WordPress is an Open-Source website platform, that is easy to install and user-friendly to use. This has made WordPress a very popular choice for getting websites up and running quickly. There are over 3 million self-hosted installations on the internet today, which has lead to WordPress becoming a favorite target for malware infections by hackers. To help prevent your site from being a target, here are five plugins that will help to secure your WordPress site:
- Update Notifier – Sends you an email when there is a new version of WordPress released. WordPress updates often patch security vulnerabilities so it is important to be on the latest version as soon as possible. It can also be configured to notify you when there is an updated version of your active theme or active plugins.
- WordPress Last Login – Displays the date, time, and IP address from the last login of the administration panel of your WordPress site. This is helpful to determine there has been unauthorized access to your site.
- Secure WordPress – Uses simple checkboxes to allow for the removal of the version number of WordPress from your site, the creation of an index.php file in the /plugins/ and /themes/ directories to prevent full directory listings, prevent updates to WordPress versions and themes by non-admin users, and the blocking of known malicious URLs from accessing your website.
- Bulletproof Security -Provides .htaccess files for both the root of your website as well as the wp-admin folder to lockdown your website. This plug-in will also scan your website files and folders for the correct secure permissions.
- Block Bad Queries (BBQ) – Protects your website from malicious code by checking for string requests greater than 255 characters and the presence of base64 code in the request URL. Once you activate the plugin, no additional configuration is necessary.
