Setting up a WordPress site takes less than 10 minutes with all the essential plugins but hours to fix a small bug or error.
Wouldn’t you want to save those extra hours? I am assuming your answer is Yes.
You can easily save those extra hours or work by taking 10 minutes out of your schedule and scan your website for malwares and threats.
There are ton of free & paid tools that helps to protect our WordPress site from malwares & malicious code. In this article, I am going show how you could scan your WordPress based site for malwares, threats and other unwanted code with these 4 free WordPress tools.
Antivirus
Antivirus is a great free plugin which scans your website for malicious code and protect your blog install against exploits, malware and spam injections. This plugin comes with a great set of features and allows you to run daily scan with email notifications.
This is one of the must have plugins for WordPress blog.
Theme Authenticity Checker
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) searches the source files of every installed theme for signs of malicious and unwanted code. The plugin search for the malicious code in the themes only and if any such code is found, it gives the path to the theme file and the line number.
Exploit Scanner
Exploit Scanner is another great plugin which searches the files on your website, and the posts and comments tables of your database for anything suspicious. It is much better than the Theme Authenticity checker as it search for malicious code in the database.
The plugin doesn’t remove any malicious file. If found any malicious code, it is left to the user.
Sucuri
Sucuri is one of the best WordPress security companies on the web, today. They have amazing team of developers & WordPress experts, that work hard to keep your WordPress site secure.
The popular security company is owned by Dre Armeda, the same guy behind the soon to be launched WordPress Podcast site – DradCast.
Sucuri has a great site scanner for normal users, who can’t afford to pay the fee and it checks the website for known malware, blacklisting status, website errors, and out-of-date software.
I haven’t tested the sucuri premium, personally but have heard good things about it.
I entered wpkube.com to see & test, how this little tool works…
Did I missed any plugin or service? Have you tried any of the plugin or service for your WordPress based site? Please let us know in the comments below.
you missed WordFence
ah.. seems like a great solution. Thanks for sharing, ovizii.
Wow, this is great. I have a web site too. So i can surely try this. I was not concern about it. This is a nice news for me.
Thanks for sharing.
That’s great to hear, Showrav. Thanks for stopping by.
Nice post!
Just a few days ago I had an attack due to malware and fortunately I was able to restore everything. Sucuri I was really help me.
Glad you liked the post, Fabrizio. Thanks for stopping by.
WOW I had no idea I should put an anti virus on my wordpress. Is there a way to see if there is already something set up for this? Also Do I just pick one I see that you have listed several here today Devesh? I did download the first one you mentioned above the wordpress anti virus, I Figured since this was the first one you talked about that it must be the best AM I correct to assume this? Thanks for sharing Chery
Hi Chery,
So glad to see you here, thanks so much for coming over and leaving a nice comment. All these are great plugins & services. The first one is fantastic and has a ton of features, so it’s good to know that you’re using the Antivirus plugin.
I would also advice you to check out other tools such as Sucuri & Exploit Scanner.
Have a great week ahead, Chery.
I’ve always suspected there could be more going on with themes. I only wish these could work for blogger. Do u have any ideas?
Yes, there’s a tool that suspects for malwars in themes. It’s called ‘Theme Authenticity Checker’ and I did included that in the post.
I’ve no idea about blogger. Haven’t used since 2009.
Thanks for stopping by, Rosemary.
Great information. This is one of those areas that is so easily overlooked, and yet it can bring us to a complete standstill – I know because my blog got hit last year. Thankfully I didn’t lose any valuable content, but it took me nearly 2 weeks to get everything completely back to “normal.” Now I’m probably overly protected, but at least I have peace of mind – well as much as you can have on the Internet these days
Hi Marquita,
So sorry to hear about that, Herald. I can only imagine what nightmare it may have caused to you & your blog.
yes – it’s much better to have overly protected blog, than waking up one day & knowing that your site has been hacked or infected.
Thanks so much for coming over here and sharing your insights.
Hi Davesh, I’d never considered that my blog would be exposed to malware – I’m glad that you brought it to my attention. Yes – I definitely want to save time and protect it before it’s too late. I appreciate all of the resources that you shared!
Dena Lynn
Hi Dena,
Glad you liked the resources and It’s good to know that you’re taking action before it’s too late.
Thanks for the nice comment, Dena. Have a great week ahead.
What about VaultPress?
I am not a big fan of VaultPress and never tested their service.
Hey Devesh,
WowWow, this is a great source for what is so important to keep the WP blog clean…. we can surely take a closer look to all your sources. It is not easy to find what you want and be safe to get it, but coming from you, it feels ok and for certain give a shot soon.
Thanks again for sharing.
nickc
Hi Nick,
So glad to hear that, thanks for the nice comment.
Nice tips here, Davesh.
I’m one of those people who rarely thinks about security, but I know I’m playing with fire.
My excuse is that I’m not “techie”, I suppose, but with plugins like these, all the tech headaches seem to dissolve.
Just one other thing I’m always leery about though, and that is how much of an overload on my blog it is to upload too many plugins, or which ones are less taxing on my blog than others.
Hi David,
Glad you liked the tips. I don’t think tech headaches can be dissolved easily, the best way to keep your blog secure is by taking a full backup every week. I have been doing this for last 12 months and it’s the only way to make sure you are on the safe side.
None of these plugins will going to have any big impact on your WordPress site.
Thanks for stopping by, David.
The podcast from the Securi guys is actually the “DradCast”…sorry to be that guy. DreadCast just makes it sound dark, which if they’re talking about viruses may be fitting
Haha DreadCast
.
Thanks for pointing that out, John. Much appreciated.
Hi Davesh,
Thank you for enlightening us on how to protect out site, I will give the link of this article to my wemaster. Thanks again for showing us the way to do it and the names of the plug ins!
Hi Patricia,
That’s awesome to hear, can’t wait to read your wemaster post. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a nice coment.
Wow … I thought I was a real WordPress Geek and I have not heard or used and of these plugins that you have mentioned here. Fabulous share I salute you and I will be back here again. I found your site via the Biz Blogging community and I’m delighted I did. Have a great weekend and thanks again for this sharing, I appreciate it
Hi Sadie,
Thanks so much for coming over here and leaving a nice comment. I am so happy that I finally started engaging in communities like B3
.
Have a great week ahead.
Great article! We’re just about to release our automated security scanning tools at wpstatus.com, if anyone is interested, I’d love to get your thoughts on it. We do daily scans of WP sites and if malware is detected you get notified instantly.
Hi Devesh,
thank you so much for sharing these great ways of checking our blogs.
It is always good to have a recommendation on what to use.
I appreciate your overview of the tools you mention.
Cheers,
Yorinda
Thanks Devesh,
I will try the above mentioned steps on my site.
I have read some places there are few sites hacked and hard to backup.
This is great information, I will be keep visiting to your site for more good information.
Thanks
Pradeep