A guide to choosing the most secure WordPress hosting

When content is critical to your business’s growth, you need the most secure WordPress hosting platform to give you confidence that your website is rock-solid. But in a world where security incidents occur with increasing frequency, WordPress security can be overwhelming.

How do organizations know when a WordPress platform is secure enough for their needs?

Read our guide to learn the critical features and capabilities to look for when choosing the most secure WordPress platform for your business.

1. Protection of business-critical dataWhen looking at enterprise-grade WordPress platforms, ensure that database infrastructure is not shared between customers’ applications. Containerized infrastructure with unique authentication mitigates the risk of unauthorized access between applications. Automated backups of production databases should also be stored in an encrypted format.

   A potential vulnerability of WordPress websites is the backdoor installation of malicious files. Look for a platform that runs its file systems in read-only mode, to protect applications against these attacks.

   

2. Hardened network security for WordPressSecure communication through digital networks is business-critical. To ensure that your WordPress hosting platform is serious about network security, make sure there are firewalls in place to prevent unauthorized access attempts, with real-time notifications.

   

   And your hosting platform should continuously monitor web traffic for suspicious activity, preventing attacks before they impact your site.
   

3. Granular access control and enterprise-grade authenticationEnterprises need granular control over user access to various parts of the application. Ensure your WordPress hosting platform supports multiple levels of permissions, as well as multi factor authentication.

   Besides full control over who can access your applications at the software level, make sure your hosting platform limits access to the physical infrastructure at its data centers.

   

4. Proactive and transparent vulnerability management: A truly enterprise-grade WordPress hosting platform is proactive about security concerns: keeping core software updated, helping customers write better code, mitigating risks introduced through plugins, and more.

   Look for a WordPress hosting platform that routinely performs third-party security testing, platform vulnerability assessments, and penetration testing to illuminate security blind spots. Platforms that proactively perform this testing, and make the results freely available, demonstrate that they take security seriously.

   

5. Invested in hardening WordPress platform and application codeLook for a WordPress hosting platform that ensures all core and platform code is secure and up to date—and quickly responds to and fixes issues. If core contributors to WordPress support the platform, that’s a good sign that issues will be patched even ahead of code being pushed to WordPress core.

   But code security doesn’t stop at the platform level. Organizations also need to ensure that their applications—the custom theme and plugin code that contains the functionality, features, look, and feel of their website—are hardened against malicious attacks.

   Look for a platform that goes beyond core WordPress support, and helps your engineers strengthen the security of their applications through automated code scanning, proactive consultation, and robust documentation. Further, ensure that the platform allows code changes only through a version-controlled developer workflow, inaccessible to users of the WordPress admin or via SFTP.

   

Key WordPress security certifications

Security certifications alone don’t mean a WordPress hosting platform is inherently secure. But they do mean a third party has performed a security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring of a platform’s technology.

Offering a standardized approach to assessing key capabilities, these certifications help customers make informed decisions when choosing a platform.

Examples of security certifications are FedRAMP, GDPR compliance, EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss–U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, and SSAE 18 SOC 1 and SSAE SOC 2 certifications.

In conclusion

When major security breaches are a daily occurrence, ensuring security and compliance for your business’s critical content has never been more important.

Built with multiple levels of security controls and protection, WordPress VIP meets the most exacting security requirements. That’s why it is trusted by customers in industries such as banking, pharmaceuticals, public utilities, and government. If security is top-of-mind for your business, contact us to see if WordPress VIP is right for you.

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