WordPress security practice is an aspect you need to pay maximum attention to if you care about your website. Thousands of websites are blacklisted every day for malware and phishing. A hacked WordPress website can damage business reputation and spread malware to users.
Security is not all about the elimination of risk; it also entails the reduction of risk. Here, we will be discussing the steps you can follow to secure your WordPress website against vulnerability.
How to secure your WordPress website
- Install a WordPress backup solution
Backups act as a defense against attacks. It allows one to swiftly restore the WordPress site in case of any noticed malware or hack. The most important thing you should know when using backups is that you must regularly save full site backups to a remote location different from your hosting account.
- Enable Web Application Firewall (WAF)
WAF blocks all malicious traffic before it even arrives at your website.
- DNS level website firewall
This routes your website traffic via their proxy server.
- Change default admin username
Username is one of WordPress login credentials. Leaving your username as admin makes your WordPress account more prone to attacks. Admin username can be changed by:
- Creating a new admin username and deleting the old one
- Using the username changer plugin
- Updating your username from phpMyAdmin
- Disable file editing:
WordPress enables you to edit your themes and plugin files due to the presence of a built-in code editor. This can be carried out right from your admin area. If this feature falls into the wrong hands, it can be precarious. Therefore, it is recommended that you turn it off. This can be easily done by adding the code below to your work-config.php file.
// Disallow file edit
define( DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT, true );
- Limit login attempts:
WordPress allows you to log in as many times as you want. This makes your WordPress account prone to attacks. Most of the time, hackers try to login using various combinations of your username and password, and if care is not taken, they might eventually get the credentials right.
To prevent this, limit the failed login attempts a user can make. If WAF (Web Application Firewall) is in place, it will automatically take care of this.
- Protect admin and login page with password:
Without any form of restriction, hackers can request your wp-admin folder and login page. Adding additional password protection on your server-side level can effectively block those requests.
- Add security questions to WordPress login screen:
This makes it very hard for anyone to get unauthorized access to your account. This can be done by using the WordPress security questions plugin.
- Scanning for malware and vulnerabilities:
WordPress security plugins help to check for malware and security breaches. A scan should be conducted when a sudden drop in website ranking or search ranking is noticed. Security scanners can only scan your website; they cannot remove the malware or vulnerabilities.
- Automatically log out idle users:
Being idle when logged in can pose a considerable security risk. When a user is inactive, their session can be easily hijacked, and various changes might be made to their account. This can be affected by using the setting then clicking on inactive logouts.
As important as protecting a physical store is to business owners, so is protecting a business website to an online business owner.
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