Fortunately, there are four easy things every website owner can do, usually without the help of a developer, to make their website more secure.
Most common WordPress security issues and vulnerabilities
First, let's take a look at some of the most common WordPress vulnerabilities and issues that cybercriminals tend to exploit when attacking a website:
Outdated WordPress Core
Having an outdated WordPress is one of the things hackers look for on a website. That's why you need to be on the lookout when an update comes out for a program or library.
Outdated Themes and Plugins
Make sure all your themes and plugins are up to date, so that any existing bugs are fixed with the latest version.
Brute force attacks
You can stop brute force attacks in several ways, such as using a security plugin or having brute force mitigation with your web host.
Malware
Prevent malware from being injected into your website by various means, such as regular malware scanners and cleaning services.
DoS or DDoS attacks
One way to prevent these types of attacks is to have a caching system or DDoS mitigation system built into your web hosting provider's infrastructure.
Poor accommodation environment
When looking for a web hosting provider, make sure they have a good reputation, deep knowledge of WordPress, and most importantly, are trustworthy.
Improve your WordPress security in five easy steps
Are you ready to tackle these vulnerabilities on your own? To take the burden off of you, I have five easy steps to make your WordPress website more secure in just a few clicks:
1. Change the administrator username
This is pretty obvious. If you're still using admin, administrator , or something that's really easy to guess, STOP! Look, to access your website, an attacker needs two things, a username and a password. If you use a default admin username, then you've given them half of what they need. Let's make it a little harder, shall we?
To change the admin name, you can do it manually or you can install a plugin. Since plugins slow down your website and you would only need it to do this, let's do it manually instead.
Sign in with your existing administrator account.
Under “Users,” click “Add New.”
Create a new user and assign it the role of administrator. Set the username to anything you want EXCEPT Administrator, admin, or your name. (Yes, attackers will probably know this, since your company's Facebook account is linked to your personal page.)
Log out of WordPress and log back in with your new admin user.
Click “Users” to list your users, and under your original admin account, click “Delete.” Make sure to select “Attribute content to” and select your new admin account so you don’t lose any content.
If you want to disable common usernames with a single click, install the SiteGround Security plugin. It is a free tool that provides easy options to secure your website and will greatly improve the security of your WordPress. Use it to disable the creation of common usernames and if you already have one or more users with a weak username, it will prompt you to provide a new one. Also, when toggled, a popup will appear where you can choose a new username and automatically replace the existing weak ones.
2. Use strong passwords
Yes, everyone loves using their birthday as a password. You know who loves it the most? Attackers. See, weak passwords are easy to guess.
If you post on your social media: “Frozen II is my FAVORITE MOVIE! I’m going to see it tomorrow for my birthday!”, you’ve given an attacker a vital piece of information. At this point, they’ll start trying passwords and usernames related to the movie.
Anything you've posted on social media gives attackers a little more information to work with. TIP: Using l33tsp34k ( Leet Speak ) or replacing letters with numbers doesn't fool attackers either. They figured that out before you did.
So what works? Strong passwords. Long, random strings of letters and symbols are great. The problem with these is that because they're hard to remember, we tend to write them down. If you lose the piece of paper (either physical or electronic) that you wrote them down on, then a hacker has the keys to the kingdom.
WordPress now has the functionality to generate strong passwords, but it doesn’t mexico whatsapp number data require them. However, there are plugins that will enforce this. I don’t make a habit of recommending WordPress security plugins, but if you go to wordpress.org/plugins and search for “Strong Passwords,” you’ll find several to choose from.
Install one of these plugins.
If you have regular users on your site, such as administrators, authors, etc., you may only want to enforce strong passwords on your top-level accounts to reduce the complexity your users have when registering and logging into your website.
Oh! And if you're wondering how to deal with strong passwords without writing them down, invest in a password manager. Most modern ones work on both desktop and mobile devices and will sync your data across all your devices.
>> Download the free ebook “22 steps to keep your WordPress safe” <<
3. Implement two-step verification (2FA)
Two-factor authentication (or 2FA) is not a new security concept. For decades, financial institutions have used “Fobs” (small devices that can be attached to your keychain that have a screen and generate a constantly changing number) as an additional factor for logging in.
