Index Of The Blog
With the availability of Content Management Software(CMS) platforms to internet users, owning a website has never been so easy before. The most attractive feature of these CMS platforms is an easy and attractive user interface with an array of themes to choose from. Accessibility to numerous plug-ins make life much simpler for new internet users. It doesn’t just stop here; you can carry out future changes to your website like any content added to the website with such ease that you almost feel like a pro. There are many players in the CMS market, like WordPress, Magneto, Shopify, etc. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. They may vary with some plans being offered, including different sets of themes or addons.
As anything good comes with a price to pay, WordPress also tops the list of most targeted CMS by hackers. From the data collected by Sucuri, out of the total websites that were hacked, WordPress websites were the most hacked, standing at a major share of 94%. To counter this, you need to invest in a premium SSL certificate for your WordPress website.
The secured environment ensured by SSL Certificate goes a long way in winning the user’s trust and authentication of the website. A cost-effective solution to secure your main root domain and all the subdomains at one step below the root domain is securing your website with a cheap Wildcard SSL Certificate.
Although WordPress keeps on updating and releasing various security patches to eradicate any previous version vulnerabilities, and try to stay ahead of any potential threats from cyber attacks, still there are certain good security practices that users must be aware of. A Wildcard SSL Certificate also gives you easy-to-manage security of your main root domain and all the first-level subdomains with a single certificate.So, to keep your WordPress websites safe from ever-increasing and ever-evolving threats from cybercriminals, you must pay attention to a few simple but most effective security hacks that we discuss here.
Provide Your WordPress Website with Best Security with SSL Certificate
Securing your WordPress website with SSL Certificate should be put on topmost priority. When an SSL certificate is installed on the web server, it changes the website’s protocol from HTTP to secure HTTPS. SSL Certificate provides full protection to the login and admin data as all the information shared between the user web browser and the web server is encrypted, making it safe from any misuse by hackers trying to steal sensitive information for carrying out financial frauds, ransomware attacks, etc. like in the Man-in-the-Middle attacks.
In addition, SSL Certificate also helps you improve your Google Search Engine Result Page rankings. SSL Certificate can be bought from many reputed SSL Certificate providers, or you could even get an SSL Certificate as a part of the plan you avail from your website host.
Secure Your Login Page Fields
It is crucial to secure your login credentials from hacking attempts as once the hackers get into the admin account; they can cause havoc by manipulating your sensitive configuration files, infecting them with malware, or even bringing down the entire website. Limiting Login attempts can ensure that hackers cannot use brute force attacks to crack the login credentials.
Apart from this, using strong and long passwords, a combination of upper and lower case alphabets, special characters, and numbers can go a long way in securing login credentials. In addition, two-factor authentication should be incorporated as it gives an additional layer of security to the login page fields. Finally, changing your passwords from time to time is another practice that must be followed as part of a strong WordPress website strategy.
Edit Your Admin Username
Change the default username, “admin”, as this will only make hackers’ tasks very easy to hack into your website and use a new username to safeguard your WordPress website. Instead, it is more advisable to assign all the older posts to the changed username account and delete the older admin account from the WordPress website.
User Account Management Should Be Given Due Importance
Having multiple User Accounts sometimes can be detrimental to the security of your WordPress website. So, it is always helpful to have a clear security policy in place defining clear roles and access to each user accessing the website. Only restricted access should be provided to users who are just appropriate for completing their role-specific jobs. In addition, a strong password policy can be put in place where maybe the most strong passwords can be allotted to users having access to the most crucial system files of the website.
Pay Attention To Secure Your Wp-config.php Files
Wp-config.php files contain sensitive information regarding your WordPress website’s configuration, database, and other key installation credentials of your website. Protecting these files, therefore, becomes most important as any intrusion into them can have serious consequences. By simply moving the Wp-config.php file to any folder one step above the root directory can secure it from hacking attempts.
Provide Constant Monitoring To Your Website With Firewall and Malware Scanner
Due importance should be given to keep a constant eye on the security of your WordPress website. Installing Firewalls and malware scanners help you keep online threats in check before they can become a serious threat to the security of your website by constant monitoring of your website. Any suspicious activity is immediately blocked, any malware detected is removed at the very onset, thus containing any cyber attack that causes heavy damages to the WordPress website. These days Firewall and Malware installations are part of the plan you buy from many reputed host providers and CMS.
Conduct Regular Software Updates
Updating your WordPress environment to the latest released versions is critical to getting all the vulnerabilities of the older version fixed and protecting your WordPress website from ever-evolving cyber threats. The latest versions will always help you improve your performance and enhance the user experience. Care should also be taken to update various plug-ins and themes that you have installed on your WordPress website. Any plug-in that has not been used for long should be immediately deleted as these can make your site vulnerable and be a real cause of threat to the security of your website.
Taking Backups Regularly Should Be On Top Priority
As part of a completely rounded Security Policy, taking regular backups of your system files and crucial data should be put on the top of your priority list of good security practices incorporated in the key measures taken to safeguard your WordPress Website security. With ever-increasing online threats, there is always a risk of losing your crucial data to any potential data breach and consequent data loss. Having a backup copy can help restore the website and run a normal business without any disruption in case of any data loss caused by any cyber attack.
Get A Good Hosting Provider
When choosing a hosting provider, you should put in some effort in researching the various security features provided by them, their plans, and their reliability. For example, it would help if you only went for reputed hosting providers that can support WordPress and have WordPress Firewall in place. In addition, security features like cheap SSL certificates, Malware scanners, regular scans, automatic updates and backups, protection against distributed denial of service(DDOS) attacks, etc., should be provided to the website owners.
In conclusion, we can say that WordPress security is a continuous process, and you need to be always alert and constantly evaluate the security health of your website. Now that you are aware of the most effective and important security hacks that can help you protect your WordPress website from the most frequent and common WordPress security breaches, you must incorporate them into your regular security practices and create a foolproof and secure environment for your website.
