We all put a lot of time and effort into designing, developing a website. However, we often forget or don’t consider securing the Website. For me, security is first! Joomla is the second infected website platform according to the latest report by SUCURI.
There are two ways you can protect websites from online threats.
Cloud (hosted outside of your website) – It’s always good to have cloud-based security providers like Cloudflare, SiteLock, or SUCURI. They protect your site from their network edge and block the malicious requests coming to your web server/hosting.Plugins/Configuration (On your server/website) – protect your website by the extensions which you install within your Joomla.
RSFirewall!
Protects you from intrusions and hacking attempts, RSFirewall! is one of the most advanced Joomla extensions out there. It has a bunch of security features, such as:
Ability to add an extra backend passwordBlock certain IPsPrevent brute force attacksDetects and deletes dangerous files that aren’t requiredOptimizes and repairs databaseDisplays CAPTCHA during login when attempted too many timesBlocks selected countries from visiting your websiteChecks and alerts you if certain important files are modified
There are a lot more features that you’d love to start using right away, so be sure to check this one out.
Watchful
A full-blown webmaster toolbox, Watchful Client, can perform a variety of tasks, like:
Automatically updating your trusted extensionsBackup your websiteScan the entire websiteGenerate a detailed reportMonitor uptimeCheck SSL certificateSEO audit
And the good news is, most of the above offerings can be automated to save you a massive amount of time while being up-to-date and secure. It is rated 4.5/5 and has 29 reviews, out of which a majority of them are positive.
AdminExile
Hackers are everywhere throughout the internet, and the best way to protect your website from them is to tighten the admin area first. With AdminExile, you can do that with the utmost ease. You can restrict certain accounts from logging into your site and even detect brute force attacks. Moreover, if in case you’ve forgotten your key, you can get it back using their Lost Key Recovery option. One of my favorite features has got to be the Stealth Mode, which detects any signs of security risk and prevents it.
BadBot Protection
Believe it or not, sometimes the unusual spike in your traffic isn’t because of humans. It’s because of bots, and they aren’t good for your server, speed, and bandwidth. Thankfully, this extension called BadBot Protection, can completely get rid of this problem. It can detect and block “bad” bots and only keep the good ones that are necessary. It can also:
Prevent content scrapingPrevent theft and fraudPrevent cyber attacksOptimize website for highest performanceReduce spam
It is safe to says that BadBot Protection is your all-in-one website guardian.
JomDefender
Remember that intelligent student is your class that has figured out every single way of scoring well? JomDefender is a lot like that. It can dissect every single move of hackers beforehand and help you protect your website. It can add a new layer of password on the admin area, deny specific IPs, and even check suspicious files. Besides, you can also optimize your page for loading time and disable plugin functionalities.
Antispam by CleanTalk
If you’ve been a website owner for long now, you know the amount of spam you receive on a daily basis. Too much of spam means degradation of the image of your website, and we don’t want that. Thankfully, Joomla has an extension to tackle this, and it’s called Antispam by CleanTalk. It can block any type of spam, including comments and registration. If you have a ton of spam already on your website, you can check for that and clean it with ease. Another very useful feature is the ability to determine whether the email address used to register/comment is legitimate or not, helping you cut down on automation bots. It is super easy to install, and you can enjoy 24/7 support in case of any doubts or problems.
Admin Tools Professional
Your admin area is the door to accessing your website, either by you or by hackers. Keeping that in mind, developers at Akeeba came up with this extension called Admin Tools Professional that’ll help you tremendously tighten the security around your admin area. It can:
Filter bad languageBlock/allow certain IPsPrevent attacks and exploits like SQL InjectionBlock selected countriesDisallow installation of extensionsAutomatically block IPs that are known to offend repeatedly
With one single subscription of this extension, you can use it on as many websites you want.
Eyesite
As the name hints, Eyesite literally keeps an eye on your website to check if any files were added, deleted, or modified. Since this task is nearly impossible to execute on our own, this extension becomes a must-have for all website owners. Once the scanning process is done, Eyesite will alert you by email whenever it finds any suspicious activities. You can even view the current status and history of the file changes if needed.
No Right Click, No Copy
Plagiarism is everywhere these days, and many people are looking to rip off your content to be used on their website/project. In order to prevent that from happening, you can use No Right Click, No Copy extension to disable the ability to right-click and select text. You can also disable the action of the keyboard shortcut “CTRL + A.” You can either use it on all pages or only the selected ones, depending upon your requirements.
Antivirus Website Protection
Antivirus Website Protection by SiteGuarding is to prevent/detect and remove malicious viruses and suspicious codes. It helps you to discover backdoors, Trojans horses, worms, adware, spyware, etc. It sounds like a good deal in FREE.
Security Check
Security Check web firewall helps in protecting against more than 90 attack types, including SQLi, LFI, XSS, Session protection. It’s a perfect single component to provide Login protection, Access & Site security.
SecurityCheck
SecurityCheck is a security suite that lets you manage entire Joomla extensions centrally and offer the following protections.
Web Application Firewall – protection from more than 90 types of vulnerability attacks, including SQL, LFI, XSS, etc.Default page redirection if an attack is detectedSession protectionVulnerability scanner.Htaccess protectionFile manager
Conclusion
I hope the above extensions help you to secure your Joomla site from online threats. Along with the extension, you should also consider implementing cloud-based WAF, such as SUCURI, for comprehensive website protection.
