WordPress Security & Backup Guide: Protect Your Site in 2024

WordPress Security Starts With You, Not Your Software

There's a common misconception floating around that WordPress itself is inherently insecure. People will tell you to ditch it for ClickFunnels, Wix, Squarespace, or whatever platform they swear by. But here's the reality: the biggest banks and movie studios in the world have all suffered security breaches, and it almost never comes down to the software. It comes down to human error.

That means the first layer of WordPress security is getting the basics right. Every person who accesses your site should have their own unique user account — no sharing logins between employees or team members. This isn't just about security; it's about accountability. If something goes wrong, you need to know who did what.

Passwords are the other critical piece. Every site you log into should have its own unique, randomly generated password. Use a password manager so you don't have to memorize 30-character strings. This protects you against brute force attacks, where hackers essentially try to guess your password until they get in. The longer and more complex your password, the less worthwhile your site becomes as a target.

Why Premium Hosting Is Your First Security Investment

If you're paying $2.99 a month for hosting, your website security is going to be about as reliable as a $2.99 lock on your front door. Premium hosting providers like Cloudways, Flywheel, or Kinsta handle critical security elements on your behalf — things like brute force protection, DDoS mitigation, and server-level firewalls.

This isn't about spending hundreds of dollars a month. The difference between bargain hosting and a quality managed host is often just a few dollars, but the security gap is enormous. A good host takes daily or weekly backups automatically, monitors for suspicious activity, and keeps the server environment patched and up to date. It's one of those investments where spending a little more now saves you from a potentially devastating breach later.

Building a Bulletproof Backup Strategy

Even if you follow every security best practice, things can still go wrong. That's where a solid backup strategy becomes your safety net. Most premium hosts like Cloudways take daily backups automatically — you can see them right in the admin panel, with up to seven days of snapshots retained. You can even enable local backups that copy your site directly to your server for quick restores.

But relying solely on your host's backups is risky. If someone compromises your hosting account, they could delete those backups too. You need off-site copies stored somewhere completely separate — think Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon S3.

This is where UpdraftPlus comes in. It's the most popular free backup plugin for WordPress with over two million active installations. After installing and activating it, head straight to the Settings tab and choose a remote storage destination. Dropbox is one of the easiest to configure — just select it, save your changes, authenticate with your Dropbox account, and you're set. One click and your entire site (database and files) gets backed up to the cloud.

Scheduling Backups Without Killing Performance

Once UpdraftPlus is connected to your remote storage, you'll want to set up a regular backup schedule rather than relying on manual backups. The plugin lets you schedule file and database backups independently, with intervals as frequent as every two hours. You can also choose how many backup copies to retain.

There's a trade-off to consider here, though. Every backup is CPU-intensive, which means your server is working harder and your site may load slower for visitors during that window. For most sites, a daily backup is more than sufficient. Running them every two hours is overkill unless you're processing a high volume of transactions or content changes.

As your business grows, you'll eventually want to look into incremental backups. Instead of copying your entire site every time, incremental backups only capture what's changed since the last backup. UpdraftPlus offers this in their premium tier, along with pre-update backups that automatically snapshot your site before any plugin or core update runs. That way, if an update breaks something, you can instantly roll back to a working version.

The Right Way to Handle WordPress Updates

One of the biggest reasons WordPress sites get hacked isn't a flaw in WordPress core — it's outdated plugins with known vulnerabilities. Once hackers discover a vulnerability in a popular plugin, they can scan the web for sites running that plugin and attack at scale. Keeping everything updated is essential, but there's a smart way to do it.

Not all updates are created equal. Understanding version numbers helps you prioritize. A jump from version 4.x to 5.0 is a major release packed with new features — and potentially new bugs. A minor version bump like 4.16 to 4.17 typically means feature additions. A point release like 4.16.1 to 4.16.2 is usually a security or bug fix patch.

The rule of thumb: apply security patches immediately. For major releases and feature updates, wait a few days to a week. Let other users discover any issues first. Always read the release notes before clicking update — look specifically for the words "security" and "vulnerability." If you see those, update without hesitation. If it's a complete feature rewrite, give it some time to stabilize.

Proactive Security With WebARX

Managing updates manually across dozens of plugins gets tedious fast, especially when you need to evaluate each one individually. WebARX solves this problem with automated vulnerable plugin updates. They maintain an index of plugins with known security issues, and as soon as a patch is available, WebARX automatically applies it to your site.

Beyond auto-updates, WebARX provides a web application firewall (WAF) that blocks malicious traffic before it reaches your site. There's also virtual patching and malware prevention — a plugin that lives inside your WordPress installation and monitors for unauthorized changes. If someone manages to alter your files, you'll get notified immediately.

At $15 per month, WebARX isn't a tool for day-one beginners. It's designed for when your site is already generating revenue and you need serious, hands-off protection. But once your business is profitable, that $15 monthly investment is trivial compared to the cost of a security breach.

Scanning for Breaches With WordFence

Prevention is ideal, but what happens if your site has already been compromised? Maybe it's behaving strangely, loading unexpected content, or you've received a warning from your host. This is where WordFence shines. With over three million active installations, it's the most widely used WordPress security plugin — and the free version is genuinely capable.

After installing WordFence, head to the Scan section and run a new scan. It'll check your server state, file changes, malware signatures, content safety, public files, password strength, known vulnerabilities, and user/option audits. The free version covers most of these checks, though spam and blacklist monitoring require the premium tier.

WordFence is particularly good at catching modified core files. If someone has tampered with WordPress core — say, altering the upgrade page to trick you into installing malicious code — the scanner will flag it. You can view a side-by-side comparison of the original file versus the modified version and decide whether to repair it or mark it as safe. Not every flagged change is malicious (plugin installations sometimes modify core files legitimately), but having that visibility is invaluable.

Three Pillars of WordPress Security

Securing a WordPress website isn't fundamentally different from securing your home computer. It boils down to three pillars: strong passwords, reliable backups, and timely updates.

Use unique, complex passwords for every site and store them in a password manager. Maintain multiple backups in different locations — your host's automated backups plus off-site copies via UpdraftPlus or a similar tool. And keep your plugins, themes, and WordPress core updated, prioritizing security patches over feature releases.

If you follow those three practices consistently, you'll avoid the vast majority of WordPress security issues. For additional protection, tools like WebARX provide proactive firewall and auto-patching capabilities, while WordFence gives you the ability to scan for and respond to breaches. And if things ever get truly out of hand, services like WordFence's site cleaning team ($179 at the time of recording) can step in and restore your site professionally.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.