There
has been a lot of speculation regarding the security of Wordpress
website. Being an owner of a website which is built on Wordpress,
you might be concerned about the security of your site. Your
Wordpress website is fully secure and reliable if you will take the
necessary precautions.
Your
Wordpress website can be made unbreachable for hackers provided you
will take few early precautions. Hare are some tips for you to follow
in order to make your website full proof. These simple but useful
steps if followed properly will surely save your website from being
hacked.
1.
Removal of WP Version generator from the header
By
default Wordpress speaks about its version and there is no need to
specify it again to your users. Beside there is no need to mention
the version of your wordpress, it can also be a helping hand to the
hackers. The hackers can get the details more precisely about your
version and can breach your security wall. You can simply remove your
version from the header by adding a snippet code to your theme's
function.php
file.
2.
Password protected wp-admin along with htaccess
Using
htaccess
will make your wp-admin
password protected, making it more secure for you. By doing so
you can create a powerful 2-step authentication for reaching your
administration backend. Your hackers will find it tougher to breach
this security wall. You can block the hackers at the “apache”
level instead of the Wordpress login page. This step will secure your
site tremendously making it tougher for the hackers to breach it.
3.
Protecting all wp-including files along with htaccess
On
account of your Wordpress core files being standardized, the location
of your core files can be found out. If the hackers can get access to
your core files, the consequences are bound to be severe. Try to
protect
your core files by using htaccess which will make it inaccessible
to the hackers. There is every possibility of losing your valuable
and important information to hackers if your core files are
vulnerable. Make it more secure by using htaccess.
4.
Moving the wp-configured file
You
should make every attempt to protect your wp-config.php
file from being hacked. Wordpress gives you this unique facility
to move your wp-config.php file out of the docroot, making it
difficult for the hackers to locate the access. Being one of the most
important Wordpress file, it should be secured in the best possible
way. Follow this simple step to give it a hard time to hackers if
they want to get access to this file.
5.
Installing the (BBQ) Block Bad Queries plugin
Simply
stating, this plugin scans all the incoming traffic and blocks any
malicious and doubtful elements. There will be hundreds of visitors
on your website on a daily basis, there can be uninvited and
unidentified items which should be checked before allowing access.
This plugin will give you the necessary security from malicious
requests. Integrate this plugin so that your website becomes more
secure against unwanted and unidentified elements.
6.
Disabling core plugin along with theme updates
This
is to prevent the hacker from doing further damage to your website.
Default Wordpress gives the hacker ability to edit theme and plugin
files once he has entered your site. Though the hacker will do
damages, its severity can be minimised. You can add this snippet of
code to your wp-config.php to prevent hacker from making changes in
these files. Your hacker if somehow manages to enter your website
should not be allowed to do maximum damage.
7.
Creating new author slugs for every user
Wordpress
by default gives an author “slug”
to all users which is nothing but the username of the user. You can
easily have an access to these slugs like
sitename.com/author/username. By giving the slugs you have actually
done half of the work of hackers. They have 50% information and they
just need the password now. Add Edit Author Slug Plugin which allows
you to manually edit “slug”, making it difficult for the hackers
to get the username of the user.
8.
Shutting down your XML RPC
This
is a pinging technology which is built inside Wordpress. XML
RPC is the technology which is leveraged by hackers these days
for massive DDOS
attacks. Since you do not want to get involved in any of those
attacks by hackers, integrate this plugin. This plugin will turn off
your XML RPC so that no hacker can get advantage of it without you
even knowing it. Do not give any chance to hackers to take advantage
of loopholes in your website.
9.
Making your passwords more complex
Probably
the most common mistake we do is to keep simple password which can be
easily remembered. Do not give any chance to the hackers to guess and
predict your password by keeping an easy and simple password. Use a
separate and complicated password for each user in wordpress. Make
sure you store these passwords somewhere to refer in case of
emergency. Also you should change your password a few times within a
year.
10.
Setting up a security scanning service
Install
a robust and effective security scanning service for your Wordpress
website. Integrating a security scan will ensure that all your files
and other informations are secure and protected. It should warn you
against any suspicious element which can be repaired or removed
before it starts affecting your website's function. An effective and
reliable security
scanning service will alert you before hackers can damage your
website severely.
