WordPress is awesome... but...
We love WordPress at Digital 1, WE LOVE IT! It's flexible, it's elegant, it's universally adaptable and most of all it's open source. We use it almost exclusively at Digital 1 and we are proud of the many projects we have completed using the platform - but it's not without risks.
WordPress is popular, in fact, it's the most popular open source CMS there is on the planet. In face, as of 2015 it was absolutely dominating the competition with over 60% of all websites using a CMS. That's incredible! However, it doesn't come without some 
consequences/risks and because it is so popular among website creators, it is a very popular target among internet thieves and hackers.
With the growing number of companies using their WordPress websites to complete financial transactions (payment portals, ecommerce stores, etc) there is a growing amount of sensitive data flowing through these sites and being stored online. Thus leading to an even bigger target being put on websites using the WordPress CMS.
However, there is hope! WordPress can be as secure a CMS platform as any other one out there, you just need to find the right security partner. The right security partner will take the necessary steps to making sure your website is protected from attackers and properly backed up in case of an emergency.
In this article we explore what you should expect from a WordPress/website security provider and why these things are essential to protecting yourself with the ever growing threat of hackers.
A Wordpress security service will...
1. secure your website cms with ssl
This is something that is an absolute no-brainer in today's internet and can be done on any website regardless of whether you use a CMS or not. Making sure that all traffic in and out of your website is encrypted is one of the most basic things you can do (and cheapest!) to protect your website from potential hacks. It also guarantees that all information exchanged on your website (like oh... say a contact form?!?!) is completely protected. This is huge as it establishes trust between a visitor and your website. Also, Google gives you a free SEO boost just from using SSL so there really is no exuse for not having it.
This is something you probably could DIY if you really wanted to but it does require some technical knowledge and your time would be better spent elsewhere. Find a website partner/digital agency that you can trust and they'll take care of this for you no problem. They'll also make sure it's installed properly and that all pages are running on HTTPS - a crucial part of securing your entire site.
2. keep wordpress and important plugins up to date
This is one of the more sneaky and under the radar pieces of WordPress security and needs to be a part of any service that your company invests in. Often times, hackers will look over the latest patches of WordPress and various plugin releases and look for vulnerabilities in the code. If/when they find them, the can exploit those vulnerabilities to attack the CMS and gain access to your website. This could potentially be very bad for you company. Best case scenario, they destroy your website and you have to start new. Worst case scenario, they steal valuable customer information and you're left cleaning up the mess. Either way it's a terrible situation to be in.
WordPress updates and updates for WordPress plugins often contain important security patches that will fix the security loopholes in the code that hackers will take advantage of. If your website CMS/software and other plugins are out of date, you could be susceptible to these security loopholes. If you're website CMS and other software is up to date, you're most likely protected against the latest ways to hack your site. Needless to say this is important as well and something you should look for when hiring an agency to handle your website's security.
3. provide a backup and restore service
Even the best protected things get broken. You may have bought a nice new fancy case for your smart phone, but then proceeded to drop it and have the screen break. Sometimes you just get unlucky and things happen. This same concept can be applied to digital/web security. Sometimes you or the agency you've hired will have a great plan in place to protect your digital assets. Let's assume your software is up to date, website and data are encrypted, and all your log in pages are hidden. You're crossing all your T's and dotting all your I's and the worst happens... you get hacked. 
So what now? Well, if you've hired a competent agency, they'll have a recent (hopefully daily) backup of your entire website and back end systems. This will allow them to do a full restore of your website. No going back to the last months build and potentially losing tons of changes/modifications or worse - customer orders and information. You should be up and running in no time like nothing ever happened. A backup and restore service is a crucial part of any WordPress or website security solution that you invest in.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading my post on WordPress security services and solutions. If you're looking for any help with security regarding your WordPress website or website in general, you can download our guide on '5 things you can do right now to increase your website's security!' . It's a fantastic starting point to significantly increase your website's security. Also be sure to check out our blog for other great articles, tips and tricks, and guides on this subject.
