Basic Security plugins in WordPress
If you question yourself whether WordPress security plugins are mandatory? Be aware of this word — The average website is attacked 44 times every day.
WordPress, the most popular and excellent CMS that functions more than 35% of the websites around the world. But is it perfect and secure? Millions of websites along with numerous popular blogs are working on WordPress as a content publishing platform, where some approach to security while others not. So, hackers get more obsessed in hacking WordPress based websites. WordPress usually pushes updates to chunk all the familiar vulnerabilities, but third party themes and plugins make WordPress vulnerable. Sometimes hackers also catch vulnerabilities in WordPress that allow them to hack the entire server. Hence they don’t waste a great opportunity to screw your site to the core.
Permit me to focus on some realism to explain you a fair thought on WordPress security. A few days back, some discussion came out on SoakSoak malware which affected 100k websites in very insufficient time by manipulating the vulnerability in a plugin. So, if you are a WordPress user, you must take care of security. You must always keep your WordPress installation updated and secure.
WordPress security rifts are nothing advanced, in-fact they have been existing since WordPress came into existence. As, WordPress is an open-source stage, we receive mass of powerful and effective WordPress security plugins that protects your site for security.
Let’s have a peep at some of the best WordPress security plugins out here!
1. Sucuri Security
Its been surely that you have go through to other lists of best WordPress security plugins. And I can ensure that Sucuri would be on top of those lists as well. Here are some great reasons for Sucuri to be on top:
Sucuri Security is the best WordPress security plugin available today that offers both free and paid versions, yet the majority of WordPress users should be perfect with the free plugin. As for the free features, the plugin appears with Security Activity Auditing for noticing how well the plugin is protecting your website. Resulting, a hacked won’t be able to wipe out your scientific data. That’s so cool !
This plugin also offers various security features like File Integrity Monitoring, Malware Scanning, Blacklist Monitoring, Website Firewall, Security Notifications, and Security Hardening. It incorporates various blacklist engines including Google Safe Browsing, Sucuri Labs, Norton, McAfee Site Advisor and many more to monitor your website. If something wrong is detected, it will notify you via email.
It also protects your website from DOS attack, Zero Day Disclosure Patches, brute force attacks and other scanner attacks as well. So, if an attacker is able to bypass the security controls, your security logs will be safe within Sucuri’s security operations center.
The Record Integrity Monitoring is also a quite refreshing feature. Once Sucuri is installed, it automatically makes a “Known Good” for your site. If at any instance, your website alter from the Known Good, you’ve got a problem. And you may be notified.
It can reduce server load time and improve your site’s performance by blocking malicious traffic. Additionally, it serves static content from their own CDN servers.
Sucuri is a great free WordPress security plugin for your WordPress sites, the pro version is actually the real must-have.
2. iThemes Security
The iThemes Security plugin is one of the more impressive ways to protect your website, which claims to offer 30+ ways to prevent things like hacks and unwanted intruders. It has a strong focus on recognizing plugin vulnerabilities, out-of-date software, and weak passwords. With one click installation, you can stop automated attacks and protect your website.
It tracks registered users’ activity and adds two-factor authentication, import/export settings, password expiration, malware scanning, and various other things. This security plugin offers file change detection, which is important since most webmasters don’t notice when a file is messed with. Also, it adds an extra layer of protection to your login by using the Google reCAPTCHA integration.
It scans the entire website and tries to find if there is any potential vulnerability in your website. It also prevents bruteforce attacks and ban IP addresses which try to bruteforce.
Some more features includes :
- forces users to use secure passwords
- forces SSL for admin area in server support
- scheduled WordPress backups
- Ability to limit login attempts
- 404 detection and plugin scans
The pro version provides ticketed support, one year of plugin updates, and support for two websites. If you’d like to protect more sites, you have the option to upgrade to a more expensive plan, which gives an additional layer of security to your WordPress site.
3. Wordfence Security
WordFence is one of the most popular WordPress security plugins. It keeps on checking your website for malware infection. It is a free plugin that has some amazing security features that protects your WordPress site without you having to spend a cent.
This gem pairs simplicity with powerful protection tools, such as the robust login security features and the security incident recovery tools. One of the main advantages of Wordfence is the fact that you can gain insight into overall traffic trends and hack attempts. As, runs on your own server instead of being cloud-based, it could slow your site.
Wordfence has one of the more impressive free solutions, with everything from firewall blocks to protection from brute force attacks and can add two factor authentication via SMS. It claims to make your WordPress website 50 times faster and secure. For making your website faster, it uses Falcom caching engine. This plugin is free, but a few advanced features are available for premium users. If you can afford it, do it.
Using this plugin, you can also block traffic from a specific country. It also includes a firewall to block fake traffic, botnet and scanners. It also scans your hosting for known backdoors including C99, R57 and others. If it finds anything, you will instantly get email notification. Mostly, it is accessed by government militaries and militaries around the world.
So, if require to boost up your WordPress security game, Wordfence is the most excellent security plugin for you.
4. BulletProof Security
BulletProof Security is not the prettiest WordPress security plugin on the market, but it is still useful with some great features for free. So, it’s worth being on the list.
(It comes with a One-Click Setup Wizard that helps you through plugin settings.) It adds firewall security, database security, login security and more. It also includes Four-Click Setup Interface. Just activate this plugin and then relax. It will take care of your website.
It limits failed login attempts and blocks security scanners, fake traffic, IP blocking and code scanners. It keeps on checking the code of WordPress core files, themes and plugins. In case of any known infection, it notifies admin.
It protects WordPress websites against various vulnerabilities including XSS, RFI, CRLF, CSRF, Base64, Code Injection, SQL Injection and many other. This plugin keeps itself updated with new vulnerabilities to keep your website protected. It keeps on updating it according to new exploits and vulnerabilities. It is additionally extremely simple to use and is idealize for beginner WordPress users.
We’d suggest you to try out the free plugin first, since it offers the following tools:
- A somewhat easy-to-use setup wizard
- Malware scanning and firewalls
- Database backups
- Hidden plugin folders
- Login Security & Monitoring
- Idle session logout
The BulletProof Security Plugin has both free and premium versions. The paid option sells for a one-time payment of $69.95 and is actively developed, updated, and probably contains more features than most of the other security plugins on the market.
5. All-In-One WP Security & Firewall
As one of the most feature-packed free security plugins, All-In-One WP Security & Firewall provides an easy interface and decent customer support without any premium plans. This is a highly visual security plugin with graphs and meters to explain to the beginners metrics like security strength and what needs to be done to make your site stronger.
The features are broken down into three categories: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Therefore, you can still take advantage of the plugin if you’re a more advanced developer. It can be a “comprehensive, easy-to-use, stable and well-supported WordPress security plugin”.
It offers file permission security, version hiding, admin protection, removing WP generator tag from source, and database security. It helps you to fight off the foremost common site attacks.
The plugin adds firewall security via .htaccess file. You can backup .htaccess and .wp-config files. There’s also a tool to restore them if anything goes wrong. It also view a list of locked out users to unlock individuals in just a few clicks. It offers a password strength tool to allow you to generate appropriately strong passwords.
Get Secured !
Your first priority should be Secure Hosting. The security of your site is only as good as the backend and foundation it’s running on. That’s why it’s important, before looking into security plugins, that you choose a WordPress host that has security measures already in place.
However, not every host is going to have tight of security in place, and that’s where WordPress security plugins can be very beneficial.