Setting up a website and making it live is not the end of the story. The site must be audited, strengthened and ensured that it won’t be exploited by hackers. Since WordPress powers 25% websites of all, it is obvious that it is one of the most popular blogging and CMS system. Not a single website in the world is 100% secure and so are WordPress websites, but it’s your job to reinforce maximum security possible. Here are some few tips to secure a WordPress website which is also termed as “Hardening WordPress”.
Update version of WordPress
Updating the version of WordPress is a mandatory task because old versions are quite open to unauthorized attack. There’s an automatic update available from version 3.7 so you can see “Update WordPress” in the dashboard whenever WordPress is updated. Before updating WordPress make sure you’ve kept the backup of your site.
Choose a secured web hosting
A secured web hosting equals to a secure website. If price is the issue, VPN Black Friday Deals will ensure that the web hosting you choose has security as its primary element, has the latest version of PHP and SQL, web application firewall and system that detects intruders.
Insights into themes and plugins
Plugins and themes must be regularly updated to their latest versions because the latest ones come up with security patches. You must be careful while using the third party plugins and themes. Download or buy themes/plugins that have a good support system and have large download rates, ratings. The other thing to be considered is the date on which the plugin/theme is updated lately and unused ones can be deleted.
Safeguard your admin dashboard
The admin dashboard should be restricted to the unauthorized users. Also, the wp-admin folder and wp-login.php should not be accessible. You can also limit the number of login attempts by using plugins like Limit Login Attempts.
Never use “admin” as username
“admin” is the most presumed username by hackers which is also the default username given by WordPress after its installation. Novice WordPress developers might not have the idea about this but this is the most predictable username which makes their site vulnerable.
Use strong password
A strong password should be picked which is always the game changer for hackers who want to intrude into your website. Always choose unusual and random password comprised of capital letters, symbols, small letters, and numbers. Do not forget to remember the password you used!
