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How to Secure Your WordPress Site? Five Ways to Keep it Safe and Sound

Author: Chirag Shivalker
by Chirag Shivalker
Posted: Jul 01, 2015

WordPress, the free and open-source tool and of course one of the most popular content management system is based on PHP and MySQL. With features such as plugin architecture and a template system since its launch in 2003 has attained so much popularity that today it is being used by more than 23.3% of the top 10 million websites. This implies the kind of boost it has given to WordPress Website Development and Custom WordPress CMS development companies.

But beware; this CMS platform perfectly crafted for both bloggers and e-commerce players is not the one without imperfections. It has its own set of drawbacks which you cannot and should not ignore. As we all know – the more popular a website, more attractive it becomes for hackers and some pesky users. The technology has advanced and so has advanced the hacking tools, making it all the more easy for hackers to enter WordPress sites and cripple its rightfulness. Top WordPress Website Development Companies do have the key to this challenge, but you need to be open for professional help.

Believe it or not, but WordPress sites are lagging behind when it comes to security, and that may be due to lack of caution and knowledge of its users and WordPress website developers. Considerable numbers of WordPress websites are victimized with unpleasant cyber-attacks, which force a lot of users to come forward and protect their site from possible coercions.

In this article today, we will discuss some general tack tics suggested by one of the best offshore WordPress development company, which users can conveniently implement to safeguard their WordPress websites against spam attacks, malware and of course hacking. Follow these easy steps and keep bad guys at bay, up to certain extent.

WordPress Updates – all of them are for your site as well

Needless to say that operating your WordPress site with the latest version is the obvious and basic security measure you cannot miss on and it is easy to implement as well. WordPress Website Developers usually integrate auto update in the initial phase itself. Running on outdated version never helps, as hackers’ core focus is to hack these websites. Software developers are well aware of it and hence when they want you to update a software, they are empowering you to make your website secure. You benefit out of freebies like better features, bug fixes, and various other improvements. This certainly ensures a sustainable feature of your website. You can hire WordPress developers conveniently so as to help yourself focus on your core business activities.

Plugins and Themes

Plugin enumeration is the technique through which hackers can easily find out the count of plugins your WordPress site is currently using. They use it to break in to your site and make security weak against attacks. So how will you avoid this? Ensure you reduce the plugin installation to the least minimum possible, and choose only the themes and plugins that are actually required. Get away with the ones that are not useful. Also you are supposed to be selective in the initial stage – before installations. Speak to a WordPress custom plugin development company – if required. Read all the instructions carefully and check when your chosen theme or plugin was last updated, as mentioned in the aforesaid point. WordPress theme customization is very much possible as you know so do not wait for something to happen.

Default Username – get over with it, it is high time

It will be a very big mistake to underestimate the hackers as they are well aware of security vulnerabilities of the "admin" username that is created by WordPress at the time of installation. Change default WordPress user name immediately if you are still using it, as hackers can burst into your website. You can change it to something else so as to protect yourself from getting victimized.

You may conveniently change the "admin" username, in two different ways:

  • Create another admin user and assign them some admin permissions. So now you can log in with a new username while do not forget to delete the old one.
  • In a scenario, if your user is assigned with multiple pages and posts and you are not in favor of assigning them again, please go ahead and change the username through PHPMyAdmin. Follow these steps:
    • Sign in to your cPanel
    • Go to PHPMyAdmin
    • Click on the WordPress database
    • Search WP users
    • Select the "admin" user
    • Change the user log in field with the name you want to change

Inactive Users are as such inactive – limit their power and access

Administrators usually have the rights to edit content, assign roles and trust me, assigning roles is more vulnerable to the possibility of being harmed. If you have multiple users under you, observing, managing and keeping a record of all such activities for everyone is a scary task. To add up to these challenges there would be users who choose weak passwords, and are like open invitation for malicious activities or other cyber-attacks. Why don’t you switch their role to ‘subscriber" for all those who are on the list of inactive users in your WordPress database? This will limit their authorities and power to make changes in your website.

Security Keys – complicate them to secure them

Alike passwords, security keys are yet another important aspect of a WordPress site. These are the keys that assist you to keep thugs away and enhance the security level of your website. Why don’t you try using unique, random, and lengthy security keys? Or maybe you can bring in use some of those special characters and several other random combinations, to complicate the security key as much as possible.

Conclusion

Reinforcing the security of a WordPress site, should ideally not bother you. It’s really easy and is no rocket science. You just need to hire WordPress developers, equipped with strong knowledge to heighten the security benchmark of your WordPress website.

About the Author

Chirag Shivalker heads the Content team, at Hi-Tech ITO. Sharing and learning interesting information about WordPress customization tips & traps and technologies - is what he cherishes

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  • jankithakkar  -  5 years ago

    Nice post..Thanks for sharing this..

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Author: Chirag Shivalker

Chirag Shivalker

Member since: Jun 30, 2015
Published articles: 3

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