By now we all know that we must protect our personal computers with anti virus software and be careful about what emails you open.
However, do you know that you should also be protecting your website with firewalls and anti virus to protect against hackers and viruses?
Below is a report from Ceber security from one our our published websites for suspicious activity. As you can see there were 280 lockouts, which occur when someone guess the wrong password more that three times.
Now 280 seems a lot but this report is WEEKLY! Yes there were nearly 300 attempts to hack this site this week alone.
There are many reason why someone would want to hack into your site;
1. Steal your customer’s details;
2. Hold you to ransom;
3. Add malicious code, such as links to other sites;
4. General mischief.
Now a strong password is a must but there are other ways to secure your site from the majority of hacking attempts.
Hosting Security
Most decent hosting companies will offer a firewall option and virus protection as part of their hosting package, although sometimes you need to select these options. These will protect you against direct attacks against the server that your site sits on and prevents “most” viruses coming through the email. However the site is your responsibility and up to you to protect.
Best Security Plugins
Luckily there are great WordPress security plug ins to help protect your site. Here is a selection of the best ones out there.
1. Wordfence – dedicated WordPress security plug in that has over 3m downloads to date. Provides real time scanning, IP blocking, country blocking. Easy to use and clean dash board (premium features) – Wordfence 2. All in One WP Security and Firewall – User, database and file protection. Also contains a backup feature. Very conclusive and completely free – All in one WP Secuirty 3.Sucuri -Features a real time and more importantly a “post hack” protection so you can recover your site if someone gets through. Recovery service is useful but has premium features – Sucuri Security
