WordPress is a widespread content management system. It’s easy to use, offers thousands of themes and plugins to build any website. According to the latest WordPress statistics 2020, WordPress powers 35% of the internet in 2020. However, its popularity seems expensive when you are targeted by Hackers. Hacked Website Threat Report – 2019 has revealed that 94% of WordPress sites have been infected in the year 2019.
Here is the bar chart showing CMS Infection comparison 2018/2019:
Whether you have a personal portfolio, company website, or online store, protecting your WordPress website should be at the top of your list. Here are a few steps that help to keep your WordPress site secure:
1. Choose CMS with optimum security features
The initial step in your WordPress security is to invest in a hosting provider that incorporates proper security features. The feature should include compatibility with the updated version of MySQL, PHP, Apache with a firewall as well round the clock security monitoring. Moreover, there should be a malware scan and regular backupsregular backups. You may go with a CMS provider that uses different DDOS prevention measures. Your hosting provider may be the first target of a hacker to access your vulnerable information. Therefore, make sure to invest in an expensive hosting provider, it will well worth your money.
2. Move your WordPress site to SSL/HTTPS
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer; it is a protocol that encrypts the information that is transmitted between your website and a user’s browser. This encryption protocol makes sniffing and information stealing almost impossible for anyone.
When SSL is installed on your website, you can see the sign of a padlock next to your website address in the browser and your site starts using HTTPS rather than HTTP. If you are thinking cheap SSL, then you can consider one of the reputed SSL providers naming SSL2BUY. SSL certificate from SSL2BUY will give you all benefits that will enrich your website security. You can secure your multiple domains as well as unlimited subdomains with a multi domain wildcard SSL certificate. It is a cost-effective SSL certificate.
3. Use complex passwords
Make sure that your passwords and your hosting account area are secure for your WordPress Website. It is for safety of your website to create a strong password that includes uppercase and lowercase, special characters, etc. You can also create and store secure passwords with a password manager like LastPass.
4. Consider using a contributor or an editor account for posts
This is one more step to go further in your security path, consider creating an account for contributors and editors for adding new articles and posts to your website. This makes it more difficult for hackers to hack a website as writers and editors. They do not have administrative privileges to harm your site.
5. Ensure using Backup Plugin
One of the safest ways to secure your WordPress website is to back up your site regularly and stay up to date with easily available data versions off-site. Despite having an optimum security level on your site, nothing is 100% safe and foolproof. So, make sure to keep backups regularly, it gets on with your WordPress site quickly if something goes wrong. You may install a backup plug-in for automatic backups.
6. Harden the admin area
To harden the admin area, the default administrative URL needs to be updated and the amount of failed login attempts must be minimized before a user locks out of your site. When you create a website on WordPress, the default admin URL is like mydomain.com/wp-admin. Every hacker knows this, and they can easily get access to your site through this default admin URL. Thus, ensure to use a plugin that will hide your admin login area and change the default admin URL.
7. Stay up to date
Whether it is an outdated antivirus or firewall or any other software on your website, it may pose severe security risks to your site as it opens a window for hackers to get in and exploit. That’s why you must install updates as they come out. While updating your software, ensures to go through your installed plugins and delete that are not in use for longer.
8. Set up Two-Factor Authentication
Another simple way to enhance the protection in WordPress is to use two-factor authentication (2FA) on the login page. In a two-step login, a regular password with a secret code/question is needed.
A common 2FA method requires that users authenticate their login detail using their phone or app, such as Google Authenticator.
9. Change the file permissions
If your .htaccess and wp-config.php files are fully secured, you can live a few years longer in your cPanel by validating file permissions for your Website’ files and folders. WordPress state that the permissions should be set as below:
- All files should be 644 or 640.
- All directories should be 755 or 750.
- wp-config.php should be 600.
If settings are not the same, hackers can take advantage of it and read/alter the content and its files or folders. It could then lead to site hacking as well other sites running on the same server.
10. Website scanning
If WordPress protection plug-in is installed on your website, the malware and signs of security breaches should be reviewed regularly. Moreover, you must run a scan manually if you see a sudden decline in website traffic or search rankings. You can use malware and vulnerability scanners with your WordPress security plugin for more safety. You just need to enter your website URLs to run an online scan, and crawlers start searching for well-known malware and malicious code. Now keep in mind that these online scanners can detect the malware and malicious code but cannot remove them.
Conclusion
Hackers update their hacking tricks constantly, so you must stay updated with your websites. These are some of the latest tips and advice to avoid hacking on the WordPress website. You should carefully follow these steps to make your site better by investing fewer bucks.
