Suggestions on BEST security for WP

I have a WordPress blog and currently have SiteLock on it (it came with the package my hosting company gave me). I want to have it to where people can come and leave comments without logging in but i kept getting spammed and malware links. So I had to close my comment section and force people to create username and/or login to their account in order to post a comment. I've seen the comments go down since doing this.

I'm also receiving BS trackback from malware/spammers as well. I have to manually go in and delete these daily. Is there a better way to handle this. I'm a new to this and don't know much about the tech side of things (esp coding) so please dumb it down lol

Thanks

 

askimens is your best best for spam, but it doesnt catch everything.

you can stop alot of spammers by denying bad requests, adding blacklist phrases, and or user agents. (cough, cough, check out WP Ultimate in sig.)

 

Dear Montage,

Ideally to block and reduce spam i have used AKISMET and GASP, these are good plugins to identify and reduce website SPAM. In addition, make sure you either moderate your comments or use a plugin that requires authentication to login to comment like: Disqus plugin for commenting or Intense Debate from Automattic (wordpress developers).

In addition, you can learn more about how to improve your WordPress blog's security here: http://orangecopper.com/blog/how-to-improve-wordpress-blog-security

warm regards
Josh

 

one more vote for akismet it is th one featured by wordpress, and its akways in the "starting package" but you need to register it and will get a number to make it work