WordPress security has always been a matter of concern for many website owners. Being an open source it is often believed to be vulnerable enough for all sorts of attacks. You cannot blame WordPress for being vulnerable but sometimes it might just not be WordPress but something terribly wrong at your end.
There are some responsibilities that fall under your shelter as well. The crucial question as always, what measures you are taking to prevent your site from being hacked?
This article will provide you with some simple tricks to secure your WordPress website.
Protect your Login Page
Everyone has the knowledge about the typical WordPress login page URL. Access to the back-end is done from there, as it becomes obvious for people to brute force in.
The recommended action here is to properly customize your login page URL and more importantly page’s interaction.
Here are some solutions on how to secure the login page:
Lockdown Feature and Banning Users
There will be many users who will keep trying, to login to your website to get an access. This can be a potential threat, the better way to avoid such threats, is by adding a lockdown feature for number of failed login attempts. That would prevent brute force attempts. This will also notify you when there are hacking attempts with numerous failed passwords and the site will perform an automatic lockdown.
You can either use Wordfence or iThemes Security, two of the best plugin out there to protect your website from such threats. These plugins will help you assign certain numbers to the failed login attempt which then bans the hackers IP address. WordPress Development Experts and the larger WordPress communities have guidelines for you to keep your website secured.
Adding 2-factor Authentication
Adding 2-factor Authentication is also another way to secure your WordPress website. The user here has to provide the login details for two distinct component. It comes down to the owner, who has to decide what those components should be. Like the password will be followed by adding a security question or simply adding a secret code, to enhance the security level.
You can use Authy or WP Google Authenticator to add 2fa (2-factor Authentication) onto your website for the users to have better security and prevent any potential threats.
Make use of your email to login
In WordPress, you have to put your username to login by default. It is better to use your email id and keep your WordPress site on secured end. The reasons here are more than obvious, because generally user names are predictable but email IDs aren’t.
WordPress offers a unique email address to the users by making them the only valid user for login.
It is advisable to use WP email login plugin. Once activated, without any configuration it starts working.
Regularly change your Password
Passwords are more than important and changing them regularly will do justice to your WordPress website. Keep your passwords strong by adding some special characters or adding upper and lower cases to the letters.
Password generator or PWGen (Password Generator tool) are two best tools that you can use for levelling up your security.
Keep your Admin Dashboard Secured
Hackers would always try and target the most secured part of any website, which in WordPress is its Dashboard. Attacking the strongest part and hacking it would be a victory for the hacker, which in result would do a fair amount of damage to your website.
But you can prevent such threats by these methods.
Protecting your wp-admin directory
The wp-admin directory is the most important part of any WordPress website and if it gets hacked, the entire site will witness a huge amount of damage.
Keeping your wp-admin directory password protected can prevent you from being attacked by hackers. As a website owner, you have the access to the dashboard and you can also submit two passwords to add extra security. One password protects the login page and the other WordPress admin.
You can unlock only the areas of wp-admin that user wishes to use and while locking down the rest of the areas.
Keep an eye on user accounts
It becomes obvious for multiple people to access your admin panel if you have WordPress blog or happen to run multiple-author blog. This makes your website vulnerable to potential security threats.
Force Strong Password is considered the best plugin for your users to use. Their passwords will be very well protected.
You’ll have to monitor your Files
Monitoring the changes that occur in website’s files will provide you with some extra security. You can use plugins like iThemes Security or even Wordfence for monitoring your website’s files.
You need to backup your website regularly
Improving your website is a never ending process. Keeping an offsite back is more than necessary and it could be your saviour, if things go wrong with your website.
You can always restore your WordPress website and make it run normally as usual. Plugins like blogVault offer great security solutions and with a decent interface you can easily backup all your data and keep it well secured.
Hide your WordPress version number
The WordPress version of your website can be viewed through your sites source view and it might create problems for your website. The work of the hacker gets much easier if they know your version number and by that they can plan out their attack on your website.
You can always hide your version number through security plugins such as iTheme Security or any other security plugin out there.
Here at Helios Solutions we offer great solution and deliver the best results to our clients. Our WordPress Development Specialists have their expertise in WordPress and can help you make your website well secured.
