Backing Up & Security

The backup that you’ve done is good, but that only backs up the themes, site files, etc. It does not back up your content or your settings. There are all stored in the database, and unless your site is doing something different to pretty much every other one out there the database won’t be includedin the files that you have there. There’s a lot of different methods of backing up your database, so it should be easy to find information that suits you.

You haven’t actually backed up your data. The posts/pages/settings/everything important is in the database.

No security covers everything and on a shared server you never know……keep monthly backups of wp-content and the sql database and keep them for the year, then weekly, etc, some of the virus like the eval base-65 ru are time bombs so you can’t fall back.
Its the wp-content, wp-config, and your database that you have to worry about.

Thanks, I will get the database backed up too.

Is there an aoutmated way to do this regularly?

Also, the plugins like Bulletproof Security or Better WP Security are they worth adding too?

Hello James,

just as important as having backups in place, it is worth installing security plugins to increase the security level of your website, otherwise you might up having to restore your backups often, without fixing the underlying security problems that are repeatedly exploited by attackers.

Unfortunately, if you are looking for a plugin that keeps you protected after you install it, without any manual effort, you will be disappointed, because there is no such thing. Honestly, every plugin that claims that it provides 100% security by just installing it, should not be taken seriously.

We have just released MVIS Security Center, a new security plugin, last week that helps you locking down your website by clearly showing you any security problems and providing you with all the information needed to eliminate them. Most of the security topics of the official Hardening WordPress Guide are covered and additional checks have been added.

The plugin does not automatically eliminate the identified problems for you, but it really helps you in securing your websites according to recognised security best practices, by showing you what the problems for your specific website are and how to get rid of them.

Additionally, and this is unique, from within the plugin you can subscribe to MVIS PROtection, which is a service that monitors your WordPress version and which plugins and themes are installed and sends alerts to your e-mail address as soon as vulnerabilities have been publicly disclosed that affect one of your installed components. This is especially convenient, because you don’t even have to login to the admin interface, but automatically receive the alerts in your inbox and are able to take the required actions immediately.

The plugin is free and because we are currently in the beta phase, the subscription is free for the next three months.

Give it a try and let me know how you like it and if there is anything else you would like to see covered by it.

Cheers,
Stefan

Check out Back WP Up. You can set it to backup to a dropbox account, which is really cheap.

Thanks guys.

secconsult I have downloaded your MVIS Plugin and am running it now. Does it do everything the others do? Or should I be using mulitple plugins for different security?

Andrew Bartel That;s great, I already have DropBox and having badgered friends into using it have built up qute a few GB of space. Does this BackWP Up do both my ftp files and the database?

Yea you can configure it that way. For a lot of sites I use it to backup the database every day and the full site like every month and whenever I do anything besides trivial changes I push to github, but that may be a bit too complicated for what you’re looking to do.

James,

the MVIS Security Center shows you what’s insecure and also recommends other plugins such as https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/force-strong-passwords/ to only allow strong passwords for all users or https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/limit-login-attempts/ to restrict login attempts to the backend.

I will create some additional information in the plugin that will make it easier to see which plugins work well together to protect your WordPress site most efficiently.

Give me a couple of days I will share the link then.