Preventing Damage from Malicious Code on Your WordPress Website

The question of security is the most important one for every web project, and WordPress website are not exceptions from this rule. The quality of your content, search engine optimization, customer support and all other comprehensive elements of work around a WordPress project could not be delivered to your audience properly, if your website has any type of malicious code. In other words, your website is hacked and is completely out of order, when some foreign code finds a way to implement itself within your project.

Fortunately, there are ways to prevent the appearance of any malicious code on your WordPress website. The prevention of hackers’ attack is much more effective and takes less time, effort and funds. Malicious code works like a disease, that is why the prevention actions are always better for the overall health of your project and its future.

We have gathered the most effective ways to prevent any malicious code within your WordPress projects in this article. These are plugins and services that help you to find any weaknesses onside a WordPress project and turn them into your strength. Moreover, these tools scan your website for any type of malicious code and find it before it can make any damage to your website performance. Check your WordPress website: if you do not have any of the listed above plugins (or their analogues), then it is time to think about the security of your WordPress website immediately.

Sucuri Security

Sucuri is the recognized leader among all anti-malware services. Sucuri has some limited scanning opportunities as a free WordPress plugin but the true power of anti-malware service can be seen only in paid version. You can use Sucuri right away as a free tool to scan your WordPress website for the signs of malicious code, or buy one of the annual service`s solutions starting from $199.99 per year. The first option can be helpful for the beginners but as soon as you want to develop your WordPress project you will recognize the need of having a strong security assistant in face of such professional service like Sucuri.

Sucuri represents the defensive options versus any type of malicious code in three ways: firewall, monitoring system and first aid for your website in case of a hackers` attack. The monitoring system is partly represented in the free version of product. With a free copy of Sucuri Security you can manually start the scanning process for your WordPress website and observe any weaknesses or existing pieces of malicious code right after the scan will end. Premium version of Sucuri adds options for automated scanning and various alerting options.

Sucuri firewall protects your web projects by blocking any suspicious activity on the level of DNS server. It means any potential attack on your website will be stopped even before it touches your website in any way. It is also important to mention, that Sucuri uses its own CDN servers to perform the work of the firewall. You and your website users would not see any changes in performance of the website even though the firewall will work at its full power.

Finally, Sucuri provides its premium users with a professional support that reacts immediately when you need any assistance in security issues. It could potentially happen, that despite of all preventive measures, your website will get some malicious code (more often, when you download it with some dangerous plugins by yourself). In this case you will get the first aid: Sucuri will clean your website from any signs of malicious code and let it work without losing at performance rates.

Wordfence

Wordfence is a free yet very good option to protect your WordPress website against malicious code and hackers` attacks. WordPress gives you an opportunity to scan your website for malicious code both manually and within automated planned actions. Wordfence also provides a WordPress administrator with useful piece of advice for each malware it find within your project. It can be especially handy for a beginner in the sphere of WordPress administration.

Wordfence has its firewall option too. It provides your website with initial defense against brute force attacks and automated injections of malicious code from the web. This firewall works on the application level and uses the resources of your website. It can cause some downsides in terms of website performance and the speed of page download. This question can become crucial for WordPress website which uses free or shared web hostings.

Anti-Malware Security

Anti-Malware Security is another powerful option to secure your WordPress website from malicious code for free. Like Wordfence, Anti-Malware Security provides scanning and firewall options for its users. This tool effectively searches not only for malicious code but also for hacking scripts, .htaccess threats, backdoors and other potential dangers your WordPress website stand against every day. The database of the plugin is constantly updating which allows it to deal with all types of potential threats.

Unfortunately, Anti-Malware Security provides its firewall on the application level too. It can be the reason of some losses in website`s speed and performance. However, this option is still better than running an unprotected but fast website which can be hacked at any moment and lose all of its performance at once and for a long time.

Conclusion

Each WordPress administrator should perform systematic scan of his web project on subject of malicious code. The common mistake is to wait until any visible sign of malicious code can be seen. Unfortunately, visible signs are victims of some very bad news. To prevent such bad news, scanning and firewall protection are the must-have pieces of defense you should think of beforehand.