The security of their website is one of the top most concerns and priorities of website owners. Websites get hacked very easily these days and WordPress websites are the most common targets of internet hackers and spammers. One of the widely used platforms to publish websites on the internet is WordPress. It is also the most vulnerable platform to malicious attacks. The number of WordPress websites that are getting hacked or compromised s increasing every year and there are reports that about 70% of the WordPress installations are soft targets of internet hackers and spammers.
The hackers attack websites that have low traffic as well as their aim is to delete the important files or steal valuable data. They will use the attacked website’s server to send spam emails. Hence, it is very important to protect your WordPress website from these hackers. The following are some of the well known and easy steps that you can take to protect your websites from being attacked by hackers and internet fraudsters.
Change password frequently
It is very important that you keep on changing your website’s login password. The strength of the password must be given due importance. Try to include uppercase and lowercase alphabets, special characters, as well as numbers in the password so that it cannot be easily detected. If you find it difficult to keep on changing or creating new strong passwords manually, you can always make use of a good quality password generator tool.
Make use of 2-factor authentication
It is not a bad idea to make use of the 2-factor authentication at the login page. By using this 2FA option, your website login will be based on two different components. You can use the regular password login process followed by one more component that can be a secret code, set of characters, a secret question, etc. By opting for the 2FA, you will make your website very secure as hackers will not be able to get access to secret code or set of characters.
Encrypt your data with SSL
The Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a very good way of securing all the data on your website. Getting the SSL certificate will make sure that the exchange of data between your browser and the server is secure and no hackers will be able to breach the SL security to access your website information. You can get the SSL certification for your website from your web hosting company or from other SSL dedicated companies. With an SSL certification, your ranking on Google will also get a boost and this leads to more traffic to your website.
No ‘admin’ as username
The most important thing you need to understand is that admin is the most common username used during any installation. If you are carrying out the WordPress installation, make sure that you do not use admin as the username for the administration account. Setting a different username will make it that more difficult for hackers to access your website. If ‘admin’ is your username, then hackers will find it easy as they just need to find out your password to get inside your website and create havoc. You can use security plugins that can ban IP addresses sung the word admin as the username to log in.
Up-to-date WordPress
To add extra security to your WordPress website, it is vital that you keep the WordPress up-to-date. If you find an update option float on your screen whenever you login to your dashboard, click on it to update your website. Do this regularly to keep your website updated. Using an older version of WordPress makes your website easy targets for hackers.
Keep themes and plugins updated
It is also vital that you update the plugins and the themes. They have to be properly secured and updated as each theme and plugin is a backdoor entry to the website’s admin panel. If they are not secure, hackers have an easy access to all your personal information. You should delete all themes and plugins you are not using and download the new themes and plugins only from well-known sources.
Backup website frequently
There is always some room for improvement, even if your website is very secure. One of the best ways to secure your website is to keep an off-site backup as anything can happen to your website at anytime. If you have a backup ready, you will be able to restore your WordPress website as quickly as possible. There are plenty of plugins that will help you in backing up your WordPress website.
Connecting the server
When you are establishing your WordPress website on the internet, make sure that you connect the server through SSH or SFTP. One of the most preferred options is the SFTP as it has better security features than the traditional FTP. By using SFTP, all your files can be securely transferred. This service is offered in the web hosting package of many hosting services.
Protecting wp-config.php file
The wp-config.php file is the most crucial file as it holds all the important information about your WordPress installation. Hence, this file has to be protected from the prying eyes of hackers. By protecting this file, your entire WordPress blog gets protected. The best way to protect the file is to move it to a higher level than the root directory. The server will not have any difficulty accessing this file as the configuration file settings of WordPress are on the highest level in the priority list. WordPress will be able to see it even if it is set above the root directory.
Login using email
Normally, to log in to an account, you need to input the username. A safer option is to use the email id instead of the username. It is easy to predict a username, but difficult to find out an email ID. Create a unique email address for logging in and you can use a good email login plugin to serve this purpose.
Conclusion on security
By following the above steps, you will be able to secure your WordPress website in a better fashion and make it difficult for hackers to break into your website.
