The internet offers everyone seamless access to information. But unfortunately, it can also release sensitive and personal details.
Hackers are constantly trying to break into websites or create their own to scam users. They do this to spread malware and steal personal and financial information.
With this, protecting your website should be your number one priority.
Thankfully, various tools are available to ensure your website is free from malware and customer information is safe. So, what are the best website checker safety tools around?
Why Assess Your Website’s Security Strength
Before we get into the list, let’s focus on why it’s so important for both owners and users to assess their website’s security strength.
With the pandemic forcing us to go online, it also brought cybercriminals greater opportunities to hack websites.
Just think of how our spending habits have changed over the last five to ten years. Online purchases were already soaring in popularity, and this has only accelerated thanks to the effects of the pandemic.
How many websites now hold users’ personal information? How many emails and links do users open when browsing online?
The opportunity to access personal information and scam online visitors has skyrocketed in recent years. That’s why it’s vital to use website checker safety tools that match the threat we face.
Top 5 Security Tools
Sucuri SiteCheck
Sucuri is one of the most popular online safety tools available. It offers a range of security features allowing website owners to scan for malware, viruses, blacklists (consulting Google Safe Browsing, McAfee Webadvisor, PhishTank, and others), and out of date software.
The tool returns a simple results page containing the scan outcomes and potential website safety improvements.
Sucuri’s website safety tool has found use in large companies, including GoDaddy, WP Engine, and Yoast. In addition, Sucuri offers a WordPress Plugin with specific functions such as file integrity monitoring and security activity auditing.
Both Sucuri SiteCheck and its WordPress plugin are free to users with an additional paid service offering more proactive website safety checking.
WPScan
WPScan is a great web security tool for WordPress powered websites. It comes with a range of features, including a vast database of known vulnerabilities and irregularities for WordPress’s core, themes, and plugins.
WPSan’s code can be found on GitHub and is free to install on your server. For users unfamiliar with this process, cloud services (WPScan.io) can run scans and offer free WordPress plugins.
While WPScan is fantastic for checking WordPress safety issues, it’s best for users to combine it with other website safety checker tools that target general website vulnerabilities.
Virus Total
Virus Total is one of the most comprehensive URL scanners to check website safety. It consults over fifty blacklists informing users if a site is considered unsafe by the top services out there.
Read: 10 Steps to Enhance Your Website Security
As well as potential blacklist status, Virus Total presents detailed security report including information about malicious files and external links within the website. Additionally, it uses smart anti-malware software to identify any potential virus, worm, or trojan threats.
However, the tool’s downside is the amount of information returned. It can take some experience to filter through the results and find the most pertinent information.
Mozilla Observatory
From the company behind the Firefox browser, Mozilla Observatory is another free tool that checks website safety. It combines inbuilt testing with third-party platforms such as SSL Labs. Mozilla Observatory provides results broken down into four sections:
- HTTP Observatory
- TLS Observatory
- SSH Observatory
- Third-party Tests
While its results can be a little confusing at first, Mozilla provides extensive documentation explaining each test.
So while it can take some time to understand its tests, Mozilla Observatory is the only tool listed here that is 100% free with no additional paid services.
Detectify
Detectify offers a 14-day free trial followed by a paid service. The software puts your site through extensive scans against over 1,500 vulnerabilities that include CORS, OWASP Top 10, and Amazon S3 Bucket misconfiguration.
The Detectify scanner utilises crowdsourcing with over 150 “ethical hackers” who contribute and build automated tests.
Keep your site safe
As we’ve mentioned, securing any of these tools can help you assess your website’s vulnerability to external threats. But more than that, they give your customers the impression that you prioritise their security above anything else. Experience it yourself by purchasing a security tool today.
