A security violation can cause serious damage to your business.
- You can lose access to your website
- Data can be held ransom from you website
- Criminals can steal confidential data from the business and your customers
- Criminals can leave malicious code in the website to target your customers
Top of your priority list for any WordPress website should be security. The security of your site is only as good as the backend and foundation it’s running on. WordPress has a wide range of security plug-ins that you can use to keep your WordPress website secure as possible and minimise the chance of your site being hacked. For those who use WordPress commercially, and a breach would damage the business, consider WordPress Penetration Testing.
Top 5 WordPress security plug-ins
There is an option of using the free plug-in or a premium plug-in. Most users opt for the free plug in, this provides your site with:
- File Integrity Monitoring
- Email alerts
- Security notifications
- Security hardening
- Malware scanning
Whereas the premium packages offer customer service and more frequent scans.
This plugin has over 30 ways to keep your website secure from hackers. Again you can opt for the free plug in or the premium plug-in iThemes prioritizes
- Strong password enforcement
- Monitoring files for any unauthorized changes
- Scanning for Malware
- Detecting any suspicious activity on the site
- Banning IP addresses of known attackers logging in to your site
Whereas the premium has more advanced features and automations that will save you time such as :
- Malware scheduling
- Using this plug in over more than one WordPress site
- Password expirations: forcing users to create new passwords after a certain amount of time.
3. Jet Pack
JetPack in a plug in created by word press itself. It features many modules that protect your site including security modules, providing your site with:
- Back ups
- Plugin Updates
- Monitoring your website every 5 minutes for downtime and will notify you immediately
- Spam Filter
Not a security plug in for everyone but is good for developers who take advantages of unique features and settings. This security plug-in has a set-up wizard and auto fix feature that help make things easier for a developer. However the standard security features that do come with this plug-in:
- Backups and restoring
- Anti spam tools
- Anti hacking tools
- Malware Scanner
- Login security and monitoring
As usual this plug-in comes with a premium version too. This version will come with many more features and is actively updated and developed for the best user experience. It also comes with a 30- day money back guarantee.
5. Word Fence
This is a popular WordPress plugin offering powerful free security features.
Features include:
- Malware scanner
- Exploit detection
- Threat assessment features
- A built in firewall
This plug-in will automatically scan your site to detect any possible threat. If there are any threats detected then you will be notified and advised on how to fix the problem. You do have the option to load a full scan at any time on your site too.
There are many more plug-ins out there, however these are the top 5 we found are the most popular and effective in preventing any site falling victim to a cyber attack.