What are the Myths Associated with WordPress Plugins?

WordPress is the most popular platform for developing all kinds of websites and it also has a huge community of users surrounding it which spend considerable amount of time sharing information, resources, and tips with other WordPress users online. You can easily guess that online security is one of the main concern for so many WordPress website owners. Therefore a lot of the online conversation about WordPress centers around the best possible ways to keep your site safe and secure from hackers. Although most of the WordPress site users do their best and have good knowledge but still there are few myths about WordPress security which keep on spreading among users and there are many things which don’t make the website secure. If you are a WordPress user then now you must be knowing that its popularity makes it favorite target for hackers. Hence you have to install various security plugins to increase your site’s security against hacker attacks and vulnerabilities.

But the question here is whether you know which security plugins you should install? And how many plugins you actually require to protect your website? The reality is that most of the WordPress users don’t understand the role of each WordPress security plugins clearly.

In this article, I will help you to understand some important things which you should remember before selecting a plugin for your website.

First let us look at the current WordPress plugin ecosystem.

WordPress Plugin Ecosystem

Most of the WordPress users wants to secure their website but most of them think that simply installing a security plugin will make their site secure and safe from hacking attempts. Some of the users also thing that by installing more security plugins they can make their website more secure. But this is not a right thinking. So many people also don’t understand the full scope of WordPress security plugins and how they can make their website safe and secure from attacks.  Hence it is important for you to know about the types of security plugins available online alongwith their scope.

Understanding WordPress Plugins and WordPress Security

When you are going to select any security plugin then do remember that there’s no single plugin which can cover all the security aspects of your WordPress site.  Hence you may need to select more than one plugins to meet these following goals:-

• Making your website safe from brute force attacks.
• Enhancing your WordPress website security.
• Creating a layer of protection around your site.
• Enabling you to monitor your WordPress site for vulnerabilities.

If you will keep the above points in mind then it will help you in selecting the right and appropriate security plugins for your WordPress site. It will also enhance your site’s security by removing the major loopholes in the site which can lead to opening of various door to the hackers.

Now let’s discuss the above points one by one:-

Making your website safe from brute force attacks

 Whenever there is a need to create s username and password of the site, the WordPress owners should use complex and secure username and passwords but many of the people don’t follow this. That’s why hackers can launch brute force attacks on on such sites. If your username and password is complex and hard to guess then it will be difficult for hackers to access your site. Still in some cases hackers might break into your website. But you can safeguard your website from getting hacked by brute force attacks by using plugins like Brute Force Login Protection, Login Security Solution or Clef Two-Factor Authentication.

Enhancing your WordPress website security by using Security Plugin

There are some old plugins in the WordPress plugins repository which although won’t help you in protecting your website from malicious attacks but can help to remove the loopholes that hackers often use to get access of a WordPress site. These plugins are also useful in case your website gets hacked.

These plugins which help in enhancing the WordPress website security also automate the process of keeping database backup, changing the login page URL or WordPress sites, secure login process to the admin panel etc. For example:- iThemes Security, WordFence Security and BulletProof security are the best plugins which can enhance the security of your site. You can learn more about how to enhance your WordPress website security by reading this post on Hardening WordPress on official WordPress site

Creating a layer of protection around your site by using Security Plugins

There is not any single plugin which can ensure the security of your WordPress website. But still you have to do something. One best way is to create a defense layer or parameter around your site to stop any kind of attacks to occur. You can do so by installing a plugin which can enable a firewall on your site. The main purpose of using a firewall is to filter out the unauthenticated users from the incoming traffic to your website. Some of the best firewall security plugins are Simple Security Firewall and All in One WP Security & Firewall.

Enabling you to monitor your WordPress site for vulnerabilities using Security Plugin

Now let’s discuss one more category of plugins which is ignored by most of the users i.e. Using a security plugin enabling you to monitor your WordPress site for vulnerabilities and saving an audit log file carrying all the things that happening on your website. Even if you follow best security practices still there is a chance that your site might get attacked by hackers. Hence it is best to check your website for malware and vulnerabilities regularly and making sure that everything is right on your website. For this you can use plugins like Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner etc. Using the WordPress Security Audit Log plugin, you can get an audit log file carrying all the changes taking place in your WordPress site.

Conclusion

We have just discussed the biggest myths and concerns related with the WordPress plugins ecosystem about which each of WordPress website owner should be familiar with. Now you must have understood how you can use the popular or older security plugins to enhance the security of your WordPress site. There is not a single security plugin to give your site all kind of protection but you can use a mix of security plugins to achieve your goals of protecting your website up to maximum level.