Harden Your Website Before a Security Incident Forces You To
I harden WordPress and web stacks for businesses that can't afford downtime, malware cleanup chaos, or client trust damage. You get practical security controls, vulnerability reduction, and a clean incident response path.
Most Sites Aren't Hacked by Genius Attackers. They're Hacked by Neglected Basics.
I've cleaned up enough compromised sites to say this confidently. Old plugins, weak admin hygiene, bad file permissions, and no tested restore path are the usual causes. Fancy security plugins don't fix weak operational discipline.
One abandoned plugin can become your easiest breach vector.
Backups exist, but restore fails when you actually need them.
No response plan When something breaks, teams lose hours deciding what to do first.
What You Get
Admin and access control hardening
Plugin/theme audit and risk-based cleanup
Server-side and app-level hardening checklist
Firewall and brute-force protection tuning
Backup strategy with verified restore test
Alerting and log review workflow
Incident response runbook for your team
Post-incident cleanup and prevention notes
How We Run Security Projects
Assess
I map weak points in code, plugins, access, and infrastructure.
Prioritize
Rank fixes by breach risk and business impact, not fear.
Harden
I apply controls and remove risky components in phases.
Prepare
You get monitoring, restore checks, and clear incident playbooks.
Example Outcome
Website Migration Services
Technical SEO Services
WordPress API Integration
Common questions
Why isn’t a security plugin like Wordfence enough?
Wordfence and similar plugins help but solve only ~50% of the problem. They handle login monitoring, malware scanning, and basic firewalling — but they can’t prevent attacks that exploit weak server config, outdated PHP, mishandled file permissions, exposed .env files, debug mode left on in production, or supply-chain attacks via malicious plugins. Real hardening goes deeper than a plugin install.
My WordPress site is hacked — can you fix it?
Yes. Standard cleanup: snapshot the compromised site for forensic review, scan for shells and backdoors (over 30 known shell signatures), remove malicious code, reset all credentials, check the database for injected admin users and content, restore from a clean backup if available or rebuild from a known-good codebase, and harden against re-infection. Most cleanups take 1–3 days.
How do most WordPress sites actually get hacked?
Top causes by frequency: outdated plugins with known vulnerabilities (40–50%), weak admin passwords + no 2FA (20–25%), compromised hosting environments (15%), nulled/pirated plugins from sketchy sources (10%), and supply-chain attacks via legitimate plugins that were sold to bad actors (5–10%). The cleanup is similar across all of them; the prevention is different.
Will hardening break anything on my site?
Configured carefully, no. Some hardening choices have UX trade-offs: 2FA adds login friction, restricting wp-admin to specific IPs locks out admins on the road, disabling XML-RPC breaks some plugins. I’ll tune the hardening level to your operational reality — you’ll have hardening that fits how you actually work, not enterprise-grade lockdown that frustrates daily use.
What about WAF — Cloudflare, Sucuri, or a plugin?
Cloudflare WAF (free or Pro) for most sites — it blocks at the edge before requests reach your server. Sucuri for high-value sites that need a fully-managed security service with incident response. Plugin-based WAF (Wordfence, NinjaFirewall) as a layer underneath, not as the primary defense. Three-layer security is overkill for most sites; pick the right one based on risk profile.
Do you handle security audits for compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR)?
WordPress-specific security audits yes. Full SOC 2 / ISO 27001 audit work no — that’s a separate engagement with a specialized firm. I’ll get your WordPress side audit-ready (logging, access control, encryption, change management documentation) and hand you off to compliance auditors with a defensible posture.
How often should I refresh hardening?
Initial hardening is good for ~12 months without major drift. Refresh recommended annually: WordPress and PHP version updates, plugin audit, password rotation, 2FA enforcement check, log review, dependency vulnerability scan. Critical security issues (logged-in privilege escalation in a major plugin) get patched same-day on retainer.
Pricing?
Security audit + hardening (one-time): $999. Hacked site cleanup + recovery: $1,499–$3,500 depending on infection severity. Monthly security retainer (monitoring, patching, incident response): from $200/month for single-site, $500+/month for multi-site or high-value e-commerce.
Start Your Security Brief
Share your current stack and risk concerns. I will recommend immediate fixes and what can wait.