WordPress Multisite is a powerful feature that allows you to manage multiple websites from a single WordPress installation. It’s an excellent solution for businesses, educational institutions, and organizations with great power comes great responsibility, and the need to manage several sites efficiently. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and security is a critical concern when using WordPress Multisite. In this article, we’ll explore whether WordPress Multisite is really secure and provide essential security tips to help you protect your network.

Understanding WordPress Multisite Security

WordPress Multisite shares the same core codebase as a standard WordPress installation, which means it inherits many of the same security vulnerabilities. However, because Multisite allows multiple websites to operate under one umbrella, the risks can be amplified. A single vulnerability in one site can potentially compromise the entire network.

Key Security Risks in WordPress Multisite:

1. Shared Resources: All sites in a Multisite network share the same database, plugins, themes, and core files. If one site is compromised, the attacker could gain access to the entire network.
2. User Management: Multisite allows users to register and create sites. If not configured properly, this can lead to unauthorized access or malicious users creating spam sites.
3. Plugin and Theme Vulnerabilities: A vulnerable plugin or theme activated across the network can expose all sites to attacks.
4. Increased Attack Surface: With multiple sites, there are more entry points for attackers to exploit.
5. Complexity: Managing security for a Multisite network is more complex than securing a single site, requiring advanced knowledge and tools.
6. Plugin and Theme Management – Plugins and themes are shared across the network, making it crucial to ensure that all installed add-ons are secure and regularly updated.
7. Data Isolation – While sites share the same database, WordPress uses table prefixes to separate site data. However, a database breach could expose all sites within the network.
8. Centralized File Storage – Media uploads and core files are shared across all subsites, which could pose security risks if not properly managed.

Is WordPress Multisite Really Secure?

The short answer is: Yes, WordPress Multisite can be secure, but only if you take the necessary precautions. Out of the box, WordPress Multisite is not inherently more secure than a standard WordPress installation. However, with proper configuration, regular maintenance, and robust security practices, you can significantly reduce the risks.

Essential Security Tips for WordPress Multisite

To ensure your WordPress Multisite network remains secure, follow these best practices:

1. Keep WordPress Core, Themes, and Plugins Updated

• Regularly update WordPress core, themes, and plugins to patch known vulnerabilities.
• Enable automatic updates for minor releases to ensure your network stays up-to-date.

2. Use Trusted Plugins and Themes

• Only install plugins and themes from reputable sources like the WordPress repository or trusted developers.
• Avoid using nulled or pirated plugins/themes, as they often contain malicious code.

3. Implement Strong User Roles and Permissions

• Limit user access by assigning appropriate roles (e.g., Administrator, Editor, Author).
• Use the Network Admin role sparingly, as it has access to all sites in the network.
• Disable user registration if it’s not necessary, or restrict it to trusted users.

4. Enable SSL for All Sites         

• Install an SSL certificate to encrypt data transmitted between your server and users.
• Use tools like Let’s Encrypt to provide free SSL certificates for all sites in your network.

5. Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

• A WAF can block malicious traffic and protect your network from common attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).
• Consider using a cloud-based WAF like Cloudflare or Sucuri.

6. Regularly Backup Your Network

• Perform regular backups of your entire Multisite network, including the database and files.
• Use plugins like UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy to automate backups and store them offsite.

7. Monitor and Audit Your Network

• Use security plugins like Wordfence or iThemes Security to monitor your network for suspicious activity.
• Regularly audit user accounts, plugins, and themes to ensure they’re secure and up-to-date.

8. Harden WordPress Security

• Change the default wp_ table prefix during installation to make it harder for attackers to guess your database structure.
• Disable file editing in the WordPress dashboard by adding define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); to your wp-config.php file.
• Limit login attempts to prevent brute force attacks using plugins like Limit Login Attempts Reloaded.

9. Isolate Sites When Necessary

• If certain sites require higher security, consider isolating them by using separate databases or hosting environments.
• Use plugins like WP Engine’s Multisite Security Tool to restrict access between sites.

10. Train Your Users

• Educate site administrators and users about security best practices, such as using strong passwords and avoiding phishing scams.
• Encourage the use of two-factor authentication (2FA) for added security.

11. Secure Your Server

• Ensure your hosting environment is secure by using a reputable hosting provider that specializes in WordPress.
• Configure server-level security measures, such as firewalls, malware scanning, and intrusion detection systems.

12. Disable Unused Features

• Disable features like file editing, plugin/theme installation, and user registration if they’re not needed.
• Use the wp-config.php file or a security plugin to restrict access to these features.

Conclusion

WordPress Multisite can be a secure and efficient way to manage multiple websites, but it requires careful planning and ongoing maintenance. By following the security tips outlined above, you can significantly reduce the risks and protect your network from potential threats. Remember, security is not a one-time task but an ongoing process. Stay vigilant, keep your software updated, and regularly audit your network to ensure it remains safe and secure.

With the right precautions, WordPress Multisite can be a powerful tool for managing your online presence without compromising on security.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article!

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The post Is WordPress Multisite Really Secure? Security Tips You Must Know appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

Having a tool to protect your site will certainly give you peace of mind. Checking and stopping malware, preventing hackers, protecting your site from brute force attack, SL injections, or any kind of security threat – there are so many security jobs that a WordPress security plugin does to safeguard your WordPress website from any kind of harm.

Here, we have listed 10 of the best free WordPress security plugins for 2020.

Jetpack by WordPress

Jetpack – WP Security, Backup, Speed, & Growth

Jetpack, unarguably the most popular WordPress security plugin, has over 5 million active installations. The plugin takes care of your website’s security, guards it against brute force attacks, and prevents any unauthorized logins.

This security plugin protects your site brute-force attacks, filters spams, and monitors downtime. You can also keep the backup of your site (premium) in real-time or daily. The plugin also secures your website with two-factor authentication. Besides, Jetpack also scans malware, code, and automated threats to make sure your site remains safe from them.

Not just that, Jetpack keeps a record of every single change that is done on your site so that you can easily find out the problem if any troubleshooting occurs.

Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan

Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security

Wordfence Security is one of the most popular free WordPress firewall and scanner plugins with over 3 million active installations. It has its Threat Defense Feed Wordfence that provides you with several layers of security to protect your website.

Its Web Application Firewall recognizes malicious traffic and blocks them. It enables deep integration with WordPress to protect your WordPress website at the endpoint. You can also blacklist and block malicious IPs’ traffic. You can also protect your site from brute force attack by restricting login attempts.

The plugin works as the WordPress security scanner on your site as it checks your themes, plugins, and core files for malware, malicious redirects, and bad URLs. And it alerts you if it finds any security vulnerability on your site.

When it comes to login security, Wordfence offers two-factor authentication and login page CAPTCHA.

The plugin lets you manage the security of multiple sites from one place. You can access the security status of your multiple sites from a single place and get notified of security issues.

This free WordPress security plugin is full of security tools; you can monitor live traffic and hack attempts from its analytics. Its premium version has a country blocking option as well.

All In One WP Security & Firewall

All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall

All In One WP Security & Firewall is an easy-to-use free WordPress security plugin that will add that one extra layer of security and firewall on your WordPress site. The plugin mitigates the security risk as it checks the vulnerabilities and implements the latest WordPress security practices.

The plugin has a unique and reliable security points grading system with which you will have an idea about how secure your website is. This grading system is calculated based on the security features that you have turned on your site.

The plugin uses a login lockdown to protect your site against the brute force login attack. You can also monitor and view all user accounts’ activities with other details like IP address, username, login/logout date and time, and so on.

In short, All In One WP Security & Firewall provides you with user accounts security, user login security, user registration security, database security, file system security, htaccess and wp-config.php file backup and restore option, comment spam security, brute force login attack prevention, front-end text copy protection, and so on.

Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening

Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening

Sucuri is widely popular in every topic related to website security, particularly WordPress security. This free Sucuri WordPress security plugin offers so many security features like activity auditing, file integrity monitoring, blacklist monitoring, effective security hardening, post-hack security actions, remote malware scanning, and more. And its premium version comes with website firewall.

Here is a detailed guide to beginner-friendly WordPress security guide for you.

iThemes Security

Solid Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection

Formerly called Better WP Security, iThemes Security is a free WordPress security plugin that secures your website from hacks, spam attacks, and other security vulnerabilities.

The plugin secures your website by locking down your site if any suspicious activity happens on your site. It fixes common holes, stops automated spam attacks, and also reinforces user credentials.

If you go for its pro version, you will get additional security features, including two-factor authentication, WordPress salts and security keys, malware scan scheduling, password security, password age expiration, Google reCAPTCHA, and so on.

Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-cerber/

Cerber Security is a free WordPress security WordPress plugin that defends your website against spams, hacking attacks, malware, and trojans. The plugin will reduce the brute force attacks by restricting the number of login attempts through forms, using XML-RPC / REST API, and by using cookie-based authentication.

With this plugin, you can also track the users and their activity with emails or mobile/desktop notification. To stop the spam, Cerber Security free WordPress plugin uses an anti-spam engine and reCAPTCHA, which will help your site get protected from the contact form and comment spamming.

Besides, this free WordPress security plugin provides your site with an advanced malware scanner, file monitoring, integrity checker, access restriction option with black and white API access lists.

Shield Security

Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking & Intrusion Prevention Security

Shield Security is a free WordPress security plugins that people have loved more than any other security plugins. It is rated the highest among the popular security plugins, and for good reasons.

This free security plugin is super easy-to-use; you can simply activate it and let it take care of the security of your website. But, of course, you can dig deeper as you become familiar with it.

Unlike most other noisy security plugins, it does not ping you every time something happens. Instead, it does the security task sincerely and notify you when you really need to get notified of something.

Some of its major security features include login attempts limitations, automatic blocking of brute force bots, core file scanning, blacklisting IP automatically, two-factor authentication, reCAPTCHA,  https headers, firewall, and more.

WP Hide & Security Enhancer

WP Hide & Security Enhancer

Compared to other WordPress security plugins, WP Hide & Security Enhancer is quite different. It hides your WordPress core files, login pages, WordPress themes, and plugins from being displayed. Others, including hackers, competitors, and spammers won’t know whether you run WordPress or not.

The plugin does not change the file or directory of your website; instead, it uses URL rewrite techniques and WordPress filters. It changes from login URLs of your site from wp-admin or wp-login.php to something unguessable, so hackers will never know the login page.

Some of its major functions include custom admin URL, blocking default admin URL, custom wp-login.php file name, adjustable theme URL, blocking XLM-RPC path, custom plugin URLs, minify Html, CSS, and Javascript, custom wp-include, and so on.

NinjaFirewall – Advanced Security

NinjaFirewall (WP Edition) – Advanced Security Plugin and Firewall

NinjaFirewall is actually a web application firewall that you can install and configure just like a WordPress plugin on your site. It lets the blog administrators and site owners take advantage of its powerful and advanced features fully.

So, specifically, what does this plugin do? NinjaFirewall hooks, scans, cleans, and rejects any HTTP/HTTPS request that reaches to a PHP script before reaching to your WordPress and plugins. Its powerful filtering engine detects web application firewall evasion tactics of hackers. It also protects your site from brute-force attack, detects PHP access at real-time, monitors file integrity, watches your site’s traffic in real-time, alerts you about specific events.

Titan Anti-spam & Security

Titan Anti-spam & Security

Titan is another popular free WordPress security plugin that offers your site so many security features like anti-spam, firewall, malware scanning.

One of the main features of Titan is its anti-spam, which checks the comments on your site through its global database and its own neural network. It also provides the logs of all the processed requests. With its regular analysis, you can find new types of spam patterns.

Its WordPress firewall finds and blocks malicious traffic, and it also safeguards your website at the endpoint. It also restricts login attempts to protect your site against brute force attacks. Likewise, its premium version offers you features like checking already existing comments and users, detailed statistics of all logins and comments, register form protection, and more.

Conclusion

So, these are our top picks among the best free security WordPress plugins. Of course, there are many other excellent plugins like Defender Security by WPMU DEV, Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall, BulletProof Security, and MalCare Security; these plugins mentioned above are on the league of their own.

So, choose one of these security plugins to secure your website and have peace of mind.

The post Best Free Security Plugins for WordPress appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

Although it was primarily famous for the blogging platform, now we can build any type of website using WordPress. Popular companies like CNN, TechCrunch, SONY, The New York Times, and TED also use WordPress software to build their website.

I have been in love with WordPress from the day I came to know about it. Statistics show that the popularity of WordPress is growing rapidly.

With its popularity and growth, security equally comes as a vital challenge for website owners. Keeping safe from unauthorized access, manipulation, malicious attacks, and hacking becomes a crucial job for you. Especially if you perform an online transaction through your website, it is compulsory that you need to keep your website safe.

Or even you do not have a financial transaction, you still need to keep your website safe from any type of security breach.

In this article, I am going to share 7 actionable techniques for securing your WordPress website.

7 Techniques to Bulletproof Your WordPress Website

1. Install SSL

Installing SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is the very first step to keeping your website secure. Today, most of the hosting providers offer free SSL along with the hosting service. Depending on your hosting provider, you may need to obtain an SSL certificate and then install it. Just ask your hosting provider to enable SSL for your domain.

In the secured website, a browser and a server attempt to connect to a website securely by encrypting data. SSL helps to keep an internet connection secure and safeguards any sensitive data that is being sent between two systems (server and client). SSL uses encryption algorithms to scramble data in transit, preventing hackers from reading it as it is sent over the connection. So, only encrypted data is transferred over the internet on the SSL website.

Here are a few plugins that can help you install SSL on your WordPress websites.

1. Really Simple SSL
2. SSL Insecure Content Fixer 
3. WP Force SSL

2. Keep Strong Admin Password and Keep it Secret

Admin passwords are the primary key to getting access to your website dashboard. You need to set a strong password so that someone can not easily guess it. Some people guess their password easily, which is a blundering mistake. An advanced user can easily crack your password and get into your system.

Generally, a combination of characters, capital letters, and numbers is considered to be a strong password. A plain password like 123453 or password as an example of an insecure password.

A strong password can be something like P@s5w0rD#453. You also need to change the admin username to something different.

As we all know, a password is everything for a business. Your password should be a secret that no one knows except your business partner or trusted friends.

3. Keep Updated WordPress Version

Keeping up do date WordPress versions also helps to secure your WordPress website. It is good practice to keep your website up to date with the latest security features. Developers keep in mind that with every new update, they put extra effort into security. You can be safe from pre-identified loopholes and exploited hackers, which a hacker uses to gain access to your site.

Also, you need to regularly update your plugins and themes as they are coming up with extra security features in each update.

You can check the update option from the Dashboard>Update

WordPress automatically suggests that you update to a newer version of the software. But it is important to know that before proceeding with big updates, you need to keep a safe backup of your data. It is because in some cases, you may lose your data.

4. Setup Double Authentication Login

Two-factor authentication allows you to set up a two-step login attempt. After setting up, you have to provide two login credentials to be able to log in to the dashboard.

WordPress plugins like Google Authenticator by miniOrange let you set up double authentication for WordPress websites. It provides two-factor authentication (2FA, MFA) whenever you log in to your WordPress website, ensuring no unauthorized access to your website.

This is one of the best ways to protect your website from unauthorized access. Only those who know the password and extra secret question will have access to the admin login.

5. Change Admin Path

Changing the Admin URL is another best practice to keep your WordPress website secure. This practice protects your website by changing the login URL and preventing access to the wp-login.php page and the wp-admin directory while not logged in.

Normal URL – www.website.com/admin . or www.website.com/wp-admin 

Changed URL – www.website.com/miksi3221

In WordPress, the default admin URL can be accessed by /admin or /wp-admin. But once you customize it, you can put any words in the admin URL section. This helps in preventing the third person from getting access to the admin login panel.

WordPress plugins like WPS Hide Login by WPServeur help to set up a login URL. It doesn’t literally rename or change files in core, nor does it add rewrite rules. It simply intercepts page requests and works on any WordPress website. The wp-admin directory and the wp-login.php page become inaccessible, so you should bookmark or remember the URL. This plugin is super easy to set up and use.

6. Install Security Plugin

There are plenty of trusted plugins that guard your website against unauthorized access. A security plugin takes care of your website’s overall security, from scanning malware to blocking malicious attacks. You do not need to manually check the status of your website, instead, these plugins keep monitoring everything you should do.

Wordfense includes an endpoint firewall and malware scanner that was built from the ground up to protect WordPress. This plugin arms your site with the newest firewall rules, malware signatures, and malicious IP addresses it needs to keep your website safe. Rounded out by 2FA and a suite of additional features, Wordfence is the most comprehensive WordPress security solution available.

Sucuri Security, on the other hand, is a WordPress security plugin that offers security activity auditing, file integrity monitoring, remote malware scanning, blacklist monitoring, effective security hardening, post-hack security actions, security notifications, and even website firewall.

7. Monitor Your Website Performance

No matter how secure your WordPress website is, there is always room for improvement. Relying only on plugins and tools does not guarantee that your website is 100% risk-free. You need continuous monitoring of the website with a periodic report. Besides the above-listed tasks, some important tasks include the regular backup of the website, performing a security audit, keeping track of website performance, and many more.

Lastly,

It is always crucial to keep track of your website security and monitor it as it goes. Website security is one of the crucial parts of a website. The above-mentioned techniques are free; you should not pay a single penny.

So, why shouldn’t you give a little time to make your website secure?

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