All webmasters will agree that one issue that keeps them worried all the time are WordPress security issues. A website is vulnerable to thousands of threats on the Internet and in order to keep your website secured, you must harden its security. The process of making a website more secured and adding reinforcements to it is known as hardening. Today, we are going to introduce you to some new methods that will help you keep your WordPress blog secured at all times.
5 Common Steps that are often ignored
Regardless of the fact that you are completely new to WordPress or you are a professional, there are some basic steps that need to be taken care of if you do want to face WordPress security issues. Here they are-
- Do not stall updating WordPress. As soon as the ‘Update available’ option, you must install the updates. If you do not keep WordPress updated regularly, many security holes will begin to appear on your website. Same thing goes for themes and plugins as well, they must stay updated too.
- Download all themes and plugins from reliable sources only. Also, if there are any themes or plugins that have become obsolete or you are not using them anymore, it is best to delete them. Often, WordPress users simply deactivate them but it is not enough. Deleting them will reduce the chances of getting hacked.
- Make sure that you keep changing your password from time to time and that the password is something that cannot be guessed easily, even by your close friends. Also, do not make the mistake of using ‘Admin’ as your username or something easier. All the editors on your website must also use strong username and passwords.
- Do not allow a large number of users to be able to access your dashboard. The easiest method followed by hackers is by trying to login to your site. The ‘brute force’ will try to log in time and again until they get the password correct. You can also use plugins that can stop a user from multiple login attempts.
- Conduct frequent security scans by using a reliable scanner for WordPress. A scanner is similar to antivirus software; it checks plugins, core files and informs you if any file has been tampered with. Backing up the content your website is another fail-safe step that will keep everything secured even if someone hacks into your website. You can restore your site to the previous state even when it has been attacked.
Ways to harden the security of your WordPress blog
Add two-step verification
As basic as it sounds; this method has proven to be very successful in preventing brute attacks. Two-step verification simply means that any user has to enter a password as well as a code that will be sent to his mobile phone. This way, you will ensure that no hacker can log into your website and steal information.
Restrict file permissions
WordPress is a PHP based application and it works as a collection of PHP files, images, HTML as well as javascript files. So, Secure PHP Websites tips are apply to WordPress and when WordPress is running normally, only a few changes are made and that too on the files that exist out of WordPress. Hackers often try to target PHP files of a website to temper the normal functioning of a website. In order to prevent this, you can place restrictions on file permissions. Though, this will prevent your website from automatically updating WordPress, plugins, and themes.
Protect your files with .htaccess
When you are concerned with WordPress security issues, .htaccess files are probably one the most important files related to these issues. This file is like the heart of WordPress and it can affect the structure as well as the security of your website in a huge manner. You can modify these files by inserting code snippets. This will make a particular file invisible from the site’s directory and hence save it from the eyes of the hackers in the case of an attack. You can hide valuable files like wp-admin.php or wp-config.php. Another way to keep such files safe is by making them non-browsable.
Monitor all activity on the Dashboard
If you a large number of users, it is best to keep an eye on their activities. No matter how much you trust your team, they may still make a small mistake that can have disastrous after-effects on your website. So, always keep a log on the activity of every user and if something looks funny, you must retrace the steps followed by that particular user immediately. In order to make things easy, you can install a plugin that keeps track of all your users and helps you in keeping a log of all activity on the dashboard.
Go to an HTTPS website
HTTP websites have always been around us since the beginning of the age of Internet. HTTP is a simple text protocol and this makes it more vulnerable to attacks. Anyone can look into the text sent and received. On the other hand, HTTPS is an encrypted protocol that sends and receives data in encrypted form. Mainly e-commerce websites use HTTPS protocols as they require the customers to give their credit card or debit card information. But, we recommend you to use HTTPS protocol to stay away from WordPress security issues. You can enable HTTPS on your website by buying an SSL certificate or get it for free, depending on your web host.
Keeping a WordPress blog secured takes a lot of work and effort. You simply cannot install a simple plugin and stay assured that your website is safe now. There are a lot of threats out on the Internet and you need to safeguard your blog from each and every one of them. If you follow the right steps and keep an eye on how things are going, you will be able to keep your WordPress blog secured at all times.
Never Ever Use “Admin” As Username
The default WordPress user account that gets created automatically with every installation of WordPress is the admin account. Unfortunately, the whole world knows this, including hackers, and can easily hack your blog by lunching dictionary attack to guess your password.
If hacker knows your username then the half battle is already won, and the other half will not take too much time. So, make sure you create another admin account with new username and password. Then delete the default one.
Install Login LockDown
Hacker will try to break your login details (username & password) by using brute force or dictionary attack. Login lockdown plugin will prevent your blog from these types of attacks. All you’ve to do is install the login lockdown plugin and set it out according to your preference.
Login lockdown records the IP address and timestamp of every failed login attempt. If more than a certain numbers of login attempts are detected within a short time interval from the same IP then login request from that IP will be blocked. This helps us to prevent brute force attack.
Move Your WP-Config File
Did you know since WordPress 2.6 you can move your WP-Config file outside of your root directory? Most people don’t know about it and the ones know about it don’t do it. If you want to secure your WordPress site then move your config file one level up. WordPress will automatically find the new place of config file.
If you want to make your blog or WordPress site secure then follow all of the above tips. And share your methods of preventing WordPress.
Install Secure WordPress plugin
There are many places inside your WordPress site from where hackers can get the information like WordPress version, theme update, and other dangerous information’s which is required to hack your site.
Secure WordPress plugin helps you to hide all these information so that hackers don’t have necessary information’s. All you’ve to do is install secure WordPress plugin and set it our according to your preference.