Keeping your WordPress website safe from any attacks is the biggest challenge in today’s fragile internet environment. Consider you woke up one fine day and found your Website is down due to an attack or hacked by a hacker. It is always better to take precautions than cure. However, WordPress in itself is a very secure platform. If you keep the WordPress core and all the themes and plugins up to date, there are very few chances of any successful attack on your Website. Still, it is always good to have some extra security.
Security Aspects of a WordPress Website
In the current online scenario, WordPress websites are very vulnerable to attacks if they are not appropriately maintained and security aspects are not understood and tackled correctly. It sounds stupid to sit and wait for an attack and think of solutions afterward. It is always better to prepare for the worse. So you need to understand the vulnerable security aspects of your WordPress website and plug the security gaps before someone else finds it.
Here we will discuss the most important security issues and will see to the solutions to plug those gaps
1. Security to User Accounts –
- Check if there is any account with the default admin username’ admin.’ It makes your site vulnerable to attack as attackers already know the username and only have to guess the password.
- We should keep a tool to check the password’s strength and mustn’t allow any account to be created with a weak password.
- User enumeration ( What is it ? ) should be stopped so the bots cannot find out user info via author permalink.
2. Security of User Registration Process –
- If your Website allows users to create their accounts on the Website, you should keep some manual approval process for a new account.
- The use of Captcha and honeypot will also help to keep a check on spam and bogus user registrations.
3. Security of User Login Process –
- First, the login process should be protected from brute force attacks ( What is it ? ). There has to be a system that should lock the users with a particular IP address or a range of IP addresses for a specific period.
- All users should be forced to log out after a specific period and be asked to log in again.
- Add Captcha to login and forgot password field.
- It would help if you kept a tool where you can keep track of user activities and should be able to block user IPs with suspicious activities.
Top WordPress Security Plugins:
Here are 5 plugins that can help you to keep your Website secure from any such attack –
- All in One WP Security and Firewall –
It is a very versatile solution when it comes to WordPress website security. With 600,000 + installations, this is quite a popular one also. It is regularly updated to address new threats and is available in multiple languages. It provides a different types of reports in graphical representation with graphs and tables. This plugin keeps checking your WordPress website’s vulnerabilities and keeps it secure from external attacks. It also has features to keep your Website’s database secure.
Author – Tips and Tricks HQ, Peter, Ruhul, Ivy
Rating – 5 /5
Installations – 600,000 +
Subscription Type – 100% free
How to install & Use – Go to your WordPress admin panel and search for All in One WP Security. Click for install and then activate it. You will find a new tab in the left sidebar of your admin panel – WP Security. Manage the setting as per your preferences.
Main Features – Some major features of this WordPress Plugin are listed here :
- User accounts security
- User login & registration security
- The database is secured by taking scheduled backups or making an instant backup.
- The file system is secured
- Htaccess and wp-config.php files are backed up and can be restored whenever needed.
- Blacklisting specific IP address
- The firewall stops any attack at the htaccess file level, i.e., before entering into the WordPress code.
- Login attack prevention to deter Brute force attack
- Whois lookup can be done for suspicious IPs and hosts
- The security scanner runs continuously to check any threat at runtime
- Stops comment spamming by monitoring and blocking IP addresses making many comments at a time.
- Text copy protection to the front end of your Website, though not recommended.
Where to find – Click here
Check out the video tutorial about All in One WP Security :
- WordFence Security –
It is considered to be the most popular of all WordPress security plugins. It is a 100% free and open-source solution. With 2 million + installations, it is WordPress’s most installed security plugin. It provides a whole range of security features :
Author – Wordfence
Rating – 5 /5
Installations – 2 million +
Subscription Type – Basic Version is free, Premium at $8.25 monthly.
How to install & Use – Go to your WordPress admin panel and search for Wordfence Security. Click for install and then activate it. You will find a new tab in the left sidebar of your admin panel – Wordfence. Manage the setting as per your preferences.
Main Features – Major features of Wordfence are as given below :
- Firewall blocks complex and brute force attacks
- Security Scan alerts you quickly in the event of a security issue
- Threat Defense Feed keeps Wordfence up to date with the latest security data
- Robust login security features
- Configurable security alerts
- Gain insight into traffic and hack attempts
- Security incident recovery tools
Where to find – Click here
Check out the video tutorial about Wordfence Security :
- BulletProof Security –
What it does – BulletProof security is an excellent WordPress plugin for website security; it comes with features like a Malware scanner and a firewall.
Author – AITpro Website Security
Rating – 4.5 /5
Installations – 90,000 +
Subscription Type – Basic Version is free, Premium at $ 69.95 one time.
How to install & Use – Go to your WordPress admin panel and search for BulletProof Security. Click for install and then activate it. You will find a new tab in the left sidebar of your admin panel below the Settings tab – BPS Security. Manage the setting as per your preferences.
Main Features – Some significant features of this WordPress plugin are listed here :
- A one-click setup wizard with Autofix (Auto Whitelist, Auto Setup, and Auto Cleanup).
- Security and monitoring for Login and registration process.
- DB backup and Table prefix changer
- Multiple User Interface (UI) Skin themes
Where to find – Click here
