Let me start by saying that I’m no WordPress Security expert, but after dealing with a few “hacked” sites last year, I would definitely like to offer a couple of WordPress Security Tips. Hopefully you won’t have to go through the same issues if you take a few precautions.
It all starts with your password
That’s right, choosing the right password is the first step in making it harder for someone to get access to your site.
Use a Monitoring Plugin
The thing with hackings is that most of the time you don’t even know what hit you until your site is down.
By using very easy passwords to crack, such as your site name plus a combination of numbers, you are literally asking for trouble. Best case scenario would be a that a young hacker would bring your site down just because he or she can and leave a notice behind, pointing out your obvious disregard for online security. The online world, just like the real one, is not nice and some people will try to have fun at your expense.
Don’t know if your password is strong enough?
A good starting point could be Microsoft’s Password Checker. This very useful tool can give you an idea of how weak or how strong your current password is. In addition, as a WordPress user, I think you could also benefit from changing the username from the common admin, to something harder to figure out.
From personal experience, I can honestly say that Wordfence has brought a whole new level of awareness to my site’s security. As I said earlier, without a monitoring plugin, you only now you have been hacked when your site is down. Wordfence provides real time monitoring of hacking attempts and you can also scan your WordPress site for malware.
If you found this article useful, please share it with friends or clients that are using WordPress as their website’s CMS. Sometimes, a couple of WordPress Security Tips can go a long way.