Top 5 WordPress Security Plugins

Jajwalya 3 months ago

When you run your business online, it is like your own online real estate. You wouldn’t want anyone trespassing or damaging your property, so why leave your site open to malware?

 

Top 5 wordpress security plugins

 

Why should I secure my site?

The damage caused by a hack on your site can be truly horrifying. You can suffer data loss. Google will blacklist your site or your web host may suspend your site for security reasons, and hence, your site’s SEO also gets affected
Knowing this, it is important to keep site security as a top priority when you start your online business on WordPress

Doesn’t WordPress keep my site safe?

While there is no doubt that WordPress is the most popular CMS and blogging platform right now, you’re never truly safe from people with malware. WordPress cannot protect you from targeted hacker attacks, and there can be many vulnerabilities found daily. When it comes to your site being secure from hacker or bot attacks, it always pays to go a step further.

WordPress Security Plugins

The step you need to take is to install a security plugin on your site.
There are many security plugins for WordPress. We have researched about them and can confidently say that below are the Top 5 WordPress Security Plugins. If you are serious about your online business running on WordPress, you should use these plugins to keep it secure.

 

MalCare

 

Top 5 wordpress security plugins - MalCare

 

MalCare’s Advanced Deep Scan Technology has been developed after analyzing over 240,000 sites. It uses 100+ Intelligent Signals to accurately detect even the most complex malware on your site. MalCare cleans out malware on your site with surgical precision, using the powerful one-click malware removal service.

From the House of BlogVault Backup and Security plugin, MalCare is already making waves as the most efficient plugin to secure WordPress sites.

 

Features:

→ Automatic and On-Demand Malware Deep Scanning

→ Complex Malware Detection

→ Tracks every change in your files

→ No Overload on your Servers

→ No False Positives

→ One-Click Automatic Malware Removal

→ Limits login attempts

→ Suspicious Login Alerts

→ Site Hardening

→ Integrated Backup

→ Auditing and Reporting

 

Benefits:

→ MalCare is an All-in-One Security Solution. It includes all security features like Scanning, Cleaning, Protection, and Prevention in one place.

→ MalCare scans daily automatically, but On-Demand scan of your website is also possible, with just One-Click on MalCare dashboard.

→ With the ridiculously easy MalCare One-Click Automatic Clean feature, you don’t have to share your site credentials with anyone and your site will be clean in no time at all.

→ MalCare implements the best security practices for Hardening your site, such as blocking PHP execution in untrusted folders, disabling the file editor, changing security keys and blocking rogue theme/plugin installation.

→ MalCare sends you alerts before search engines like Google blacklist your site, or web hosts block your site for suspicious malicious activity.

→ MalCare’s remote scanning ensures that your site resources are never affected and will never slow down your site.

→ MalCare sends a malware alert to you, only when there is an actual malware on your website, thus avoiding any unnecessary panic

→ MalCare tracks all the changes in your files and can easily rollback the hacked file to a clean version without affecting your site.

→ MalCare helps you keep a backup of your site with BlogVault’s advanced Incremental Backup technology.

 

Drawbacks:

  • It is a new product so it is still under development, to get even better.

Pricing:

 

WordFence

Top 5 wordpress security plugins - Wordfence

 

WordFence has a number of security features, some of which of are free while others are paid. It is an open source security software which is very popular amongst WordPress users. Their Live Traffic view claims to give you real-time updates on your site traffic and even hack attempts.

Features:

→ WordFence Firewall blocks complex and brute force attacks

→ Security Scan alerts you quickly in the event of a security issue

→ Real Time Monitoring using Threat Defense Feed

→ Security alerts

→ Incident recovery tools

→ WordPress Firewall

→ IP Blocking Features

→ Multisite Security

→ File repair

→ Caching features

 

Benefits:

→ WordFence performs a high sensitivity scan of your sites files and provides a detailed list of files which Wordfence thinks might be compromised

→ The Integrated Wordfence Falcon Engine is a server side caching tool which loads your site faster and gives a better score on Google’s Page Speed Insights tests.

→ WordFence firewall blocks attacks, malware and any backdoor vulnerabilities you may have on your site.

→ MalCare implements the best security practices for Hardening your site, such as blocking PHP execution in untrusted folders, disabling the file editor, changing security keys and blocking rogue theme/plugin installation.

→ Wordfence also alerts you via email to updates you need to make to your site security and plugins.

→ You can view the live traffic on your site.

→ Wordfence is constantly updated.

→ WordFence includes support for other major plugins and themes.

 

Drawbacks:

→ Paid plan members get support first compared to the free version users. They might even take a week to get back to you.

→ If your site is being hit heavily with attack bots, you could get emailed a lot. While this can be called “awareness of the situation” it might lead to uncontrolled panic.

→ The plugin offers site scans your entire website for malware each time. This will take up a lot of your server resources and can slow your site down. This could affect your site’s performance if you are on a shared hosting environment.

→ The user interface of the plugin is overwhelming. The options page can be confusing for first time users.

→ Real-time monitoring, mobile phone sign in, scheduled scan, password audit, advanced spam filter, and country blocking are available only for premium subscribers.

 

Pricing:

 

Sucuri

Top 5 wordpress security plugins - Sucuri

 

Sucuri Inc. is a reputed security service company that offers website security software and services to business of all sizes, all around the world. Sucuri’s products and services are not just for WordPress, but even for Joomla, Drupal, PHP, .NET and HTML too.

Features:

→ Activity Auditing

→ File Integrity Monitoring

→ Remote Malware Scanning

→ Blacklist Monitoring

→ Effective Security Hardening

→ Post-Hack Security Actions

→ Security Notifications

→ Web Application Firewall (WAF)

→ Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)

→ Content Distribution Network (CDN)

→ Cloud-based Backup Service

→ Real-time DDoS mitigation

→ Continuous Security Monitoring / Offers continuous malware scanning.

 

Benefits:

→ Sucuri’s firewall blocks all the attacks before it even touches our server.

→ Stops hacks and DDoS attacks immediately.

→ With Sucuri’s WAF, IPS, Monitoring and Alerting System, your website will be less vulnerable to attacks

→ With a response team at your call, you can get your website cleaned up and running under several hours.

→ If you decide to use the Sucuri CDN service, you can expect increased customer satisfaction rates, more page views, increase conversion rate and decreased bounce rate.

→ Sucuri team researches and reports potential security issues to WordPress core team as well as other plugins.

 

Drawbacks:

→ Firewall and scheduled scans are available only in the premium version.

→ On average security experts charge $250 / hour for consulting. This can get quite expensive.

 

Pricing:

 

 

iThemes Security

Top 5 wordpress security plugins - iThemes Security

 

iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security) claims to provide 30+ ways to secure and protect your WordPress site. It can lock down WordPress, fix common holes, stop automated attacks and strengthen user credentials.

Features:

→ iThemes Brute Force Attack Protection Network

→ Two-factor Authentication

→ Monitor core file changes

→ Threat Detection

→ Logging user actions

→ Data Obfuscation

→ Database Recovery

→ Multisite Compatibility

→ Detects hidden 404 errors on the site

→ Backup database on schedule

→ Security Tutorials

 

Benefits:

→ iThemes Security lets you ban the IP addresses of known attackers from your site.

→ It monitors your files to check for any unauthorized changes.

→ It prevents brute force attacks by banning users and bots with repeated failed login attempts

→ You can rename content directory, database table prefix and login URL to prevent hacking attempts

→ iThemes Security forces you to use latest versions of the themes and plugins.

→ It can track user activity like when they login, edit content and logout from the site.

→ It can detects vulnerabilities and fixes them in seconds

→ iThemes Security enforces strong passwords to all user accounts

→ You can turn off login for a particular period called the vacation mode.

→ It sets a maximum password age for all user accounts or force them to change it immediately during emergency situations.

→ iThemes Security provides Two-factor authentication, Google ReCaptcha and prevents unauthorized changes in the file system

 

Drawbacks:

→ Ticketed Support is available only for Premium users.

→ Basic features like Scheduled malware scan, two-factor authentication, password expiration, user logging and Google reCAPTCHA are available for premium subscribers only.

 

Pricing:

 

SiteLock

Top 5 wordpress security plugins - Sitelock

 

Founded in 2008, the SiteLock cloud-based suite of products offers automated vulnerability detection and malware removal, DDoS protection, website acceleration, website risk assessments, and PCI compliance.

Features:

→ Daily malware scans

→ Automatic malware removal

→ Web Application Firewall (WAF)

→ Remove you from a blacklist

→ DDoS attack protection

→ Website acceleration

→ PCI compliant

 

Benefits:

→SiteLock offers broad security offering to protect all aspects of your site.

→ SiteLock Infinity scans your website repeatedly to detect and remove malware.

→ You can ensure the security of your site by scanning pages in draft mode.

→ Depending on your negotiation skills, it can be a low cost option.

→ SiteLock’s TrueCode Static Application Security Testing (SAST) finds common vulnerabilities by analyzing your site with “white-box” testing.

→ SiteLock’s TrueShield Web Application Firewall protects websites from malicious traffic and blocks harmful requests.

 

Drawbacks:

→ Costs can vary wildly between each customer.

 

Pricing:

SecuPress

Top 5 wordpress security plugins - Secupress

 

SecuPress protects your WordPress site with a dedicated security scanner. It provides a security grade and report for your website so that you know what needs to be fixed. The Plugin UI is simple and easy to use. It is a French product with instructions and support in French (and English of course)

Features:

→ Malware Scanner can be Scheduled and Automatic

→ Database and File Backups

→ Vulnerable theme and plugin detection

→ Anti Spam

→ Built-in backups

→ Security key protection

 

Benefits:

→SecuPress sends alert emails every 15 minutes in case of critical external action.

→ On SecuPress, the options available for various security services are presented clearly.

→ It can move the authentication page to the admin (login form) to another address, which can save you from the Brute Force attacks.

→ It enforces Strong Passwords, Passwords Lifetime, Double Authentication, Profile page protection, WordPress Updates, and IP Whitelisting.

→ It handles additional security features (Disables .zip Uploads, Themes, Plugins, XML-RPC, REST API, Hotlinking)

 

Drawbacks:

→ Casual WordPress users will find SecuPress for one site more expensive than multisite.

→ Multisites are possible only with premium versions.

→ Direct external requests to plugin and theme files are reported to bypass their firewall.

Pricing:

 

Next Steps >>

Your site will never be entirely safe since there are always new malwares and threats coming up, each day. The best you can do for your site safety and security is to install the right Security Solution to take care of your site for you.

Make sure you pick a security plugin that you trust and will perform Complete and Reliable Malware Scanning, Cleaning, Protection and Prevention.

Apart from installing a WordPress security plugin, you can also switch to a reliable web host, keep regular backups of your website, and last but not least – Keep Strong and Unique Passwords

What Features the Best WP Security Plugin Must Pose?

Sumit 4 months ago

Best-WP-Security-Plugins

Well with the end of 2017, here I would like to give a treat to all the WordPress users, as I am a digital marketing associate myself and I know how important WordPress is for the overall online marketing and promotions.  In addition to it, I am also concerned regarding the protection of my sites, therefore WordPress security is a must.

 

So what are the ways to protect your WordPress website to remain protected from the outside threats? You can take help from the best WP Security plugin to solve the issues. But first, let’s know what kind of issues can occur on your WordPress website.

 

  • Malware and Hacking –   

 

The malware and hacking are the most famous terms in case of threats of any WordPress site. There are many different types of malware that can ruin your site and thus eliminate them is important. Similarly, the term hacking is also the one that’s really needed to be taken care of.

 

 

  • Web hosting Issues –

 

 

Especially while Migration, the different web hosts can have different policies. So, selecting a good host is important. Web hosts are the one who provides you with storage space and management tools, that’s why there is the need for good hosts. And if not, your site can face difficulties while migrations.        

 

  • Incompatible plugins and themes –   

 

The plugins and themes need to be updated, well maintained and managed. Since they all together make up the website, and if there will be any problem with them you can’t get the desired results.

 

  • Errors and Sudden disasters –                

 

So there are certain errors and sudden disasters as well that can ruin your site anytime. Like sudden malware attacks or the human errors and the server errors etc. They all can give your site as many problems, which can cause problems like site downtime and data loss.

 

So what’s the remedy for all these? Well, the answer will be the features of the best WP security plugin.

best-wp-security-plugin

Here I will describe them all for you, take a look at the features here –

 

  • Daily Automatic Scans –      

 

The most important thing to have in any security plugin is the facility of daily automatic scans. They help to detect the presence of any kind of malware on your site. With the help of daily automatic scans you can easily check the updates in your site and with the regular data scanning, you can detect malware(virus, trojans etc.) if they are present in your site.

 

  • Malware removal –      

 

If there is a way for detecting malware, then there must also be a way for eliminating malware as well. This feature involves the tracking of malware and then eliminating it. The best security plugin is the one that could provide ‘One click malware removal’ technique. If you are able to eliminate all the malware with a single/minimum number of clicks, then that particular plugin will be worth using.

 

  • Harden Site security –

 

Like you, I also believe in ‘Precaution is better than cure’ policy. If you know what might cause threats to your website then you can make necessary steps to avoid it.

Site security can be hardened with the data encryption process. The best plugins have the data encryption feature, which saves the data in an encrypted file whose backup has been taken. In this way, no data threat can occur as it is protected with the help of strong usernames and passwords. All things will be under your control.    

 

So the point is to make it really hard(nearly impossible) for any hacker or malware to enter your site. This can be possible with the site’s security only. Therefore you must choose the best one that could provide you with the hardest site security.

 

  • Updates Tracking and Performing –

 

Okay so who will be tracking the updates that are going to your website. There are some plugins which provide you with this feature with which you can check the plugins, themes and WordPress core when an update is available. Also, you will be able to perform the updates as well. You can easily update the themes, plugins and even the WordPress core with a single click.

 

Managing the user roles is also an important thing in terms of website management. With the help of the best plugins, you can see the user roles easily, and also you can regulate your site efficiently.

 

Talking about the benefits of using the WP security plugins, well there are many. The best ones give you the complete security of your website. Having a complete website security is what protects your site from being hacked. And so your security will be in your hands only.

 

Like this, there will be no problem of organised working. With the help of the best security plugins, you can do whatever you want for your WordPress security. And not only the security but the plugins also provide the overall manipulation facilities for the website.

 

Choosing the right plugin totally depends on you. The features which I have described should be included in a plugin that claims to be the best one. However, you should also keep an eye on the price tag and the trial days as well. Though some of the plugins do not provide the trial, at least you should know the features they provide before installing them.

 

So here was my Blog telling you about the different features of the best plugin for WordPress security. Now it’s your turn to choose the right one for your WordPress site. Some of the examples which involve the above-mentioned features are, BackupBuddy, BlogVault, Wordfence, Bulletproof security and Sucuri security.

 

Thanks for reading my article, hope you have liked it.                                                                                                      

7 Reasons you Need to Know Why BlogVault is the Best WordPress Security Plugin

Sumit 4 months ago

Best-WordPress-Security-Plugins

Security plugins are always essential for the overall security of the site. They act like a wall which do not allow malware and harm your site and its data. Therefore you always need WordPress Security plugins to make your site’s data secure. Before having them, you first must know the different features they provide.

 

If you want to find out these features, you have come to the right place because I am going to tell you everything you need to know about them, right here. The security plugins must have some essential features and according to it, you can choose the best ones for you.

 

Feature 1 – Content Backup   

 

Whatever the work you are doing on your site, you must be able to save it, and go through, whenever you need. Hence content backup becomes very essential. Search for the plugins that could provide the backups in the most secure way possible. Content backup should be the first thing that needs to be present in the plugin.

 

Feature 2 – Site Restore                      

 

The next most important feature is the site restore. It is the complete site management process. With its help, you can not only keep your site safe but also you can restore the site whenever you want to. The best backup plugins will be those that will help you to restore your site with a single click only.

 

Feature 3 – DashBoard Management           

 

The security plugin must also be able to give nice dashboard management as well. The best ones will give you the independent dashboard management. You must be able to access all your data through the dashboard instead of worrying about the data management. All the site’s data should be easily accessible from the dashboard itself.

 

Feature 4 – Multisite Management  

 

It is the management of different sites that are hosted under your domain name, one at a time. In this case, the plugins will backup your entire network in the same place thereby giving you the option of sharing resources.

 

Feature 5 – Backup Type

The best way of making backups that’s available is the Incremental one. It is the backup feature that saves the whole data at a time, and then takes the backup of the changed files only. In this way, whole data is saved taking less time and storage. With incremental backup, one can get to use the best form of taking the backups from the site.

 

Feature 6 – Storage Options

 

Well, a plugin is not completed without a proper storage option available. So whether it is a simple plugin or just a security plugin, independent storage option is a must. With the help of the right storage, you can easily find out the best storage options that can help you to make your work easier.

 

Feature 7 – Backup History

 

How can one forget the backup history feature of the plugin? It’s one of the most important features involved in every backup plugin. Proper backup history is very important and its tracking as well. So that you can keep track of your work. So having a backup history will help you to have the track of all the works you have done before.

 

Note: Click Here to read more features of BlogVault

 

What makes BlogVault perfect for security?

 

Well, the plugins which Blogvault provides do posses features as your WP security plugin. But what makes Blogvault so special. Well, I can tell you these reasons here –   

Blogvault-best-backup-and-restore-plugin

  • Action Oriented – BlogVault offers one-click setup, and zero downtime migration as well. It also performs the complex actions like staging and migration, that’s equally important in the process of moving any site from one domain to another. Or testing the site etc.    

 

  • Threat Protection – You will remain completely safe from the threats like hosting issues, malware/hacks, natural disasters and storage issues as well. You can also change the incompatible plugins for your site’s functionality, and work on the themes that let your site seem unprofessional.   

 

  • Well-Maintenance – Whatever the work you will do, will be in a completely organised way, BlogVault offers quick data processing and tasks performed. The dashboard section is well maintained & quite easy, and there will no problem operating with it.

 

  • Data Backup – Like any other security plugin, it provides data backup. But data backup in such a way that it would not get disturbed in any way.  All types of data can be backed up using the security plugin, and moreover, the plugin must backup the entire data as well.   

 

  • Data Security –  Basically the data security, data availability, proper backup and well maintenance of the data are some general features which are included in every backup plugin. Name any kind of data security, BlogVault is able to provide it.  

 

  • Data Management – This tools also feature illuminating data management process. You can also perform many updates that might be required and can also manage the user roles accordingly. You can edit the files and site as per you want.
  • Automatic Data Backups – This is the best backup option available for you. With Blogvault you can easily perform the automatic backups, and thus make your whole site secure in the best way possible. Automatic backups literally help your site’s data to be kept in the safest way possible. And with BlogVault you can do it with the best site encryption methods.

 

Besides this, the harden site security is the one that’s the speciality of BlogVault.  You will get an absolute site security and a great user experience. As all your data will be in an encrypted form, so there will be no chance for any malware to penetrate into your site and destroy it.

 

Lastly, I would like to say that if you think these features can help you make your site safer, then you must opt for BlogVault as your prime security plugin. I hope that you have liked my article. Thanks for reading it, also share it with your friends as well.       

What are Some Best Security Plugins for WordPress?

Sumit 4 months ago

Best WordPress Security Plugins
Best WordPress Security Plugins

Okay so 2017 is saying goodbye and the footprints of the new year are eager to come to our world, let’s welcome this in the internet world as well. This year has been the year of lots of digital marketing and wordpress executions. The best Content marketing System has also been threatened with outsource problems like malware and hacking etc.  But the use of the best plugins helped a lot to get a complete security of the problems and keep your site far from the threats.

So I though why not to make a gorgeous Blog and talk about the best security plugins for WordPress and give them the credit they deserve. So here I will be talking about the best plugins from the security point of view for WordPress. Let’s start now –

WordFence –

So here’s one of the most popular security plugin for wordpress. It is well famous for its malware detection. The best thing is that it completely scans all the files of WordPress, including the WordPress core, plugins and themes as well. If you will use the premium feature, then you can access many more advanced features as well. Also due to the open source nature of the plugin, its very popular between the professional hat use wordpress.  

Key elements of this plugin include –

Two factor authentication – via SMS

Blocks bruteforce malware attacks

Blocks all sort of fake traffic to your wordpress site

Scans the wordpress hosting

Get email notifications for the trackings

Wordfence Security
Wordfence Security   

Bulletproof Security –

As the name suggests, this plugin is for the bulletproof security of your wordpress site. Basically it takes care of various things in addition to your site’s security. In other words, this will be a perfect tool to take care of your website. As usual, the pro version of this tool also is filled with some really advanced features, but the free version isn’t anything less though.

Key features of this plugin include –

Database, login and firewall security

Four click setup interface

Limits failed login attempts

Checks the IP Blocking and code scanners

Bullet proof Security
Bullet proof Security

BlogVault –

If you want a complete WordPress security in a single dashboard, then you must opt for this plugin. You can not only backup your data by using this tool, but you can also perform the security scans and malware detection processes as well. The tools has ace technology support to perform the automatic daily backups, and determine where the malware are in case of any malfunctioning.

Key features of the tool include –

Automatic Backup processes and One click site restoration

Automatic daily scans and one click malware removal

Managing user roles and performing updates

One click staging and migration setup

Zero downtime migration

BlogVault Security
BlogVault Security

 Sucuri Security –

This plugin is of the website security and auditing company Sucuri. The best part of this security plugin is the auditing feature it provides. Due to this feature your site remains protected from the complex problems and hacking attacks. It protects your website from DOS attacks, scanner attacks and other brute-force attacks as well. You can even trace the working of the tool in favour of your site as well. It also has a premium service, for which you need some amount of money to pay.

Key features of this tool includes –

Malware Scanning and detection

File integrity monitoring and blacklist monitoring

Website Firewall monitoring

Safety from Zeroday disclosure patches

Sucuri Security
Sucuri Security

iThemes Security –

It’s also one of the nice wordpress security plugins that is required by many professionals to make their WordPress site secure. With only one click installation, you can stop the automated attacks from the outsource internet world. Even if it is the common security holes in your website, it will be fixed with the use of this plugin. The tool is capable of scanning the entire website, and tries to find if there is any potential threat in it or not. All in all, it’s a complete package for your site’s protection.   

Key features of this tool includes –

Auto Fixes the different common site malfunctioning problems

Malware scanning, Import/Export settings and Password protection

Block unwanted IP address to enter your website

Detects and stops the brute-force attacks

iThemes Security
iThemes Security

Plus Note – Here I am adding a plus note that will tell you about the basic features of an ace Security plugin.

The tools with the best features will surely provide you –

  • Malware detection – 

    The greatest threat for any website is the malware, hacking or any outsource attack from the threatening activities. So the tool that could provide the complete protection form the malware and hacking, can be the your ideal security plugin.

  • Malware Elimination – 

     As beautifully your plugin must be able to detect the malware, as beastily it must also be able to eliminate them as well. So in order to claim the best security plugin for wordpress, the tool must have the malware elimination feature in a proper manner.

  • Data backup –

    Believe it or not, the backup plugin can’t be a complete one with a proper data backup availability. So the plugin must also pose a complete data backup feature to take the backups of all the data that is created by the site. Though I also prefer the use of the plugins with great data availability.

  • Data Restore –

    Along with the data backup, data restoration is also the point where a plugin must be tested for. The best ones are the ones that provide data restore straight from the dashboard. So opt for the ones that could provide you the best data restoring options.

So in all these ways you can perform your overall wordpress security actions using these different forms of security plugins. Though the security plugins I have mentioned here are different from one another, yet there work field is same. But you can rate them according to their performance once you use them.

So in accordance to the features I have described here, you can use the type of plugin that best suits you. Thanks for reading my Blog, hope you’ll find some help in it.         

  

    

     

What is the Easiest way to perform a Complete WordPress Security Action for Your Website?

Sumit 4 months ago

WordPress Security Action
WordPress Security Action

Working with WordPress makes a sense of good professionalism, but at the same time it also has lots of responsibilities to take care of. If not, there can be problems regarding site and data management. So, now you know what I am trying to say right!

In addition to it, WordPress security is an in-trend term now. It is associated with the overall protection of the WordPress site you are creating, and thus the safety of the data inherited in it. So there arises the use of something that could make your data completely safe, but safe from what? Here are some of the options –

  • Data hacking – The most prominent danger for your website, hacking of data is related to the deletion, change, locking or any unauthorized manipulation done in your site’s data, either in the content or in the programming, thereby making it unworthy for you to use and thus getting the information illegally.
  • Incompatible plugins/themes – WordPress is all about the themes and plugins. The best way you will be able to use it, is the best way you can create your site. But any problem in the plugins can cause problem in your site as well. Like there can be site downtime, site crash or any other thing like that. Also your site’s functionality will be disturbed as well. So the use of highly compatible plugins is as must.
  • Human errors/Hosting issues – These are the most commonly occurring problems in any wordpress website. The hosting issues can occur anytime in a website. Especially when you are migrating your site or performing staging-like operations in it. There could sufficient source from which you can performing these complex like actions with it.
  • Server crashes/Storage issues – Whatever the reason is, the server crashes are always painful. So you must opt for better choices like backup dat or site clone for avoiding this. Similarly there can be storage issues, especially while creating big sites, as they have lots of data in it.  So either your WordPress must have lots of data space, or you should have a seperate proper arrangement for it.  
  • Accidents/Natural disasters – Here I am not talking about the natural accidents, but the once related to the site maintenance. Also there can be problems like battery shortage, sudden battery down, light off, or any other type. There must be prevention from any such type of problems.

What can be a helpful Answer to this?

A really helpful answer is the use of Data Backup plugins. Thay can provide all the solutions for the problems I have described above. Actually it can be a powerful solution for providing a complete wordpress security for your site. You are thus advised to use the best plugins for wordpress.

In addition to site security of WordPress,the plugin tool should be able to perform these actions preferably –

Improve your WordPress security
Improve your WordPress security

For eliminating any problem, first you gotta know the problem. The plugin must have daily automatic scanning feature. Automatic scanning will let you to regularly check for the site’s functions whether they are working properly or not. And also it checks for any problem that might occur in the site and damage it anyway.

The daily scanning can have many forms, like the quick scan, custom scan and the full scan types are common. Full scan usually is more helpful than the custom scan and the quick scan types, as it checks for all the areas of the site and its functions. So you can opt for this scan on regular basis.

Though this is to note that the scan time duration totally depends on the amount of data present in the site. So larger will the site, more will the scanning time duration.

  • Malware Removal –

So with the daily scanning you can easily find out any kind of malware that may be existing in your site. And once you will catch it, the following step will be the elimination of them. Search for the plugins that could provide you the best options for eliminating malware from your site. The best ones will be those with one-click malware removal technique.

There can be options like ‘Auto cleaning’, that could itself perform the actions to remove the malicious codes, virus or trojans that can harm your website and do damages like data loss, and dat lock etc.

Your plugin must also be able to give you alerts regarding the hacked files or notifications for it. BackupBuddy, BlogVault, Updraftplus are some of the best plugins that can provide you the malware removal options.

  • Awesome Site Security –

When you work in WordPress, you site is everything that need to protect. So the plugin need to have proper site security options for you. As they allow to harden the security walls for any hacker to get your confidential information details. The plugin must be able to detect the most complex hacks as well, and thus have awesome site security.

The plugins can clean your site of malware, clean the hacked files and notify you about the whole process as well. You must also be able to scan the site wherever you want, and the plugins must also have other important site security features as well.

Along with the site security, the navigation ability of the site must be good as well. The dashboard should be completely functional, also the backup features must be vibrant. So that you can save your data and use it anytime. The best part of this is, that you can access your data anytime from the plugins directly. Your site will be completely secure and safe.

So here I described about the easiest way to perform a complete WordPress security action for your website. Now it’s your choice to know the best plugins that could provide you all these features and help your site to give a worthy protection, the one that your creation deserves.

I hope you have liked my Blog, please share it with your friends as well.      

   

 

Why Scan Site for Malware Detection is Important and How it Can be Done?

Sumit 5 months ago

Why Malware Detection is Important?
Why Malware Detection is Important?

Digital marketing seems to look easy and simple from its surface, but is as complex in depth. There are so many things an associate has to deal with, in order to make things work good. Using wordpress is very common in terms of Blogging, site creation and adding content stuff in it.

Though anyone can use this platform for their content/site creation stuff, just have to be very quick on all of the problems that may occur during your site creation. The most threatening problem is, of the different malware that can attack and harm your system. So it’s your duty to protect your site from any kind of problem. But how will you do it?

Malware aren’t the one which can’t be prevented from entering your website. With proper detection and monitoring you can keep your site safe from any kind of hacking like problems. Here I will tell you about the best ways you can protect your WordPress site –

malware
malware

Site Scanning –

Performing site scanning for your website at regular intervals can be very effective in terms you want a full website protection for your WordPress. You know it that how much time and hard work it takes to create a website, and just one malware problem and you can have many problems regarding it.

Site scanning is a term associated with website’s security. It is the process in which a particular site is checked for any kind of problem occurrence in it. The process is done to know whether the site contains any malfunction or not. Scan site for malware detection is an old, yet very useful method for the detection of any problem.

You will easily check for the site’s functionality by performing site scanning process.

Let’s take you to know in depth about this function, to let you know more.

Today’s technology has become very advance, thereby creating different ways to perform the scanning of the website. Now there are many types of website scanning you can actually perform. Here I am describing them all –

  • Quick Scan –

    The most frequent types of scanning is the quick scan. It is the scanning of the active files and folders, and the common areas of as website. Though the chances for virus detection is small, yet not impossible in this type of scanning.      

  • Custom Scan –

    If you want to scan the files and catalogues separately, then you can opt for this scan type. This one is popular because it allows you to create your own scanning options. You are free to select the areas of website that you want to scan.

  • Full Scan –

    This is the most prominent scan types, that can help you to detect every single piece of problem that will(may) occur in your website. This scanning type is the one which checks for every data of the website, and detects the vulnerability if found.

What are the Common website Vulnerabilities?

Any WordPress website or simply site can undergo these vulnerability problem. Check them out here –

  • Site hacking –

    There are hackers present all around in the internet. You just have to be very alert form them if you want your site to be safe. This makes it the very first reason to perform different scanning techniques.

  • Security misconfiguration –

    The hackers try their best to get the site security details, including the server, platform, framework and back end database. Hackers can change the important informations if any security isn’t applied on the site.

  • Broken authentication –

    These are the website authority and session management vulnerabilities, usually occurs because of unprotected authentication credentials. These need to be secured on proper basis, as any problem may cause data loss like problems.

  • SQL Injection –  

    This is a common website hacking technique which is used by the malicious attackers to hack the site. They put the malicious code in the SQL statement of a webpage, and as a result can hack the information in the site’s database server.  

So in all these ways the website can be disturbed due to malware.

Source to perform Scanning –

When it comes to wordpress, you can use the different tools and software that are available for the website scanning purpose. Here are the different sources for it –

  • Website scanning tools –

    These are the software that are made for the website scanning. You can also have the third party tools that are made for these process. Its suggested to follow the best.

  • Data Backup plugin –

    These are the WordPress plugins, (both insource and outsource) that are made to have the data backups and site’s backup. The best ones offer all kinds of scanning for your website. BlogVault, Backupbuddy etc. are some of the examples.   

What will be the effect of scanning a website?

Basically, as it is related to security term, the most effective result will be regarding the security of the website. Lets point out these –

  • Website security –

    Your site will be secure of any malfunctioning and thus you will not face any issues like site misfunction, website crash, data loss etc.

  • Data protection –

    Your data will be completely protected and secure of any kind of threat if you opt for proper scanning types.

  • Site Monitoring –

    You will be able to detect all the things thats going on in the site, if your site will be affected by any virus, you can eliminate it.

So here was my blog describing about the malware security detection, the ways, the effects and the importance as well. Now it’s all up to you for selecting the best tool/plugin/software for your scanning purpose. You are suggested to look for all the features first and then to install the tool in your system.

I hope this Blog has find some help for you, Thanks for reading. Do share it with someone who needs this. 🙂

    

BlogVault Security Update

Akshat 1 year ago

On February 6, I had written a blog post regarding a possible security breach at BlogVault. Since then we have been conducting a thorough investigation into the issue. We have concluded the investigations. This post outlines its results.

 

No Data Breached

In our previous communication with you, we had mentioned that there had been a data breach. After detailed investigations, we found that the issue was a vulnerability in the BlogVault plugin, and none of the data on our servers were exposed.

We have ensured to cover every aspect of our system in our investigations, which involved inspecting the logs for our system as well as that of affected and unaffected sites. We also reviewed the attack payload with great detail.

 

BlogVault Plugin Vulnerability Fixed in Version 1.45

On Feb 4, we learned that we were using ‘unserialize’ PHP function on unverified data in BlogVault plugin versions 1.40 to version 1.44. We fixed it on the same day (Feb 4) with plugin version 1.45.

However, we had assumed the worst, and communicated with our customers the same day about the security issue. Following this, we also made a public announcement about it via a blog post.

Since then, we have thoroughly investigated the issue and analyzed our entire system. We have found that the the above mentioned vulnerability was the only entry point that allowed malware to be injected into sites on which the BlogVault plugin was reachable.

The BlogVault plugin has been secure ever since the updates on version 1.45.

However, we have continued to strengthen the security of our plugin and as of the date on which this post is published, the latest version of the BlogVault plugin is 1.46. If your BlogVault plugin is older than 1.46, we request you to update to the latest version available in the WordPress repository (https://wordpress.org/plugins/blogvault-real-time-backup/ ).

 

Your data and backups are safe

As mentioned in our previous communication, your backups and data were safe and continue to be safe. They were never at risk. This includes:

  • Your backups
  • Your passwords
  • Your payment details

Please find below the details of the measures we have taken during the investigation to bolster the security of our service:

 

Preventive Security Measures Implemented

As a reflection of our commitment to security best practices, we have taken a list of preventive security measures during the investigation to ensure that this incident doesn’t repeat itself.

  • Updates made with versions 1.45, and 1.46 of the BlogVault plugin were a part of the measures to strengthen the security of the plugin.
  • We have actively scanned all sites to identify websites affected by this issue and to get them cleaned and secure.
  • We have also pushed an automatic update to the BlogVault plugin on most sites.
  • Moreover, we have taken and continue to take measures to ensure that neither the BlogVault plugin nor the servers can be exploited.

 

Your Trust Continues to Be Important to Us

During this period, many of you who have reached out to us via our chat channels, email or even Twitter. We realize that you have not received the level of service on which we pride ourselves, and for this we apologize.

At BlogVault we are committed to being transparent and accountable to you. I know that we had received some questions about details regarding the issue. We were unable to respond to them because we had prioritized the security of the affected sites of our customers. We also wanted to ensure that we would refrain from adding to any speculations and only communicate facts.

We have set up an FAQs page that addresses some of the questions you might have regarding the security issue (these are different from the FAQs we received at first), and address the measures we have taken to secure sites. Please find the link to this page here. https://blogvault.net/security-updates-faqs/

The security of your sites and your trust is of utmost importance to us at BlogVault. Please reach out to us with any further queries you might have.

 

Thank You

You have been extremely understanding and generous to me and my entire team over this period; and we want to personally thank you for that.

Security is an ongoing process and we remain committed to making our service more robust.

 

Security Notification

Akshat 1 year ago

We recently discovered a security breach at BlogVault which led to some data being exposed. Here are some details about the issue. We are currently in the middle of an extensive investigation and we will share updates with more detail as and when we learn more about the issue.

 

Update to The Latest Version

To mitigate risks from the data exposure we have updated our plugin with additional security measures. If you are learning about this for the first time and you are a BlogVault user then please update to BlogVault plugin version 1.45 from the WordPress plugin repository.

 

An ‘Updates Page’ for Clear Communication

We have reached out to all our customers informing them about the situation. We have also set up a ‘Security Updates’ page to be communicative throughout the process. The page also has some FAQs and contact details. Please follow this link for more details: https://blogvault.net/help/info

 

app backup & restore

We understand that it can be frustrating for you; as it is for us, to not have all the information. We aim to be comprehensive in our response to the issue. Once we have safeguarded our customers’ data, and our investigation is complete we will be able to share more details. Security is essential for all even while an app backup & restore.

 

Lastly, we have reached out all BlogVault customers and we are deeply moved by the patience and understanding displayed by many of them. We are working round the clock and have prioritized safeguarding your data.

Common Attacks on WordPress Sites 101: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Ruby 2 years ago

Watching dominoes fall is always fun. And why wouldn’t it be? It’s a harmless, yet mesmerizing display of organized chaos. But if it did represent something harmful, there would be much reason to worry. Cross-site scripting attacks, at their worst, are the dominoes of common website vulnerabilities.

Cross-Site Scripting is a website attack that can be compared to dominoes falling, because of the damage it causes.
Once dominoes start falling, there’s no stopping them.

Cross-site scripting, generally known as XSS, is a type of Injection attack. It works a little differently from most other attacks, because of it in addition to exploiting WordPress websites and their servers, the attack also utilizes web browsers.

How it works in general

Cross-Site Scripting starts out the way most injection attacks (such as SQL Injection) do: by accepting user inputs. An attacker injects malicious scripts into good WordPress sites through a part of the website that accepts users’ inputs (like a comment field). So if an attacker could use, say malicious JavaScript code within “<script>… </script>” tags in the comment section, the code would run on the browser. This would allow the attacker access to any information they can glean from the visitor’s browser, from cookies to saved or entered login credentials.

How to prevent Cross-Site Scripting

There are a few sure ways to prevent XSS attacks on your WordPress site. Some of them include making sure that your:

  • Web browser makes use of the same origin policy- Web browsers usually have a set of rules, by which one web page is allowed to access script on another only if they had the same origin. If a browser doesn’t check the origin of the script of web pages, it results in a vulnerability that can be used by attackers to inject malicious scripts.  This means that users’ browsers would execute the code. All of this is moot though, if one of your website’s visitors uses a browser that doesn’t have this policy… in which case stricter security measures on your site would help.
  • Website can tell the difference between markup tags and actual content on a page– Web sites are vulnerable to XSS attacks when they can’t make out the difference between markup code and content that has to load on its pages. This means that if there were a piece of text, like an equation having the ‘<’ sign, and executable code (containing the <script> tag, the browser would mess them both up. This could be because the developers forgot to implement rules that dictated that “<” signs in text on the web page would be represented as “&lt;”. When this happens, the website is vulnerable.
  • Website has input validation and sanitization- None of this would happen if the standards of accepting users’ inputs were very high.

Categories of XSS attacks

Cross-Site Scripting is a very complex attack especially because of how it can be categorized. It can be put in buckets, based on the following criteria:

  1. Whether the malicious script (from users’ inputs) is stored-
    1. If the malicious script is stored on the website or browser’s database, the attack is categorised as a Stored (or Persistent) XSS attack.
    2. If it’s reflected to other visitors instead, it’s called a Reflected XSS (or Non-persistent) attack.
    3. There is also another kind of XSS attacks, called the DOM (Document Object Model)-based XSS attack that we’ll explain later some time.
  2. Which side accepts unvalidated user-inputs (this categorization overlaps the Stored and Reflected categorisation)-
    1. Server-side XSS attacks
    2. Client-side XSS attacks

Stored (or persistent) XSS Attack

Stored XSS usually occurs when user inputs are taken and stored in a database. In this case, the user is affected because unsafe data is run on the browser. Any attacker could input malicious code on a vulnerable website just once, and it would get stored (persistently) on the server. When any other user accesses the website, they would get affected. The malicious code infects the user’s browser, and retrieves sensitive data, (such as usernames and passwords) for any site the user might use the browser to visit. Here is what a Stored (or Persistent) XSS attack looks like:

Stored XSS attacks can cause a lot of damage. This image shows how one works, in general.
Stored XSS attacks can cause a lot of damage. This image shows how one works, in general.

One of the most well-known, real-world examples of this attack, is that of the MySpace worm of 2005. The worm was scripted in JavaScript to be self-propagating. So instead of just affecting people who visited the point of origin of the worm, it affected visitors of the original victims, thus propagating exponentially. Here’s how it loosely worked:

Samy Kamkar hacked MySpace in 2005, and introduced an XSS worm that took over 1 million profiles in 6 hours. It was an example of the scope of a Stored XSS attack.
Samy Kamkar hacked MySpace in 2005, and introduced an XSS worm that took over 1 million profiles in 6 hours.

This attack is precisely why we compared XSS attacks to dominoes falling.

Reflected (or non-persistent) XSS attack

Reflected XSS attacks are a different thing altogether. They are the most well-known sort of XSS, and can pose a serious threat, if not prepared for. Here’s a general example, to explain how this attack could work:

Reflected XSS is the more well-known sort of XSS attack.
Reflected XSS is the more well-known sort of XSS attack.

This attack could be used to do anything from launching a DDoS attack (as seen in the above example), to scanning the websites/ profiles/ browsers of every visitor to your website, for vulnerabilities that could later be exploited.

Cross-Site Scripting could use information from any website/web service you use.
Cross-Site Scripting could use information from any website/web service you use.

The Cross-site Scripting attack is one that has existed for a long time. Unfortunately, until the MySpace worm was created, not many in the realm of internet security took it very seriously. However, according to a report by WhiteHat Security in 2015, even 10 years after the MySpace worm, 47% of all websites are still vulnerable to this kind of attack. This attack relies on user inputs not being validated or sanitised before being processed. So the best way to protect your WordPress website, is to make sure that it doesn’t take your subscribers’ inputs lightly. This obviously means you should make sure that the plugins and themes on your site accepting user inputs validate them first. But even otherwise, choosing an extra security feature can never cause harm. If you’d like to try out a website scanner that is 100% accurate, requires no technical assistance, and also helps you remove hacks, visit MalCare.

Common Attacks on WordPress Sites 101: Backdoors

Ruby 2 years ago

Removing malware from your website, and getting rid of hacks is a painstaking process. When you’re a website owner whose site has been hacked, your online reputation takes a hit. It’s only more distressing when you keep getting hacked. The reason behind this, most of the time, is a ‘backdoor’.

Having a backdoor could be explained with some ease, by comparing it to something we could call a “spare-key situation”.

Suppose you had a spare key to your house, but you dropped it somewhere on your street. Someone creepy has found it, and unfortunately for you, this person also knows exactly where you live. Of course, you don’t know about it, but you notice changes at home.

Whether all the furniture in your house is gone, or whether the sofa is always a little warmer in the morning depends entirely on what this person with the spare key is doing in your house. This means unless you change your locks or employ other security measures, this stranger has full access to your home and will keep coming back.
Keyboard

Hackers also do something similar when they hack WordPress sites.

When a hacker exploits a vulnerability and hacks a site, they want to be able to enter it again in the future. They also want to do so, without needing to put in the effort again. This becomes difficult though if the site owner closes the vulnerability by updating the exploitable theme/plugin. That is why hackers leave behind code called backdoors on the site. This way, even if the vulnerability is fixed, the backdoor remains. Backdoors are inconspicuous because the longer they stay hidden, the longer the attacker has a way to get back in.
Backdoors can give hackers complete control over Arbitrary Code Execution. One of the most common backdoors is ‘Filesman’. Since it’s feature-rich, it allows hackers to perform a variety of functions. However, there are others too, which might be just three-four words of code, but prove to be equally dangerous.

A lot of the time, backdoors are disguised as WordPress files and are hidden by the hacker in a place only they know. You, as an admin, could find the file only if you combed through all the WordPress files. This is especially difficult because backdoors can go in so many different places.

Here are a few places backdoors are usually hidden on your WordPress site:

  1. In core WordPress folders: Adding a new file to, or modifying an existing file in a core WordPress folder (e.g. wp-includes or wp-admin or wp-content) can easily go unnoticed. Especially in the wp-includes folder, since it contains every file ever included to the site. This is why we noticed a lot of backdoors here.
  2. In new, innocent-looking folders: Hackers could add hack files to new files that look completely innocuous, like ./images/
  3. Plugins and Themes: Not many people bother to check these folders after the plugins/themes have been installed. This makes these folders a perfect target. Moreover, a lot of plugins have their own vulnerabilities. Another way hackers install backdoors is by adding a new plugin to the site that looks normal but is actually malware.

Just to give you a general idea, this is how you identify a backdoor (that looks like a plugin file):

Backdoor

These vulnerabilities are sneaky. They can be passed off by a number of malware scanners as legitimate files, because of the way they’re named. This is why it’s so difficult to identify backdoors.

Backdoors are especially infuriating because sometimes hackers choose to leave more than one of them, in many locations. So even if one was discovered, there would be another way in.
Accurate, efficient scanning and hack removal requires time, and technical assistance (which is expensive usually). If you’d like to test the only one-click, automated hack-cleaner that misses nothing, and sounds no false alarms, we suggest that you try MalCare, for free.