While working on a WordPress site, it’s of huge importance to check for your website security as being the priority among all. In the eyes of Google, if your website does not protect itself from malware, it blacklists the site, and there’s no use in working on the site.
If you want to make your website rank top on Google without any theft issues, make sure you lay stress upon its security. Here, we will inform you about methods that further help in protecting your website from hackers and other viruses.
Is WordPress not Secure?
As we talk about protecting your WordPress website from security breaches, it doesn’t mean that WordPress provides terrible security. Many website owners do not take it seriously that visiting third-party sites can cause security issues. Thus, most thefts happen due to the user’s lack of awareness as they indulge in unauthorized sites.
Regarding WordPress, its core software is highly secure, and several audits happen regularly. In addition, you can secure your site more by applying security measures to your website.
What do you need to secure a WordPress site?
The reason for securing your WordPress website is that it is always at risk of getting hacked on the web. More so, you can lose your data, significant assets and your credibility on the internet. Henceforth, it will cause security issues with your customer’s personal data.
Here are the most common types of WordPress security thefts that can take place –
- DDoS attack – It attacks the online services of a website and fills them up with unwanted connections. Further, it will make the website unable to access by the owner or any other user.
- CRSF (Cross-site request forgery) – It makes the user add up unlawful activities into a trusted web application.
- SQL Injection – It manipulates the data within the database and makes the system apply malicious queries.
- Authentication Bypass – They allow the hackers to have access to the website’s resources without checking their status or originality.
- Cross-site scripting – It inserts malicious code that surely turns your site into a transporter of malware activities.
Methods to Improve WordPress Website Security
Here we will inform you about general WordPress security tips that do not require much technical knowledge. These tasks are so simple that you can apply them yourself if you know much about WordPress websites and their features and functioning.
1. Update WordPress:
There are regular software updates that improve the performance and security of the site. Most of these updates will keep your website protected from cyber threats. Almost 50% of the websites on the web are running on an older version of WordPress. More so, that’s how they are not keeping your site secure from the cyber thefts occurring on the internet.
To be updated and more on the safer side of keeping your WordPress Website secure, open the admin page of your WordPress site and go to Dashboard -> Updates. There it will suggest if your current version is updated or not. Also, we would advise you to update your plugins and themes as they may not function properly with the updated version of WordPress.
2. Use Secure WordPress Admin Login:
Usually, most people choose easy-to-guess user names for their sites. Doing this makes them an easy target for hackers to attack them with their simple approach to website security. More so, the negative thing would be that neither they have a valid username nor strong passwords. Thus, they are easily targeted by attackers for keeping such low security of their site.
3. Use Trusted Themes & Plugins:
One can choose from a thousand themes and plugins on WordPress depending upon their industry and type of business. Many times you may come across unauthorized versions of original themes that cause security issues. Users may tend to purchase them as they can be placed at lower prices to attract customers.
In any case, if you are using such themes and plugins, know that they will exploit your data and other belongings on the site. Therefore, to avoid becoming a pick for hackers, make sure you choose themes and plugins wisely.
4. Enable Web Application Firewall:
The easiest way to keep your WordPress site secure from theft is using a Web Application Firewall. WAF’s main aspect is blocking malicious traffic so that it does not reach your site.
It will help your website to avoid traffic that’s not genuine or does not examine the servers of the origin. Several firewall protection applications can clean up the malware and keep your site secure.
5. Download SSL Certificate:
If you know anything about SSL or Secure Sockets Layer, install it onto your WordPress site and be secure from cybercrime activities. In simple terms, it is a data transfer protocol that allows or disallows the information that’s being transferred between the website and the visitor.
Likewise, using an SSL certificate on your website will boost the SEO and help attract more visitors. Thus, it will make it difficult for attackers to gather essential data from the websites.
Conclusion
No matter what CMS your website runs, attackers will always risk hacking your website. Similarly, taking protective measures from the beginning will keep you safe from future attacks on your site. If you need help, you may also hire WordPress developers from us and let them do the work!
There can be many other methods of securing your WordPress website, but the above-stated ones are the simplest and most impactful ones. Also, securing a WordPress site is not a one-time task; you continuously need to check for updates and several other measures.