Edgar Atino

Best Security Plugins for WordPress Wordpress is handsdown the most popular CMS out there which makes it a popular target for hackers. While many people make the mistake of assuming that hackers, only target big business you could not be more wrong. Hackers can find use for many websites and the size of your website will not keep you safe from them. A security breach can have some negative consequences for your business in the following ways: 1. Hackers could use the site to distribute malware to other websites and unsuspecting users 2. They could steal customer data destroying trust in your business 3. They could deface or destroy your website destroying brand reputation and SEO rankings 4. Hackers could also lock you out of the website and hold your data hostage While WordPress does come with some security measures, it cannot provide the level of security that dedicated third party security plugins do. For instance the best security plugins provide active security monitoring, notifications when threats are detected, file scanning, brute force attack protection, malware scanning, firewalls, blacklists monitoring among many others. The following are the best WordPress Security plugins for your website Sucuri Sucuri is the most popular security plugin for WordPress websites. The reason for this is the wide range of solutions such as protection from brute force attacks, malware and other vulnerabilities it provides on both the free and premium plans. Sucuri works by routing all website traffic through their CloudProxy server where every requests is scanned and malicious request filtered out. By doing this Sucuri not only protects your website from malevolent actors but also reduces server load and by doing so improves site performance. It will also protect the website from XSS and SQL injections. Aside from guarding against attacks, the plugin also protects your site in the following ways: 1. It has an antivirus that scans the website every four hours for potential malware and vulnerabilities 2. It keeps a log of everything that happens on the website including events such as failed login attempts, last login, and file changes. 3. It makes it possible to carry out server side scanning which is critical in protecting the website from server level infections. Bulletproof Security Bulletproof Security has been installed in more than 45,000 websites making it a very popular security plugin and claimed that none of those websites were ever hacked over a period of seven years. This is quite an impressive feat though it does not include server hacks. It is an easy to install and use plugin that on the free plan provides features that include: 1. Security logs 2. Anti-hacking tools 3. Security monitoring 4. Anti-spam tools 5. Malware scans 6. Database restores 7. Database backups The best thing about Bulletproof Security is that it will keep the website secure even as you are performing back end and front end maintenance and updates. This is critical as this is the time when you are most vulnerable to breaches and hacks. The premium version provides more customization options though the free version will do if you are just starting out. iThemes Security One of the more popular security plugins, it was once known as Better WP Security. The free version does not come with many benefits and hence it is recommended to upgrade to the paid version for better protection. Premium features include: 1. Two factor authentication 2. Password security and expiration 3. Scheduled malware scans 4. File comparisons 5. Google reCAPTCHA 6. Dashboard widgets 7. User action logs 8. Exporting and Importing capabilities iThemes Security is very effective at protecting your website from brute force attacks as it will ban any user with too many failed login attempts. It will scan your website and will even show you how to repair any vulnerabilities found. With SSL for admin, pages and posts on supporting servers, it protects the website during front end and back end maintenance processes. The plugin comes with video tutorials and will also send email notifications when there are potential security threats on your website. Jetpack Jetpack is one of the most popular site management, performance and security plugins in the WordPress depository with more than 5 million installs. As a security plugin, Jetpack monitors the website and sends notifications when there is a significant event. It also protects the website against malware injections, spam, and brute force attacks. Other security features that you get from Jetpack security plugin include: 1. Secure Authentication – You can be secure in the knowledge that all website logins are secured 2. Plugin Updates – Automatically updates plugins and makes bulk management easy and convenient 3. Site Activity – Keeps a log of significant events in a chronological list The premium version also gets you pingback spam, automatic comment filtering, malware scanning, 1-click restore, site backups and more. All in One WP Security & Firewall This is a popular WordPress plugin that is effective checking the security vulnerabilities on your site. The easy to use security plugin protects against brute force attacks by locking down the website when there have been too many failed login attempts. You will also get email notifications when there has been a lockout due to too many failed login attempts. It keeps track of account activity including login date time, IP, usernames and any other significant events. You can also schedule automatic backups of the site and get notifications when you should perform scheduled maintenance work. It comes with a web application firewall and also includes a 5G blacklist database. It is also very effective at protecting the website from malicious bots, SQL injection, XSS, and bad query strings. The security scanner constantly scans files and sends notifications if there are any changes to the WordPress core files, or if malicious code has been injected into your website. MalCare This is a comprehensive security plugin that provides layered protection to your website. Its core fiction is to find complex and hidden malware early so that you can clean them out before they impact your website’s SEO. Some features of the plugin include: 1. Firewall – This bans malicious login attempts by bots as well as bad IPs 2. Scanner – The security plugin unlike many others goes beyond signature matching to weed out hard to find complex malware 3. Plugin Updates – It makes it possible to update WordPress core, themes and plugins of different sites from a single dashboard. 4. Backups –It provides real time backups of your website which you can have access to for up to a year The premium version of the plugin provides other critical components that include site hardening, client reporting and white labelling. It hardens your site to prevent unauthorized access and white labeling options where you can have professionals manage your WordPress website security. SecuPress This is a newer comprehensive security plugin that was only developed in 2016. It comes with a premium and free version and is liked by users for its easy to use interface and great UI. The free version provides features such as a firewall, blocked IPs, anti-brute force logins and protection from bad bots. The premium version provides even more features that include PDF reports, GeoIP blocking, two factor authentications and notifications and alerts. Other features include: 1. The ability to change your WordPress login URL to deter bots’ 2. Hardening recommendations and procedures covering 35 security points 3. Detection of vulnerable or tampered with plugins and themes Wrapping Up There are tons of security plugins for WordPress out there. What will be suitable for your website will depend on your security needs and budget.You can always try out different plugins and find one that you like best after which it is recommended to upgrade to the premium version. Some of the most important features include malware scanning, brute force protection and exploit scanning which most of the plugins offer. Other aspects you may need although not very important in your decision include customer support and white label services. Which of these plugins have you used? Let us continue the conversation in the comments below.