Written by Mary » Updated on: November 12th, 2024
The internet is a wonderful place to be. On the other hand, it is also a frightening place since every day, hundreds of thousands of websites are hacked. Even if you ask them in a kind manner, cybercriminals are not going away any time soon. Every person who owns a website should give a great deal of attention to the topic of WordPress security. It is imperative that you pay attention to the best practices for WordPress security if you are serious about your website.
In such a case, you run the risk of becoming one of the more than 10,000 websites that Google blacklists every single day for phishing and malware. In this tutorial, we will provide you with the most important WordPress security guidelines that will assist you in protecting your website from malicious software and hackers.
Visitors to your website are provided with information regarding who you are, the types of content and services that you provide, and what they may anticipate from your brand. It is a place where one may make a fantastic first impression, as well as build trust and loyalty with the fans who are already there. It is for this reason that it is of the utmost importance to guarantee that your website is completely operational at all times.
Your reputation will be negatively affected if it suddenly begins to include links to malicious software, if it begins to run very slowly after being hacked, or if it completely stops functioning. Your website could suffer financial losses if it is hacked because of a decline in the number of views, sales, or ad impressions.
It's possible that there will be expenses associated with getting it back into proper functioning order. Additionally, you run the risk of losing rankings on search engines, which can sometimes be irreversible. It is therefore important to ensure that your website is closed down and safe in order to save money.
The most common methods that hackers use to get access to websites were recently published by Google. We are going to see a few of those in greater detail to keep our blogs safe:
1. Inadequate policies regarding security
The use of insufficient security measures, such as granting access to the website to individuals who do not require it or permitting passwords that are susceptible and weak, makes it simpler for individuals to gain access to your website.
2. Concealed or stolen passwords
Attacks using brute force are one of the most prevalent methods that hackers use to get access to a website. They utilize bots to test a variety of usernames and passwords, which can result in hundreds of different combinations being tried out every second until they locate the one that works.
3. Plugins and themes that are not secure
It is quite simple for malicious actors to gain access to a system through vulnerabilities that are present in plugins and themes. Patches for vulnerabilities are made available in regular updates by developers of high-quality themes; however, not all WordPress users update their sites on a regular basis. Additionally, free versions of premium plugins and themes frequently contain backdoors that are encoded in their code. These backdoors provide hackers with entry points that allow them to remotely enter your website and do whatever they want when they are there.
1. Be sure you pick a secure password
When it comes to the safety of everything you do over the internet, your password is the weakest link. Your website, email, social networking accounts, and any other online service that you use are all only accessible through this one key. When your password is simple to figure out, your online identity is exposed to potential threats.
A single person is all that is required to guess your password in order for them to be able to deface your website, steal your domain, or pass themselves off as you. Every single password that you use ought to be simple to remember and difficult to figure out. Not only does a password consisting of a random combination of numbers and characters make it difficult to guess, but it is also difficult to remember.
On the other side, you will most likely never forget your birthdate or the name of your first pet, but these are not good choices for passwords because they are becoming increasingly easy to guess or discover. On WordPress, you have the ability to use a very lengthy password that contains any combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. As a result, the security of your password, as well as the security of your website, is entirely up to you.
2. Two-step authentication should be enabled
We recommend adding an additional degree of account security by utilizing two-step authentication in addition to protecting your account with a robust password. You are required to supply a code from your phone or a physical key in addition to entering your password when you use two-step authentication.
This is an additional step that is added to the process of logging in. Even if someone knows your password, they will not be able to access your account unless they also have access to your phone or physical key. This makes the security of your account an even higher priority.
3. Restriction of Attempts to Login
It is possible for users of WordPress to attempt to log in an unlimited number of times using the default settings. Your WordPress website is now susceptible to attacks using brute force because of this behavior. Hackers will attempt to crack passwords by logging in with a variety of different combinations if they are successful.
Putting a cap on the number of unsuccessful login attempts that a user can make is a simple solution to this problem. This issue will be resolved immediately if you are utilizing the web application firewall.
4. Install and configure a WordPress firewall
In order to protect your website from being hacked, a WordPress firewall will monitor all of the traffic that occurs on your website. You should install a firewall that is designed expressly for WordPress, even if a good hosting package will already include a firewall that secures your server.
A good firewall plugin will include a database of information on dangerous actors, such as suspicious IP addresses, malicious bots, and traffic that just appears "off," and it will stop these bad actors' attempts to attack your website before they can do so.
5. Pay attention to the activity on your website
If you maintain a log of everything that occurs on your website, you will be able to easily go over it and find anything that seems odd. Furthermore, in the event that your website is hacked, you will be able to determine the exact moment when the hacking took place, ascertain the actions that were carried out, and discover which accounts were infiltrated with much greater ease.
6. Remove themes and plugins that are unused
In the event that you have installed a greater number of themes and plugins on your website, there will be a greater number of opportunities for a hacker to exploit them. In spite of the fact that plugins are an excellent method for adding new functionality, it is important to perform some housekeeping and remove any plugins that you are no longer utilizing.
And, with the exception of a default theme that you can use as a backup in the event that you encounter problems with the website, there is no requirement to save any other themes. The removal of these can also result in an increase in the speed of your website.
7. Backups should be set up off-site
When it comes to securing your material, your hard work, and the data of your customers or visitors, backups are absolutely necessary. You will be able to swiftly get your website back up and running if you have a full backup on hand, regardless of the problem that may be occurring with your website.
When selecting backups, however, it is essential to select the appropriate type. Take, for instance, the precaution of storing your backups on the cloud rather than on your own server, which is located off-site. With this, you will still be able to restore a clean version of your website even if you lose access to it or if your server is compromised.
8. Log out of your account
Once you have completed your task, you should log out of your account so that it is protected. When working on a computer that is considered to be public or shared, this is of utmost importance. Your account can be accessed by another person if you do not log out of your WordPress dashboard. This can be done by inspecting the history of your browser.
If you invest time and effort into ensuring that your WordPress site is secure from the very beginning, you will be able to ensure that it will continue to function in a secure and efficient manner for many years to come. It is important to keep in mind that avoiding site hacks is considerably simpler than correcting them after they have started.
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