WordPress security tips and defense against hackers
From WordPress core, theme and plugin security, to username and password best practices and database backups.
Other issues to consider include:
- layered security measures, such as using the .htaccess file to enable or disable features
- limit file permissions
- Blacklist and whitelist IPs
- disable file editing
- using HTTPS
WordPress Security
If you run a large trading site and it gets hacked, you can lose valuable customers and of course money. Web hosts are likely to suspend accounts that have been hacked and take your site offline. You don’t want to waste time fixing a site after attacks or paying for hosting when your site is down.
Why is WordPress so successful?
WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system now running on 20% of all websites. Its success is due to its intuitive interface and the fact that it is free and open source. Its features provide endless options for extending functionality by adding plugins and the ability to customize your site with themes and widgets. With thousands of free and paid themes and plugins available on the web, the choice to create a site that is both functional and uniquely yours is virtually limitless.
Why WordPress is exposed to attacks?
These same features are the most common ways we expose our sites to attacks. Because WordPress is open source, anyone can easily explore the core code or search through any of the most popular themes and plugins for hacks. These are WordPress elements that are out of your control.
Your host and WordPress hacks
Unless you pay a lot of money to have your own web hosting server, you also cannot control the hosting environment your website runs on.
brute force attack
A brute force attack is also something that is out of your control. While you can’t always stop them, you can put measures in place to limit the damage and make it more difficult for someone to successfully hack your site. Even tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon have had their security breached. No site, WordPress or otherwise, is completely secure. What you need to do is recognize where the weakness exists and create additional layers of defense to protect your content in case your site gets hacked. Use as many common workarounds as possible to help manage your site’s weakening due to human error.
A brute force attack can last for months and involve thousands of servers around the world. All hosting providers that offer WordPress are potential targets. Hackers use compromised servers and PCs to hack into website admin panels by exploiting hosts with “admin” as account name and weak passwords which are resolved by brute force attack methods.
4 points of vulnerability
1. harbor security breaches
2. WordPress core without data
3. Insecure Plugins and Themes
4.brute force attacks
Managing your WordPress powered site well is the most valuable security tool available to you.
- velocity
- options
- services
- safety
- backup solutions
- control
- server type
- price point
Choosing WordPress to power your site means that WordPress is the foundation of everything on your site. The fact that it is free and open source comes with many benefits. But with each update, vulnerabilities from the older version are made publicly available, making older versions more susceptible to hacking. Employing backup security through obscurity tactics, you can remove or hide the version number of your WordPress installation from being displayed. You can even choose a simpler solution with plugins to hide the version number. This may stop a bot from attaching to your site, but this doesn’t patch holes in older versions of WordPress. Only updating your WordPress installation as newer versions become available will remove any published vulnerabilities.
Updating WordPress is easy (since version 3.7 has been released with automatic updates)
In older versions of WordPress, a new version banner would be displayed on your dashboard whenever an update is available. WordPress installations will now automatically update to new minor versions without you having to lift a finger. Minor versions are usually for security updates. However, you will still need to update for new major releases.
To update WordPress
- The first is the first! Make a backup of your WordPress.
- Board
- updates
The biggest threat to your site
The quickest way to compromise your site includes adding maliciously miscoded or outdated themes or plugins from untrustworthy developers or sites. Due to the open source nature of WordPress, many themes or plugins are distributed under GPL or GPN (General Public License). Therefore, it is easy to fork and redistribute themes and plugins on free WordPress theme and plugin sites with the addition of hidden or malicious code. This code can be as simple as exposing a virus or as serious as exposing your visitors to identity theft.
Before downloading a free theme or plugin:
- Research the author and only download it from the author’s site or WordPress repository
- Ask for advice at WordPress.org/support
- If you are going to use free trustworthy plugins or themes, check the version number compatibility list and verify that the plugin or theme is still supported and updated. Many themes or plugins are slow to receive updates or are simply abandoned.
- If you don’t use it, you lose it. If you are not using a theme or plugin, remove it.
- Use paid (not free) compatible themes and plugins.
Experience shows that almost all WordPress attacks can be defended and defended simply by using safe, up-to-date and reliable plugins and themes.