WordPress is believed to be the most popular content management system in the World. It is undoubtedly a very user-friendly CMS platform trusted by thousands of bloggers, designers, developers, and businesses internationally.
WordPress offers free use to all and especially beginners often start with the free version. If you want, you can switch to the premium version for more advanced features. Apart from blogging it is widely used in the eCommerce platform and it is a very efficient and dynamic tool for website builders.
According to Wikipedia, 33.6% of all websites are built in WordPress and currently, 65 million WordPress websites are running on WordPress. If you want to let the world know about your blog or your innovation, WordPress is the best platform.
But despite being such a widely-used platform is it prone to hackers and cyber-attacks?
Yes, it definitely is.
A website can have several drawbacks and one of them is website protection and security. Businesses even individuals spend a lot on the protection of data and confidential information and it is done to ensure hackers don’t get a point of entry into the website or do any malicious activities.
Notorious hackers could benefit from the data of users and will look for ways to exploit them. So, maintaining your WordPress website first needs impeccable protection measures, so that hackers don’t see a chance to exploit users.
Let’s look at what can go wrong if your WordPress site is hacked somehow
- Your existing files such as theme can be modified
- They can upload malicious codes in the server
- Hackers can redirect your site to malware sites
- Unknown users with administrative privileges can be added to the WordPress database
- Hackers can inject code in your WordPress site
In other words, it would be devastating if your site gets hacked or affected with an external threats. It will take you much more time and effort to get it back to shape and the horrible part is in spite having such good SEO, Google can penalize and even block your site from indexing.
This makes it the foremost step to keep your website completely protected from hackers. And this is where you will need us to guide you on how to protect your
Wordpress from hacking.
We have compiled a few ways to make sure you hackers stay far away from your WordPress site, so make sure you go through the methods thoroughly.
Here are the 7 Ways to Protect your WordPress Website from Hacking
Always Update your WordPress Version
The team of developers in WordPress works very hard to dig out security flaws and loopholes and they continuously create patches and fix to prevent the chances of hacking. After the fix, users are sent the fixes to regular core version updates. That’s why it is very essential that you keep your WordPress updated.
Many usually choose to avoid core version updates as they can sometimes break website elements, but that gives hackers another chance to mess around with your site. Minor updates take place automatically, but the major updates need to be updated manually by the user.
To check the latest version of updates:
- Head to your WordPress account
- Log in to your WordPress admin account
- Go to the update panel to check if there is any update
Updated versions of your WordPress will protect your site from brute force attack. And WordPress updates, you should never forget to update your plugins and themes, because more than 64% of WordPress security issues generates from incompatibility of themes or plugins.
Better Web Hosting and SSL Integration
It may sound dull to a few, but it actually keeps great importance when it comes to the protection of your WordPress site. According to a study, more than 42 % of WordPress websites hacked were through hosting vulnerabilities.
The choice of your web hosting plays a crucial role in your WordPress websites. Good hosting providers will run routine security checks and keep your site protected from potential hacks. To prohibit hackers and enhance security get a solid free tool or security plugin.
SSL (secure sockets layer) certificates ensure that your site is completely secured by creating an encrypted channel between the server and the client. It is basically used to keep sensitive information encrypted which is sent across the internet and that passes from a network of computers to destination servers.
For example, if your site URL is http://www.wordpress.com then it is not secure.
But if your site URL is https://www.wordpress.com then it shows your site is secured.
Take Regular Backup of Your Site
Backing up your site regularly is one of the good site maintaining habits you can develop. When it comes to hacking, big sites with a solid security team can also be hacked.
The best simple measure for protecting WordPress is to backup your site regularly so that your files and site can be restored even if your site gets hacked.
You can pick WordPress backup plugins or you can go for third-party tools if you want. But always remember you should store backups of your site on different servers and not only in your hosting account. You can store them in a cloud account or any physical storage device.
Update and Check your plugins and themes
As I told you earlier that keeping your website plugins and themes updated can help you in protecting your site. Making your website with a good website builder and a vivid theme won’t pay off if you don’t maintain your themes and plugins.
The independent theme developers will not stick around you to give support forever. When you are shopping for a theme or plugin, check if they are providing support properly.
Check the support queries answer, their rating and frequent updates. Read the comments and look for positive tones and quick response.
One more thing to keep in mind is to never bulk up your WordPress site with unnecessary plugins and if suppose you have essential 6 plugins in your site, you must keep all of them up to date. Eliminate all the plugins that you don’t need or need very seldom.
Protect your Website with 2 factor-authentication
2FA (two factors authentication) can directly contribute to keeping your site protected from hackers by making users confirm their identity twice before they enter your site.
It is a decent standard of authentication used by many websites to prevent hackers from penetrating the sites and exploit them.
By integrating Dual Factor Authentication the users need to verify themselves twice and it is essential to protect both the user credentials and the resources that the user access. It is an extra layer of security for protection from intruders and hackers. It can even keep phishers away from your website.
Integrate a WordPress security plugin
Even if WordPress inbuilt security features are there to defend and protect your website against vulnerabilities and malware, it is not enough to counter the hackers from abusing user data and information all the time.
You must start using a WordPress security plugin to increase the layers of security making it difficult for hackers to penetrate.
Make a wise choice when going for the best security plugin that encompasses multiple protective measures such as:
- Helps in Blocking all automated spambot comments
- It shouldn’t break your website element
- It helps in preventing your site from brute force attacks and automated bot logins
- Should have 2-factor authentication for better security
- It can block malicious requests and URLs
You can pick from several WordPress security plugins according to your convenience.
Use Stronger Passwords
When it comes to protecting your site you should go for an unbreakable password. Brute force attacks remain to be one of the most typical methods of hacking.
Hackers use a program or software to manually enter ID and password combinations until they exactly figure it out. It takes time if you keep a strong password and it becomes time-consuming.
You have to keep another thing in the notice, that you should never put the same password for every account you hold. And do not keep common passwords on things like birth dates, your pet names e.t.c. Create a difficult and long password, and if you have a problem managing your passwords you can use a password tracking tool.
Final Words
Protecting WordPress from hacking is not rocket science if you know how to deal with it. Take your time to review your site, make a list of things that you need to change and then improve one t a time. Keep all the essential plugins and your theme updated to protect your WordPress site from hackers.
