As a WordPress blogger, the most senseless thing that you can do is leaving your blog unsecured. It’s like letting every visitor use your home for whatever activity they want. Many people don’t pay attention to this critical aspect. The security of your WordPress blog is crucial once it has been created. There should not be any loopholes for hackers to steal or destroy your data and information. When your blog gets hacked into, the user input is not filtered out by the software properly. Some attacks may use bots which can create hundreds of spam pages on your blog automatically. Not only this, even your password is vulnerable if your blog is hacked.
Hackers take advantage of the open-source nature of WordPress to analyze the specific source code of the software they want to attack and then test it for potential vulnerabilities. Every website or blog on the internet is usually vulnerable to hacking and other exploits such as malware, unwanted links etc. But why are these websites so vulnerable, and is there no exception to it? There are always unscrupulous elements prowling around on webspace waiting for an opportunity to slip through any lapses of security.
The websites which run blog scripts or those employed for content management system software are more prone to vulnerability. The software used is also online along with your content, so if there is any security ambiguity in the software, then that could be employed by the hacker for malpractices.
Here are a few guidelines that will help to make your WordPress blog more secure.
Signs to watch out for:
The hacked blogs are generally defaced.
The hackers corrupt the blog with hidden links pointing to their sites. Google gives a higher rank to a site according to the number of links which point to it. Basically, their purpose is to make their site appear more important to the search engines.
The hackers also corrupt the unsuspecting blogger’s personal computers, who visit your site, by attaching many kinds of malware which automatically get installed.
But not all blogs get hacked. You can make your blog hacking-free by being vigilant and putting in security measures. Here are some methods to secure your WordPress blogs:
- Use security-related plugins, there are many free and reliable plugins available like WordFence.
- Use a WordPress firewall, which you can also do with WordFence.
- Rename the administrative account.
- Backup your database.
- Tighten up the file permissions.
- Encrypt all communication within ‘wp-admin’ directory.
- Constantly update your WordPress Blog and its plugin to latest versions. This is my most important tip and one of the best ways to keep your site secure.
- Encrypt your login.
- Use a strong password. This is another easy tip. Do not make your password the same as any other passwords you may have.
- Protect your wp-admin folder.
- Remove WordPress version info.
- Hide your plugins folder.
- Change your login name.
- Define user privileges.
In spite of all the risks of hacking we enjoy blogging, and if we put some basic security measures in place we can reduce the risks to an extent. Remember, to keep abreast of the latest security updates and use them while blogging.
