6 Ways To Protect WordPress Site From Virus
Holistic Ways to Protect Your WordPress Site
WordPress has emerged as the top choice of CMS and powers 14.7% of the top 100 websites across the globe. Every day, around 500 new sites are developed using the platform, which speaks about its popularity and performance. Many businesses use WordPress to host their websites and naturally, security features as the top concern of the site owners.
WordPress is really secure and thousands of developers audit it regularly. But that doesn’t mean WordPress sites are free from online threats. They can also be hacked, infected with virus or malware and fall victim to attacks from cybercriminals.
In fact, 70% of all WordPress installations are prone to hacking. 90% of hacked CMS in 2018 were all WordPress sites. The popularity and widespread use of WordPress make it a favorite target of hackers and cybercriminals and it’s imperative you take steps to secure your WordPress site.
Now you must be wondering how exactly can you protect your WordPress from vulnerabilities! You should be surprised to know that it doesn’t take much and all you need is a holistic WordPress plugin to keep your site secure.
Why should You Protect Your WordPress Site?
At any point in a week, around 18.5 million websites get infected with malware. Websites, whether WordPress or on other platforms, are attacked 44 times each day. Malware, hacking and other forms of threats can cause considerable damage to your WordPress website and your business. You can face various damages such as-
- Stealing of data belonging to your business and customers
- Use of your website to spread malware or launch attacks
- A compromised website where you are not able to access your data
- Falling victim to ransomware attacks
- Destruction or deletion of your website which affects your SEO rankings
- Interruption of business operations that depend on your website
Protecting WordPress websites is crucial for all businesses. One of the best and easiest way to secure your WordPress site is to use a security plugin. The plugins help you strengthen your WordPress security and even prevent brute force attacks.
How to Protect Your WordPress Site?
Your WordPress host will be providing some security features apart from which you should consider installing a security plugin. A WordPress security plugin acts just like a computer antivirus to keep your site secure from online threats. You can find various paid and free plugins to protect your site. Now let’s take a look at how the plugins help you enhance the security of your WordPress site-
1. WordPress Firewall
The security plugins come with a strong firewall to block all malicious traffic. The firewall protects you from malware and other threats by real-time blacklist blocking at the endpoint of your site. The integrated scanner looks for any suspicious activity and limits login attempts to prevent brute force attacks.
2. Security Scanner
The inbuilt security scanner proactively tracks your WordPress site for any signs of malware, viruses, and other threats. The scanner scans core files, plugins, themes and other aspects to check if there is any trouble. You can also protect yourself from malicious links left in comments and posts.
3. Hacking Protection
Some of the WordPress security plugins have advanced features to block attempts of hackings and DDoS attacks. You can get notified of any attempts of intrusion and can take timely steps to mitigate the issue.
4. SSL Support
Most websites use SSL to secure their data and information. Many plugins provide support for existing SSL certificates, strengthening their performance for foolproof protection.
5. Login Security
Having a secure login option can ensure that no unauthorized parties get access to your WordPress site. WordPress security plugins use methods such as Captcha and two-factor authentication to limit the chances of anyone other than your administrators from accessing the site.
6. Performance Boost
Your WordPress security plugin needs to do its job without taking a toll on your website performance. The solutions often provide features to boost your site performance and help it keep up and running 24 hours a day. You can make use of the solution’s caching options and content delivery network (CDN) to speed up your site. The features also protect you from redundancy in case of network failures.
Keep Your WordPress Site Secure
Half of the job of keeping your WordPress secure is taken care of by the security plugins. Along with that, you can use the following tips to secure your site-
- Use Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- Move your WordPress site to secure HTTPs or SSL
- Use strong passwords and unique usernames instead of admin
- Disable file editing for preventing misuse
- Change your WordPress database prefix
- Protect admin login page with a password
Have you thought about using WordPress for your website yet? Which plugins do you think you need the most? Let us know in the comments below.