WordPress Security Audits: What They Are & How to Do One

Your WordPress website is constantly receiving traffic, and keeping it safe is an ongoing process. Several things often pose a threat to the security and functionality of the website. From some plugins becoming outdated, users with weak passwords to changes in you we hosting settings, they may all pose some form of a threat. With a WordPress security audit, you can pinpoint where these threats are and take measures to safeguard your website. Here is a brief guide on how to perform a security audit and keep your website intact.

What is a WordPress Security Audit?

A WordPress security audit is a process that involves checking your site for signs of a security breach. It is not just about checking the health of your website, but looking for suspicious activity, unusual drops in performance, and malicious code. A few things can signal that it is time to conduct a security audit of your WordPress site:

• The website suddenly becomes slow and sluggish
• You see suspicious links appear on the website
• You identify suspicious new accounts, login attempts, or forgotten password requests
• You notice a significant drop in website traffic

How to Conduct a Security Audit?

Conducting a security audit of your WordPress website is not just a necessary task, but something you need to safeguard your website and its content. Depending on the website activity and signs you have noticed on the website, you may need to do the audit more often. The approach can be manual or automatic.

Manual WordPress Security Checklist

If you are looking for a simplified guide on how to perform a security audit and keep everything in good condition, here is a checklist you can use:

• Update WordPress Core, Plugins, and Themes: This will patch security vulnerabilities and improve performance by bringing new features. To make the update, visit the Dashboard > Updates page inside the WordPress admin area.
• Check User Accounts and Passwords: The next thing you need to do is to review WordPress user accounts. Do this by visiting the Users > All Users page and checking for any suspicious user accounts.
• Run a WordPress Security Scan: Next, check for any security vulnerabilities using online security scanners like IsItWP Security Scanner. This will allow you to check your website for malware and other security vulnerabilities.
• Check Your Website Analytics: As an indicator of your website’s health, website analytics help track traffic and any performance changes. For instance, if your website has been blacklisted by search engines, you may see a sudden drop in your website traffic. Similarly, a slow or unresponsive site will see the overall page views drop, prompting you to take action.
• Set Up and Check WordPress Backups: This will ensure that you always have a backup of your WordPress site in case anything goes wrong.

Automatic WordPress Security Checklist

The security audit process needs to be thorough to ensure your website is not vulnerable. However, conducting all the steps manually may not always be feasible. For instance, it is difficult to keep a manual record of all user activity, suspicious codes, file differences, and more. To make sure all these tasks are properly and effectively completed, you will need a plugin to automate your site’s security auditing.

The only steps needed in this case are to install a security plugin such as Sucuri and activate it. Once activated, you can set up the plugin to automatically conduct security audits of your website. This will usually check on various issues that could make your website vulnerable and recommend actions to ensure the website is secure.

Hire a WordPress Maintenance Service

While conducting a WordPress security audit can be automated with a plugin, you may still need an expert to review your site, especially if it is large or has high traffic. The process is often time-consuming and complicated, given all the issues that must be considered. Hiring our services at WP Depend will ensure continuous monitored for security and functionality. Get in touch with us today or a personalized plan for our website.