Hackers are constantly trying to find ways to get into your WordPress blog. Some hackers will attack your site just for bragging rights, but others want to steal your personal information so they can use it for malicious purposes.
A hacked site disrupts your business, brings a bad image to your brand, data loss, and worse still, personal data compromised! The cost of a hacked website can outweigh the cost of security.
Why Security?
Sometimes, I think security is like life insurance: You think you don’t need it, but you are sure glad when you have bought insurance at the start.
Security is the same: You think you don’t need to bother with it, but when your site is hacked, or there are major issues like data loss and identity theft from your customers’ credit card information, etc., you will be glad that you have taken the time–and spent a little money–to secure your website.
With this in mind, we have come up with some tips that you can use to protect yourself and keep hackers out of your blog!
1. Securing your plugins
Keep your plugins up to date. You should always make sure that your plugins are up to date, ensuring you don’t have any security issues.
Install a security plugin such as WordFence. WordFence is a great security plugin that will help you monitor your site and keep hackers out.
Don’t install any WordPress plug-ins unless you’re 100% sure they’re legitimate sources who aren’t going to take advantage of this opportunity by including something harmful on your website just for fun – even then, keep checking on them regularly, so there isn’t anything new released!
2. Logins and Passwords
Change your admin password regularly and use strong passwords that are difficult to guess or crack. Use different passwords for all of your accounts, make sure these are unique enough that they aren’t in any list of popular or common passwords because many hackers will try them first, then change them regularly so as not to get into a routine where you keep using the same one over and over again.
Use a plugin to generate strong passwords for your site. There are plenty of plugins that will create secure passwords for you, so this shouldn’t be too difficult!
We recommend using passwords like this: !B89x&%^@w0rd! (which has capital letters, numbers, and special characters) or this: l33tpa$$word12345 (which used only lower case alphabetic characters). It’s important not to use punctuation marks to cause problems with some hackers’ automatic scripts.
Use a password manager to keep track of all the different accounts you have and their corresponding login information so that, should anything happen with one account, it won’t affect any other ones you may have.
Disable logging in from public computers and networks unless necessary. If hackers have access to the computer or network where you’re logged into WordPress, they can easily steal your password and gain control of your website as well. Keep track of what devices you log into WP with.
Enable Two-Factor Authentication on Your Account: To protect yourself against people who might try guessing (brute force) at your login credentials, its best practice is to enable two-factor authentication on all accounts which support it, including WordPress blogs!
3. More Technical Stuff
Use HTTPS for all of your pages and posts, including login pages, so that visitors can be sure their information is encrypted while they’re browsing through the site’s content.
Update WordPress core when new versions are released because these updates usually include essential security fixes or other improvements that will help keep your site secure against hackers and scammers.
Create separate user accounts with different access levels for other people to limit who can do what on the website and how they can interact with it (such as changing settings).
Protect your Web server from DDoS attacks using a third-party service, such as Cloudflare. This is especially important if you publish content that might be controversial and attract negative attention in the form of hacking attempts.
Enable two-factor authentication on all accounts which support it, including WordPress blogs! It is easy to set up and offers an extra layer of protection.
When all else fails… Remember to backup!
Security is never 100% secured, and there will be a risk of a hack. That’s why backup is essential.
The backing-up process should be taken seriously because if the backup is not safe, it could lead to data loss.
Make sure you have a backup plan if something goes wrong so you don’t lose all your content if anything happens to your site’s hosting provider or server (this may include making backups locally or using an off-site service).
Do regular backups of your website’s content (such as posts) by backing it up on a remote location such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive. That way, if something goes wrong on your site, you can restore all of its content from an earlier point in time before the damage was done. Backup files should also be stored offsite for added protection against disasters like fires and floods where water doesn’t reach them.
There are many WordPress backup plugins available. It is essential to do your research and find the one that best suits your needs. Some recommended plugins include BackWPup, WP Clone Pro, and BackUp Buddy.
Conclusion
Remember that security is not only on the software or hardware. Users cause half the time security loopholes. Always make it a point to include security policies when you launch your website.
If you need help with your website, contact a company specializing in WordPress security. It is always better to take preventative steps than to wait until something happens and then recover from it.