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WordPress Security Audit
A WordPress security audit consists of inspecting your website for potential security vulnerabilities and resolving them as soon as you find them. These vulnerabilities can range from weak usernames and passwords to outdated plugins and themes.
Many website owners and administrators mistakingly see security as a one-off chore. They don’t do a security audit, and only really look at security when their site is hacked or some other problem appears.
So the routine you need to get into is regular security audits of your WordPress website, this way you can keep your website safe and secure from malicious hackers, (for some reason there are always hackers queing up to attack your website).
Consistent and regular security audits make your website much less vulnerable to attacks.
Now read the Webbsite guide to a WordPress Security Audit of your WordPress website. After following the below guidelines you will be on the path to safe hosting of your WordPress website.
1. WordPress Security Plugin
Which WordPress security plugin should you use. Well if you look at the image of ‘All in one WordPress Security & Firewall’ it seems to have all the right credentials to do the job, and is the first step towards running your first security audit. You should consider adding a security plugin to your website if you are not already using one, if you already have one installed check the developers website for these features…
Updated recently means the plugin is still supported by the developer, and isn’t what’s known as an abandoned plugin
Active installations means it works, as people wouldn’t use it if it didn’t work.
Ratings is always a good guide to the quality of anything and that’s equally true with WordPress plugins.
WordPress version is similar to latest WordPress update.
If the plugin you are using fails this simple and relatively quick audit, consider changing it. We recommend which ever security plugin you use its actively supported by the developer, is regularly updated and has high satisfaction rating of the users.
2. Removal of unused plugins and unsupported plugins
With so many WordPress plugins on the market that help increase capabilities or design of your website, its inevitable somewhere down the line you’ll pick a ‘bad one’, maybe it will become unsupported by the developer who maybe moves on to a new more exciting project.
Any software can become faulty and these plugins can also develop issues over time, vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malicious hackers who are waiting to attack your website.
Developers are constantly releasing updates and patches for vulnerable plugins, during your security audit make sure all software and plugins are up-to-date. You can accomplish it by going to the Dashboard > Updates on the WordPress admin panel.
WordPress Updates
Also, don’t forget to delete any unused plugins to decrease attack opportunities for hackers on your website, if you’re using pirated versions of plugins, delete them, since they may contain malware and quite often they do, there are some safe plugin repositories where you can get plugins and themes.
3. WordPress Backup
Check if your website is being backed up regularly is the next step in your security audit. Backups come in handy if anything goes wrong. For example, you can use the backup for restoring your site back to normal in case of any type of attack or corruption of files.
Backup testing is vitally important, what if one day when you’re trying to restore a hacked website your backup fails? This would be disaster for your website and business. Either you can go for manual backup or install plugins for automatic backups. If you are a novice to taking backups manually, you are recommended to use plugins like UpdraftPlus and WPClone to automatically take a complete backup of your site. In addition, remember to test if your backups successfully restore data.
4. User Role Security Audit
There can be more than one contributor for developing and maintaining a WordPress website.
Therefore, it becomes essential to define each contributor’s role and accordingly provide them access rights. For example, there is no need to give access to making changes like installing and deleting plugins to the writer who only needs access to write.
During a security audit, you are advised to examine all user roles, determine who actually needs admin access, and grant lower access rights to the users who do not require them.
Also, you need to make sure that the default admin credentials are changed for example if the administrator of your website uses the username ‘admin’ this username or any easy guessed usernames should never be used. You can follow this simple guide on changing the default WordPress username.
5. Unused WordPress Themes Installed
Delete any themes that you are not using, as themes just like plugins can develop vulnerabilities.
Lots of website owners seem unaware of this and tend to leave the unused WordPress themes installed.
Only keep themes installed that you are using and delete the remaining ones, while making sure that the themes being used are continually updated within one week of an update becoming available. This helps ensure the security of your website.
6. Audit Hosting Provider and Plan
The hosting provider and plan is the next item in your WordPress security audit. Shared hosting has really made people’s life a lot easier with the cheaper and customized plan for small WordPress sites.
Shared hosting also has its disadvantages such as your site might get malware infection by an already infected site on the same server. Thus, shared hosting may be right when you begin, but as you grow you might want to upgrade to a dedicated server to protect your website from security issues arising due to shared hosting.
7. Check users who have FTP access
File Transfer Protocol helps you to connect remotely to your WordPress website server for making changes. Since FTP lets you add, modify and delete files on your site server, you should only provide the access to those who absolutely need it and those you trust.
During your WordPress security audit, you’re advised to examine the list of FTP users and change your FTP password(s) if required.
8. Finally
WordPress security audits can be performed by carrying out just seven easy tasks. It is recommended to run the audit a minimum of once a year but preferably twice. If doing a manual audit seems beyond your skill set we recommend you seek professional assistance.