Websites that have security holes have the potential to harm you. Irresponsible parties can hijack your important data. What’s more, website visitor data is also exposed to the same risk.
Therefore, this article will explain practical steps to find weaknesses in a WordPress website. However, first we will discuss the reasons behind the importance of looking for website security holes, aka vulnerabilities in WordPress.
Why is Finding WordPress Website Security Vaults Important?
Research by Sucuri Labs in 2019 showed that 60% of infected websites originate from security holes.
Still from the same research, it was found that WordPress was the most infected CMS (Content Management System) (as much as 94%).
Although indeed, the result above is due to the large number of WordPress users (52%) compared to other CMS users. But it cannot be denied, sites on WordPress do need extra security.
Here are some reasons why looking for vulnerabilities on a WordPress website is very important to do:
– Precautions – Every day your website is threatened with attack. Research shows that one hacker attack occurs every 37 seconds.
– Credibility – Imagine you are a visitor. Of course you will hesitate to return to a WordPress website that has a high level of vulnerability, right?
– Avoiding losses – Did you know? In 2018, the total losses caused by cyberattacks amounted to more than one trillion US Dollars.
How to Find Website Security Vulnerabilities in WordPress?
How to find website gaps can be different depending on the type of hosting you use.
For example, fully managed hosting such as shared hosting does not allow you to have special access to the server. However, the management is borne by the hosting provider. Thus, handling security holes becomes easier.
In contrast to self-managed hosting such as VPS or Dedicated hosting. Even though you can handle the management yourself, you have to consider the various obligations that must be borne when managing the server yourself.
Therefore, next we will explain how to find security holes for vulnerable websites based on fully managed and self-managed hosting types.
Handling Website Security Gaps at Fully Managed Hosting
Fully managed hosting only allows you to look for website weaknesses at the surface level. Thus, you cannot perform a more in-depth security audit.
The best option you can make at this stage is to take advantage of a website vulnerability scanner. An example of a tool that you can use is the free website security check from Sucuri.
This tool will display the status of your website, especially if it is infected with malware and blacklisted by search engines.
Apart from that, the security level of your website will also be measured using a scale – from minimal to critical.
Don’t worry, there are many website security plugins available in the WordPress plugin directory. In this case, you can use the Sucuri or WordFence plugins to clean your website from malware infections.
After cleaning the malware, your website may still be blacklisted from Google.
The solution is, you can ask Google to review your website through the Google Search Console. But remember, this can only be done if your website has been verified on Google Search Console.
Looking for Website Security Gaps in Self-Managed Hosting
With Self-managed hosting, you have full control over the management of your website server. So, you can look for website security vulnerabilities in more detail through a security audit.
The security audit itself consists of three stages, namely: server audit, database audit, and CMS audit. Here are the reviews:
– Server audits
The first thing you need to do is audit the server first. So, your website has a secure base.
– Database Audits
Next, you need to conduct a database audit to protect your website data.
– Application and CMS audits
Lastly, you should audit the outermost parts – namely the application and CMS.
Let’s Try How to Find Your WordPress Website Security Gaps!
As a WordPress website owner and manager, you need to know how to secure your website. Start by looking for website security vulnerabilities.
In this article, you have learned several ways to find loopholes in WordPress websites. The simplest way is to use a website vulnerability scanner, and a more detailed way is to do a security audit.
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