According to research conducted by Wordfence, plugins are the root cause of most WordPress website hacks because hackers know how to exploit the fact that not all WordPress plugins are secure. In fact, plugins account for nearly 60% of all WordPress breaches, meaning they have the potential to be your biggest security enemy.
Some of the common ways hackers take advantage of your site is bad and not updated plugins. What they do is:
- Place links on your site to boost their own SEO
- Install malicious code onto your site
- Redirect your site visitors to other sites
- Using your server resource for things like spam email and DDos attacks
As you can see, there are several ways a hacker can break into your site, however, there are several ways to prevent plugin and security breaches on your website.
1. Back Your Site Up Regularly. If you don’t already do so, make sure you back up your site often. You should have an option to backup your full website and home directory. Make sure both are backed up along with your database. If you have a managed WordPress hosting, backups are done automatically every day and have the ability to restore from any date prior to an infection or breach.
2. Check Your Plugins Vulnerability. If you check out WPScan Vulnerability Database, you will be able to see an entire list of plugins posing security threats to those with WordPress websites. You can search by plugin name to see if a particular one has made the list, or simply search the list in alphabetical order. If you notice a plugin that you use is on the list, make sure there is no update resolving the vulnerability before taking action. If no solution has been applied, you might want to delete that plugin from your website and find a replacement that doesn’t open your site up to hackers. With a managed WordPress hosting plan, plugins will be removed automatically and an email will notify you about the vulnerability with the plugin.
3. Update Your Plugins and Remove Unused Ones. Always make sure your website’s plugins are updated. Updates typically improve the plugin and patch possible security issues, both of which you want to take advantage of. Deactivating a plugin on your website and letting it sit untouched gives hackers the perfect opportunity to break in and use it to run malicious code on your website. If you don’t plan on using a plugin anymore, simply delete it.
Plugins are great and extend the functionality of the design of your website and adds a lot of value to your site. However, failing to recognize threats can pose a lot of harm to your site. That is why it is important to do your research on plugins before you randomly place them onto your site.
If you want to make things a lot easier, look into a manged WordPress hosting plan as it will keep your plugins up to date and remove any security vulnerabilities issues. Along with the security, backup as done automatically every 24 hours. Our hosting plans is consist of a managed WordPress solution.
Give us a call at 215-723-3495 to talk about more over to a managed WordPress solution or fill out the form to the right.