the site after a certain period of time is a good way to add a little extra security.
- Be careful who you add- Adding others to your user registry may be necessary for your business, but like stated before, make sure that they are making secure passwords and that they themselves can be trusted.
- Keep everything up to date- Having files or plugins that are old and haven’t been updated pose a risk to your site. The longer they are without one, the more likely hackers are able to exploit its current state.
- Make backups of your site- You never know what could happen in the future and it’s important that you have an option to bring your site back to a working state easily. To save space on your computer we would recommend weekly or even monthly backups of your website.
How We Can Help
Websults is dedicated to maintaining your site to ensure that it is the best that it can be. In this world of an increased need for information security, we will assist you with questions that you may have pertaining to our services. Feel free to contact us at (727) 597-7300.
