10 Best WordPress Security Plugins

The famous development platform WordPress is the first choice of the developers when the need is of the customized website. The easy to understand the tool and the smooth interface of WordPress made it the most favored development platform. There are millions of websites running over the internet and myriad of hackers trying to hack, crack and breach the data security for different purposes.

A little loophole in the coding or the bad code can spoil the entire system when attacked by the internet hacker. The threats are so huge, that now WordPress development companies are using the best of their ability to secure the websites. Every business has some secure data and the areas where strict authentication is required for access. The task of hackers is to reach upto the area and to collect sensitive information for misuse.

Here, in this article we will throw light over the question of why does a website get hacked, how can wordpress developers make a secure website and the most popular wordpress security plugins that make the foolproof system.

Why does a website get hacked?

It is too frustrating to hear that your wordpress got hacked. Firstly, correcting the statement, it is not just a wordpress website, All websites over the internet are vulnerable. WordPress is one of the most powerful website builders which supports 31 percent of all websites over the internet. Every hacker finds for the easiest and less secure target for different motives.

Few hackers use their hands for distribution of malware or spamming the internet. Though there are many reasons ways, websites are hacked, but most common of them are as follows:

Web hosting: Secure web hosting is the very first requirement when it comes for the development. Some hosting companies make the biggest fault of not securing their hosting platforms. This makes all websites hosted over the server vulnerable to the hacking attempts.A good wordpress development company takes care of all this

Weak passwords: A strong unique password is a basic requirement of securing any system. Attackers use different tools for assuming the password and give a hit. This way sometime Keyloggers might make a correct hit. For securing your wordpress website, you must give a strong and unique password first. A weak password gives access to the wordpress admin account, Web hosting control panel account, FTP accounts, MySql database, and Email accounts.

Unprotected access to WP-:

Wp-admin is the access point for all areas on your website. It gives the power for reaching out to various section and does some different changes. The unprotected access to wp-admin is the most dangerous mistake which allows hackers to try different approaches to crack websites. For securing the wp-admin, you can add the two-factor authentication.

No timely update: The wordpress updates introduce the new features and eliminate the previous bugs and fixes. This creates security and vulnerability issues. For the bug-free and impenetrable website, timely updates are highly recommended. You must always take the backup of the entire website before downloading and installing the updates.

Alongside, the plugin and theme update are also equally important. The security flaws and bugs are often discovered in plugins and themes, which unfortunately gives secret access to hackers.

FTP instead of SFTP/SSH: FTP is generally used for the transfer of files by wordpress development companies. SFTP and SSH is the secure protocol for the transferring of the file and therefore, they are recommended to be used in place of the simple file transfer protocol.

Insecure wp-config.php: WP-Config.php is a most important file which contains all the information regarding credentials of admin/database login. Compromising the security of this file can leave your website completely vulnerable to attacks. The extra layer of security can be given using .htaccess.

WordPress Security: An Insight:

WordPress is the largest website building platform and this is the main reason why it is the easiest target of the hackers. Every small stakeholder tries wordpress for ensuring the digital presence, where the lack of knowledge leaves the sites vulnerable. The truth is that WordPress is consistently checked and assessed for the security issues by developers. WordPress closely works with the security experts and other hosting companies for ensuring the threat-free environment. Alongside, it also partners with other resources for mitigating the vulnerabilities. Sometimes the shortage of skilled developers leaves the themes and plugin insecure which are made available to the users over the unreliable resources. These themes and plugin make more harm than good.

Apart from this, the attacks are of two types, targeted and non-targeted. Targeted attacks are those attacks which hacker uses to attack your websites whereas Non-targeted attacks are those attacks which are made to take advantage of known vulnerabilities and not specifically aimed at your website.

There might be many reasons behind the attack. Some of them are:

SEO: The hackers’ users your website to create the backlinks and increase the SEO of their websites.

Spam: If your website is the vulnerable attack, hackers may use your site to send the spam until your website gets penalized. Then they move to another resource.

Malware: Malware is malicious software that runs the different hidden software behind the scene. This helps hackers to install a keylogger and sending viruses without being identified.

Leaking information: Attacks might also steal sensitive information and the use of illegal tasks.

A nonprofit organization OWASP is responsible for improving the software security and therefore it produces OWASP10 which summarizes the most exploitable security flaws across the wide variety of web app. Let’s take a look at the OWASP 10:

The OWASP Top 10 for WordPress development companies:

• The first in list is Injection which is the risk for the injection of script that can change the interpretation of the command.
• Broken Authentication and Session Management, includes all aspect of managing the session and authentication.
• Cross-Site Scripting XSS, which enable hackers to enter the client site script on web page.
• Insecure Direct Object References enables hackers to bypass the authorization process for reaching resources.
• Security Misconfiguration, is checked for the vulnerabilities on every layer.
• The Sensitive Data Exposure are the viable risks which websites must ward off.
• Missing Function Level Access Control emerges from the insufficient protection for security handlers.
• Cross-Site Request Forgery triggers a user to make an unwanted actions.
• Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities might leave data with uninterrupted access.
• Unvalidated Redirects and Forward makes URL jump to other resource.

Best 10 WordPress security plugins:

WordPress constantly works over the security concerns and fixing the bugs. The platform also has some security measures and but they fall short in comparison to the powerful plugins. Top wordpress security plugins essentially deliver the following:

• Active Monitoring
• File Security
• Malware Scanning
• Blacklist Monitoring
• Security Hardening
• postback Actions
• Firewall Security
• Protection from Brutal Force attacks
• Threat Notification
• Many more

The best 10 security plugins are:

Sucuri Security: Auditing malware scanner and security hardening:

Sucuri is the popular globally recognized authority with specialization in wordpress website security. The wordpress security plugin is free for users and includes a variety of security features such as Security Activity Audit Logging which keep track of all activities on the website. The file integrity monitoring is an interesting feature comes with it. The tool works well for malware scanning where it is powered by the powerful scanning engine Sitecheck. Whenever the attack occurs, the post-hack security action guides you with the process of retrieving data after an unfortunate attack.

Features:

• Multiple variations of SSL certificates.
• Instant chat and email.
• Instant notification
• Advanced DDoS protection

iThemes Security

• iTheme bans the malihcious user from attacking other websites. The website is protected against the brute force attacks.It
• Scans the website and report the vulnerabilities.
• Bans troublesome bots and other hosts
• Server security
• Strong password enforcement
• Two-factor authentication
• Update for WordPress Salt
• Strong password generation

Wordfence Security

This wordpress ecurity pluigu’nol is known for strong login security and recovery tool features. It also provides insights over the traffic trends and overall attempts to hack the website.

• Freely available for not so large websites.
• Firewall suite for country blocking, brute-Force protection, web app firewall, and real-time threat.
• Fights off the malware, and instant threats.
• Monitoring of Google Crawl.
• Monitoring for human visitors and bots.
• Sign in and the option of password auditing through mobile.
• Spam filter for comments.

WP fail2ban

It especially provides security against the brute attacks. WP fail2ban monitors login attempts over the website, regardless of the nature using LOG_AUTH.

Features of WP fail2ban

• Option to choose from hard and soft blocks
• Integration with CloudFlare server and proxies.
• Prevents malicious comments through logs
• Spam logs.

All In One WordPress Firewall

This is the most security paced plugin which offers the easy interface files with graphics to explain the measures needed for strengthening the security. The plugin works by protecting user accounts with authenticating, blocking forceful attempts and enhancing the security layer.

Features:

• Blacklist tools for setting certain requirements for blocking the user.
• Backup facility of .wp-config files and .htaccess files.
• Graph for showing the strength of the website.
• Freely available.

Jetpack

The tool is made by the developers from WordPress. The tool has many features to strengthen social media, and protection from spam. The protection module blocks the suspicious activity while the whitelisting and brute attack protection are also covered by the plugin.

Secu-press

It is a new and fastest growing security plugin made by Julio Potier. Both premium and free version offer many important features. The free version offers the brute force login protection, Firewall and blocked IP, protection of security keys, blockage of bad bots. The paid version includes alerts, multi-factor authentication, block GeoIP, malware scans, and log reports.

Features

• Engaging UI and easy to use.
• Additional tools with the premium version
• Change the Login page URL for saving the bot.
• Detects the vulnerable theme and plugin.
• Security Hardening feature.

Bulletproof security:

The richest security plugin which comes with 30-day money back guarantee with special features such as quarantines, email alert system. Antispam protection and auto restore etc.

The free version includes:

• Login security
• Database backups
• Malware scanner
• Antispam/anti-hacking tools
• Hidden plugin folder
• Database backups
• Maintenance mode

The tool is though not much user-friendly but it is useful for every level of developers:

Unique features like BPS Pro ARQ

• (IDPS) Intrusion Detection and Prevention system
• Scheduled CRons
• cURL scans and folder locking
• Unique Maintenance mode.

VaultPress

The tool is similar to the Sucuri scanner and iTheme security. The plan is too affordable for beginners and you can also upgrade to powerful plan. The backups are logged in the dashboard and the backups are incremental for enhanced performance. It monitors the suspicious activity where you can analyse the stats and offering the entire security from the dashboard.

Features:

• Cheaper than most of the plugins
• Clean and easy to understand.
• Real-time backups are available.
• Stats for most crowded visiting time of the website, along with the log for threats occurred at that time.
• Real-time communication with experts.

Google Authenticator-

This plugin ensures the security with multi-factor authentication which is generally missed in other similar plugins. It hardens the security by adding security layer for login which is important because most of the attack happens at login. It either sends you the authentication code to a mobile phone or offers the QR code.

Feature:

• Mitigates the vulnerability of the login area.
• Option to choose from the multi-factor authentication.
• Shortcode for integration with custom login page.

Conclusion:

The floundering websites are mostly the result of the security threats and unpaid attention given to bugs. Protecting the wordpress website is the first priority for your business, where it can pose a real challenge if you don’t have the security plugins. Having the lenient approach for your business website, not only compromises with the functioning of the websites but can also leave the sensitive information in wrong hands.

The above-mentioned plugins are the most preferred plugins tools which not only ensures the security but also the smooth running of your websites. Before installing the plugin, you must take care of a few security components mentioned earlier in this article. Secure Websites is more likely to get the attention of the user.