WordPress is now one of the most popular and widespread content management platforms. It first started as a general blogging platform for the public, which had soon developed into the level of a sophisticated content management system. Now, there are millions of websites on the internet which are powered by WordPress.
As the popularity of WordPress is increasing, the hackers are also largely interested in exploring the possibilities for hacking WordPress sites.
Being a leading provider, WordPress pushes many updates and patches to counteract these vulnerabilities. However, sometimes, the hackers also may succeed in outsmarting the WordPress security patches and take access to the whole server.
On a study conducted over three months time, the ethical hackers found about three vulnerabilities which could pave the way to a massive hacking of WordPress sites. We can also report of thousands of websites getting hacked lately by exploiting such vulnerabilities.
There are a lot of examples too in which even a single vulnerable plug-in may lead to hacking an entire website. From there, it leads to hacking the web servers which host multiple websites. A few months back, we have seen how the SoakSoak malware had affected many 100k websites by exploiting the vulnerability of a plugin. All these instances point towards the need to care for your WordPress website in terms of security.
WordPress security plugins
In this article, we will discuss the top choices of WordPress security plugins to use for your websites. These plugins offer various features to make your WordPress site secure from many threats. All these plugins keep their features updated for optimum security and also keep track of the latest threat and exploits to release patches to become fault-proof. If you are serious about your business websites online, then these plugins could be your ideal choice. Let's discuss next some of the top choices of WordPress security plugins.
WP Login LockDown
WP Login LockDown is a WordPress plugin designed to enhance website security. It is effortless to set up and offers a comprehensive set of features that will keep your website safe. With its Cloud Blacklists function, you can easily maintain blacklists and whitelists across all of your managed sites with just one click. The plugin also provides bot protection that blocks bots from accessing your login form and sets a trap for those that manage to infiltrate it. In addition, the plugin offers a detailed log feature that presents a list of users with their IP addresses, countries, and other pertinent data to help identify any suspicious activity. With a centralized dashboard, you can manage all your purchases, licenses, sites, and cloud blacklists in one location, resulting in saved time and increased efficiency. If you need assistance, the plugin's developers provide premium support, ensuring that you receive expert help when you need it.
WP Force SSL
is an all-in-one security plugin for WordPress that simplifies SSL configuration. With its user-friendly interface and centralized dashboard, you can manage all aspects of your site from one location. The plugin offers a content scanner that detects mixed content errors in minutes and a real-time SSL monitor that checks for over 50 errors to prevent SSL certificate issues. This is particularly important because SSL encryption ensures the safety of your website and visitors' sensitive data. With premium support from the plugin's developers, you can get expert assistance whenever you need it. WP Force SSL is compatible with all plugins and themes, so you can keep your site secure without any compatibility issues.
For more than 8 years Security Ninja has helped thousands of site proprietors like you to have a sense of security. Run 50+ security tests in a moment and find issues you didn't know existed. Help yourself now without any difficulty of utilization. With this plugin, you will find all of your site's vulnerabilities and potential hacker's entry points.
It will keep all of its findings in a log and will provide you with clear instructions on how to fix the issues plugin found. The most important thing to remember here is that this plugin will not any modifications to your site without your knowledge. It is up to you, and you are the one taking needed measures to prevent anything bad happening to your site.
Security Ninja PRO has seven extra modules: Cloud Firewall, Block Suspicious Page Requests, Country Blocking, Core Scanner, Malware Scanner, Auto Fixer, Events Logger and Scheduled Scanner. Each of these is fundamental for your website's security. They give an across the board security answer for any site.
WordFence
This is one among the top-rated security plugin for WordPress. It comes on top of many top 10 and top 5 listings. WordFence can also keep track of your site for the presence of any malware. It can scan all files of the core WordPress site, plugins, and themes. On finding any infection, it could also notify you. From there, it can help to make your website about 50 times secure and faster than normal. For faster performance, WordFence uses the Falcom engine for caching. It comes for free, but there is also a premium version which comes with some advanced features.
This plugin can also block a brute force attack by adding two-factor authentication through SMS messaging. It can also block traffic from any specific country or region. As RemoteDBA.com points out, WordFence plug-in features a firewall for blocking any fake traffic, scanners, and botnet. The users will get an instant notification if WordFence finds anything wrong. It can also scan comments and posts for your blog and find malicious codes if any.
BulletProof Security
Usage of this plugin can limit the login attempts and then block the security scanners, IP blocking, fake traffic, and also code scanners. It can keep a close check on the WordPress code file for the core file codes, plugins, and themes. If there is any familiar infection showing up, it can give you an instant alert. By adding cache, BulletProof Security can also optimize the performance of your website. There is a built-in file manager also for effective access.
The plugin protects WP sites against many known vulnerabilities as RFI, XSS, CRLF, Base64, CSRF, SQL Injection, Code Injection, and so on. There are frequent updates also which keeps this plugin secured against the latest vulnerabilities too and keep your site fully protected. It also keeps on updating the site code accordingly to new known exploits. Apart from the base free version, there is also a pro version that offered many advanced features too to enhance website security. However, for the baseline users, the free version itself is good enough to ensure your website security.
Sucuri Security
This is another top-rated security plugin for WordPress sites. The plugin is offered by the well-known security company named Sucuri. It offers multiple security features in one suite for security monitoring, auditing, malware scanning, firewall, blacklist monitoring, etc. It also incorporates many blacklist engines as Google Safe Browsing, Norton, Sucuri Labs, Site Advisor from McAfee to keep a check on your website. You will get instant email notification on finding anything wrong.
Sucuri Security can also protect your website from any Zero Day Disclosure Patches, DOS attack, brute force attacks, or any scanner attacks. It can also keep a log of the user activities and also keep them safe on the Sucuri cloud. If in case any attacker it coming to your website by bypassing these security controls, security logs of your website will be still kept safe within the operations center or Sucuri. It has a free version, but if you can upgrade to the premium services of Sucuri if you are willing to pay a bit extra.
Some other quick options in WordPress website security are:
iThemes Security
iThemes Security plugin comes featuring 30+ add-on security features to safeguard your WordPress blog or website fully. With easy one-click installation, it can present any automated attacks to your website and also can fix many known security vulnerabilities in your site.
Acunetix WP SecurityScan
Acunetix is a famous name in the application security industry. The package offers an upscale scanning tool to identify any vulnerability in your web applications. The plugin can help to fully secure your WP site against many known threats and also suggest the measures to enhance your website security.
Overall
Along with the usage of security plugins, it is also important to keep your WordPress installation always up to date. It is known that the WordPress sites which are still on the older WP versions are more vulnerable to attacks. Even when you are using plugins for security, it is important to keep it updated. Also, you should run all the patches the provider releases from time to time.
When it comes to the data/documents you share outside your website, make sure to mark it with an electronic signature. In other words, don't forget to esign PDF and other types of documents.
Besides the plugins, you should know that you can do even more to protect your site. For example, having a content delivery network (which you may know as CDN) can also help with website security. Check out what Cloudflare could do for your site.