There is one thing that is usually unique to technology; the more it develops, the more cybercrime becomes prevalent. WordPress is one of the most popular content management sites; it is used by millions of bloggers and businesses too. Unfortunately, it also hosts several malicious hackers.
Cybercriminals are often geared towards getting hold of customer data, ranging from addresses to credit card information. Their motives are often diverse. It could be to create chaos or even extort the victims. Whichever the case, the damage caused is usually magnificent. Therefore, as a webmaster, you need to do everything possible to protect your WordPress website from being attacked by these malicious individuals. Below are the simple ways in which you can protect your WordPress website.
1. Make your passwords stronger
The one mistake that most webmasters make is creating and using weak passwords. These make their site soft targets. You should, therefore, put in more effort while creating passwords. It is always best to have complicated combinations that will give the hackers a hard time guessing. For instance, instead of using stand-alone letters, integrating numbers and asterisks. The sad part is that these hackers always improvise and find a way out.
For this reason, you should also regularly change your password for an extra layer of protection. You might have a few challenges remembering the password. You can simply save them on your Gmail account or write them down on a notebook. It is also important that you keep your passwords private. Controlling who can access them goes a long way in ensuring that they do not land in the wrong hands.
2. Restrict login attempts
You might have noticed that WordPress usually have unlimited login attempts. What you might not know is that it is good news to malicious hackers. Why? They can make as many login attempts as they need to break into your website. And the chances are high that one of the guesses they make on the password might go through. It is therefore advisable to eliminate this weak point.
It is straightforward, you can, for example, limit the login attempts to about three. The fewer the chances you give the hackers, the safer your website will be.
3. You should stop ignoring updates
People have a tendency of turning down suggestions connected to updating software. What you do not is that by that, you are giving the hackers an easy way into your WordPress website. These updates are usually there for security reasons. There are other times that you might miss out on the update notifications. At that point, you can go to the settings and automate them. Newer versions of the site are always foolproof.
4. Two-factor authentication
Passwords do a significant job. Nevertheless, you can never trust them to offer your site 100 percent protection. What happens if a hacker is able to crack the code and access your website? You will certainly go at a loss. It is for this reason that you are advised to add another layer of security: two-factor authentication. Passwords alone can never be enough. You need something more.
It is pretty simple, things, like receiving verification codes on your smartphone or even giving answers to personal or secret questions, will go a long way in ensuring that the hackers do not break into your website in the first attempt. It is tedious but better safe than sorry.
5. Avoid public wireless connections
Everyone loves to go to that restaurant that has free Wi-Fi. While that allows you to have a great internet connection away from your home, it has a disadvantage. It makes your WordPress website vulnerable to hackers. Man-in-the-middle attacks are common in events where people use public wireless connections. If you can, try to avoid them.
You also have a safer alternative. You can create a hotspot with your smartphone data and still get a strong internet connection.
6. Backup your WordPress databases
Remember that most of the malicious hackers will be targeting your data. The might want to steal it for malicious purposes or, they can get rid of it to cause sabotage or create chaos. Just to be safe, you can keep your data out of harm’s way by backing up your WordPress database. It is not complicated at all, and it works almost the same way remote MySQL backup does.
7. Use the premium themes
The best things are free. This is a slogan that you should probably hold onto when it comes to WordPress themes. While the free ones still come in handy, you are better off parting with a few bucks to keep your site safe.
As usual, you will always get value for your money. The role of creating premium themes is often left for the more experienced developers. Therefore, you can trust these themes not to have loopholes that could allow intruders into your site.
More so, the sites with premium themes tend to receive more attention. Therefore if you run into problems, you will get assistance much faster. You should thus, by all means, avoid associating with cracked themes. The themes will do you more harm than good. Some of them actually have malicious codes that could bring your website to crumbles.
8. Use WordPress Security Plugin
You can always keep malware away from your site. All you need is a WordPress security plugin that will regularly do scans and detect any unusual activity in your site.
Websites need to be protected. As a blogger or as a business, you have so much to lose if hackers manage to invade your site. Unfortunately, some of the damage is irreversible. In case the sensitive customer data will be passed to malicious hackers, your business could be sued for it. With the tips above, you will keep your WordPress website clear of hackers or any malicious activities. It does not matter the size of your site.
Stay safe!
