WordPress is currently the most popular and widely used blogging platform. It is being used by millions of people around the globe. Because of this reason, hackers and spammers are also taking keen interest in breaking the security of the blogs.
Though WordPress is very much secure by itself, but there is never too much ascertainable. The ‘numero uno’ priority for any blogger or web developer should be security. Due to the lack of security, any site can be hacked and altered, private information can be stolen, and countless hours of hard work can be messed up with. Here is a list of some of the top security plugins that are being used by users of WordPress to keep their site secured.
Security Ninja
Security Ninja is years of the industry’s best practices on security combined into one plugin. It performs more than 31 security tests including brute-force attacks, it checks your site for security vulnerabilities and holes, and even takes preventive measures against any attacks.
Among its other features Security Ninja also prevents 0-day exploit attacks, it provides code snippets for quick fixes, as well as including extensive help and descriptions of tests for you to explore. Don’t let script kiddies hack your site!
BulletProof Security Pro
BulletProof Security Pro secures your ‘wp-admin’ folder and Root website folder with a single click. It offers security against all CSRF, Base64, XSS, RFI, SQL Injection and Code Injection hacking trials. Another useful maintenance feature is also added that allows developers to put up a “503 under maintenance” page while the site-owner works on their website.
It offers hacker and spam protection for a one-time fee with no recurring payments as well as unlimited installations, and besides all that, it also provides you with a simple one-click setup wizard, despite all its complex workings.
AntiVirus For WordPress
WordPress is also prone to viruses, worms and malware like other sites. Your WordPress installation can get affected by these viruses. Spam injections are another serious matter of concern while operating any WordPress site.
AntiVirus for WordPress comes out to be an apt solution for this purpose which monitors malicious injections and also warns you about any possible attacks. It comes with multilingual support, is quite easy to use and blocks any malicious content, spam, virus, malware, worms and links. After enlisting all the blocks that are made, it sends an email to a predefined address with all attempts of intrusion that have been blocked and the white-listed IP addresses.
Acunetix WP Security
Acunetix WP Security plugin is a free and comprehensive security tool that helps you secure your WordPress installation and suggests corrective measures for: securing file permissions, security of the database, version hiding, WordPress admin protection and lots more.
Acunetix WP Security checks your WordPress website/blog for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions such as changing passwords, removing WP Generator META tag from core code, and all the other corrective measures mentioned above.
WP-DBManager
WP-DBManager allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. It also supports automatic scheduling of backing up, optimizing and repairing of database.
iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security)
iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security) gives you over 30+ ways to secure and protect your WordPress site. On average, 30,000 new websites are hacked each day. WordPress sites can be an easy target for attacks because of plugin vulnerabilities, weak passwords and obsolete software.
Most WordPress admins don’t even know they’re vulnerable, but iThemes Security works to fix common holes, stop automated attacks and strengthen user credentials. With one-click activation for most features, as well as advanced features for experienced users, iThemes Security can help protect any WordPress site.
WP Antivirus Site Protection (by SiteGuarding.com)
WP Antivirus Site Protection is the security plugin to prevent/detect and remove malicious viruses and suspicious codes. It detects: backdoors, rootkits, trojan horses, worms, fraud tools, adware, spyware, hidden links, redirection and etc. WP Antivirus Site Protection scans not only theme files, but it also scans and analyzes all the files of your WordPress website (theme files, all the files of the plugins, files in upload folder and etc).
It also maintains a daily update of the virus database and provides you with alerts and notifications in the admin area as well as by email. In addition to all that you can also personally upload suspicious files to siteguarding.com‘s server to have them reviewed by experts and even view your security reports online.
Wordfence Security
Wordfence Security is a free enterprise class security and performance plugin that makes your site up to 50 times faster and more secure. It starts by checking if your site is already infected. It does a deep server-side scan of your source code comparing it to the Official WordPress repository for core, themes and plugins. Then Wordfence secures your site and makes it up to 50 times faster.
Wordfence Security is 100% free. They also offer a Premium API key that gives you access to the premium support ticketing system at support.wordfence.com along with two factor authentication via SMS, country blocking and the ability to schedule scans for specific times.
All in One WP Security & Firewall
All in One WP Security & Firewall is a comprehensive, user-friendly, all in one WordPress security and firewall plugin for your site. WordPress itself is a very secure platform. However, it helps to add some extra security and firewall to your site by using a security plugin that enforces a lot of good security practices.
The All In One WordPress Security plugin will take your website security to a whole new level. This plugin is designed and written by experts and is easy to use and understand. It reduces security risk by checking for vulnerabilities, and by implementing and enforcing the latest recommended WordPress security practices and techniques.
Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening
Sucuri Inc is a globally recognised authority in all matters related to website security, with specialization in WordPress Security. The Sucuri Security WordPress Security plugin is free to all WordPress users. It is a security suite meant to complement your existing security posture.
It offers its users four key security features for their website, each designed to have a positive affect on their security posture. Its features include security activity auditing, file integrity monitoring, remote malware scanning, blacklist monitoring, security notifications, and more.
Conclusion
With the previous year being a year of most malicious attacks on websites, it is a matter of concern for every website owner to take suitable actions against the threats they may face in future which can affect their blog very badly. For the users who don’t code a lot, plugins are the best way to secure your blog. Most of them are free, easily usable and safe.
UPDATE: This post was updated in November 2014. Some plugins were removed from the list due to not being updated for a very long time or simply no longer in use. New plugins were added in their place.
UPDATE 2: This post was again updated in June 2015.
Original Article by Jean Galea
