Security is the primary reason why you should always keep your WordPress core site up to date. Themes and Plugins should also updated in order to reduce the risk of your site being hacked or compromised in some other way.

It is recommended that your important files should be backed up at least once a week, and your database should be backed up every day. This can be performed manually or automatically. For Maximum security, it is important that you store your backups outside your your web host, either in your PC or in anther server. Don’t rely only on plugins that stores backup files in your own hosting server. plugins that stores backup files in your own hosting server.

No. There are some good free WordPress security plugins but they don’t secure everything. If your business online, or have a money making website, you can’t risk loosing your data by using free plugins.

Auto updates are conveninet but aren’t recommended. Sometimes can result in a disaster. Iti si always advisable to login to your WordPress dashboard and update your plugins one by one manually, So if anything wrong happens to yuour websites, it is easier to track the problem.

Probably you won’t know that your site is hacked until it’s too late. But there are some sings that may indicate a website is hacked such as reduced traffic, funny charters or unfamiliar links in your website. You may use some online scanner to check if your website is hacked or not