Website Security

Most sites get compromised the same way.
Here's what to do about it.

Website security isn't one product — it's a stack. Malware scanning, firewall protection, SSL, backups, and WordPress hardening each cover a different attack surface. This page covers all of it, with links to each product and service.

WordPress Security Services → View All Protection Layers
30,000websites hacked every day globally — most are small business sites, not enterprise targets
43%of cyberattacks target small businesses specifically — they're easier, not less valuable
$200kaverage cost of a cyberattack on a small business — 60% go out of business within 6 months
97%of WordPress hacks are opportunistic and automated — targeting unpatched plugins, not specific sites
How Attacks Actually Happen

Attackers aren't targeting your site. They're targeting your software version.

The mental model most business owners have — "my site is too small to be targeted" — is wrong. Modern attacks are automated. Bots continuously scan millions of sites for known vulnerabilities. If your plugin version appears in their database, your site gets hit. Your size is irrelevant.

The good news: the vast majority of attacks exploit the same handful of known issues — outdated plugins, weak credentials, no firewall, missing security headers. These are all solvable. The bad news: most WordPress sites ship with all of them unaddressed.

Security isn't about being unhackable. It's about being hardened enough that automated attacks move on to easier targets — and about having detection, backup, and recovery in place for the rare cases that get through.

Top Attack Vectors — WordPress
52%
Vulnerable plugins
Outdated or abandoned plugins with known CVEs. The most common entry point by a wide margin.
33%
Weak or compromised credentials
Brute force on /wp-admin, or reused passwords from other data breaches applied to your login.
8%
Insecure themes
Nulled themes, outdated theme frameworks, or themes with known vulnerabilities that went unpatched.
7%
Misconfigured hosting
Wrong file permissions, exposed configuration files, or missing security headers on the server.
Complete Protection

Three layers. Each covers a different attack surface.

No single product covers everything. Real protection requires all three layers working together — infrastructure scanning, WordPress hardening, and backup recovery.

Layer 1 — Network Edge
🛡️
Website Security & SSL
Runs at the network level — before traffic reaches your WordPress install. Blocks malicious requests, scans files daily for malware, and triggers automatic removal when threats are detected.
Products
  • SiteLock Essential — Daily scan, $6.99/mo
  • SiteLock Advanced — Auto-removal + WAF, $17.99/mo
  • SiteLock Deluxe — Twice-daily + DDoS, $19.99/mo
  • SiteLock Premium — Continuous monitoring, $26.99/mo
  • SSL Certificates — from $67.99/yr
View Website Security Plans →
Layer 2 — WordPress Application
🔧
WordPress Security Services
Hands-on hardening and remediation at the WordPress application layer — the plugins, themes, credentials, and configuration settings that network-edge products can't touch.
Services
  • Security Audit — $149 one-time
  • Security Hardening — $249 one-time
  • Emergency Malware Cleanup — $349
  • WordPress Care Plan — ongoing protection from $49/mo
View WordPress Security Services →
Layer 3 — Recovery
💾
Backups
When prevention fails — and sometimes it does — backups determine whether recovery takes 10 minutes or 10 days. Off-server daily backups with tested restore capability are non-negotiable.
Products
  • 5GB Website Backup — $2.99/mo
  • 25GB Website Backup — $4.99/mo
  • 50GB Website Backup — $7.99/mo
  • Care Plan backups — included in all tiers
View Backup Plans →
The Economics of Security

Prevention vs. cleanup — the numbers are clear.

Every security dollar spent on prevention displaces multiple dollars of remediation. Here's what the math looks like in practice.

Full Prevention Stack
~$75/mo
Care plan + security subscription + backups
WordPress Care Plan ($49) + SiteLock Advanced ($17.99) + 25GB Backup ($4.99). Covers monthly plugin updates, malware scanning, WAF protection, and daily off-server backups.
After a Compromise
$500–$5,000+
Emergency cleanup + downtime + reputation
Emergency malware cleanup ($349) + hours or days of downtime + Google blocklist removal (1–3 days) + lost revenue + customer trust damage. Often more than a year of prevention costs in one incident.
One-Time Hardening
$249
Security hardening + 30-day monitoring
Full WordPress audit plus hands-on remediation of all critical findings. Covers plugin cleanup, login hardening, firewall configuration, security headers, and 30-day post-hardening monitoring.
What a Hack Looks Like

The timeline of a typical WordPress compromise.

This is how it usually plays out for unprotected sites — and why early detection changes everything.

Day 0
Automated scan finds an outdated plugin
A bot identifies your site is running a vulnerable plugin version. No human involvement. The exploit is automated and takes seconds.
Day 0–3
Malware injected. Site appears normal.
Spam pages are added to your site. Visitors are sometimes redirected. The malware is designed to be invisible to you but visible to Google's crawlers and other visitors.
Day 3–14
Google flags and blacklists the site
"This site may be hacked" warning appears in search results. Your traffic drops immediately. Visitors are warned away before they reach your site.
Day 14+
Owner notices. Emergency cleanup begins.
At this point the cost is: cleanup service + blacklist removal request + days of downtime + search ranking recovery time. Average small business cost: $500–$5,000+.
Get Protected

Don't wait for the compromise. Start with the right stack now.

Contact us for a security audit or to get a protection stack in place. We'll tell you exactly what your site needs.

WordPress Security Services → Security Subscriptions
FAQ

Website Security FAQ.

What's the difference between a security subscription and WordPress security services?
Security subscriptions (SiteLock) run continuously at the network level — scanning files, blocking malicious traffic, and monitoring blocklists. WordPress security services are hands-on — auditing your WordPress configuration, hardening it, and cleaning up if it's already compromised. You need both for complete protection.
My site was just hacked. What do I do?
Contact us immediately. Our Emergency Cleanup service ($349) handles malware identification and removal, backdoor detection, Google blocklist removal, and post-cleanup hardening. The faster you act, the less damage accumulates. Don't try to clean it manually — you'll miss backdoors.
Do I need security if I'm on managed WordPress hosting?
Yes. Managed hosting secures the server infrastructure. It doesn't manage your plugins, harden your WordPress configuration, scan your files for malware, or maintain your backups. You still need all three security layers regardless of hosting type.
How do I know if my site has been compromised?
Common signs: Google warning in search results, hosting account suspended, visitors being redirected to unknown sites, unusual entries in Search Console, contact forms sending spam, or the site running unusually slow. Often you don't know until Google or your host tells you — which is why ongoing monitoring matters.
Is SSL the same as website security?
No. SSL encrypts the connection between your site and visitors — it doesn't protect your site from being compromised. A hacked site can still have a valid SSL certificate. SSL is a baseline requirement, but it's only one piece of a complete security setup.