Self-hosted WordPress are highly customizable and because of this flexibility, millions of people have chosen to build their web properties on this platform. And due to this popularity, WordPress has long been a favorite target of hackers and bots. Without further ado, here are five simple ways you can secure your WordPress website.
Since WordPress is a popular open website Development source, the Coding is available to everyone, even Hackers. This is why WordPress gets updated frequently, to close off those vulnerabilities. And the major reason you should have you site maintained. if you don’t update your software regularly, you’re leaving your website open to attack. Not to mention, you’re missing out on key improvements and new features. Each update also brings about bug fixes, new features, improved performance, and other updates to stay up to date with current industry standards.
It’s not difficult updating your website, as long as you have some knowledge of coding and some PHP basics. When you’ve updated your software, you’re helping your website remain secure. When hackers search for non-updated sites to attack and victimize, you’re safely off that list. And you can breathe easy knowing you’ve got time until the next update!
It might sound strange, but yes, people still do use ‘admin’ as both their username and password. That’s kind of silly when you think about it. It’s practically the first login combination people use when they try to access a website they have no authority to!
If you really want to make your website secure, then you have to think harder. After all, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to give just about anyone access to your files so they can do with it as they please.
You also don’t want to use your name, your last name, your birthday, or something easy like that as your username and password. If your name’s John, Edward, Michael, Grace, Helen, or whatever common name you have, don’t use it as your username.
Especially if your domain is a combination of your first name and last name! That’s far too easy to guess, and you’re really giving your hackers a chance to access your website.
When thinking of a username and password, you can use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. I know you’ll probably
find it hard to memorize, but you can always keep your log in details somewhere safe.
You can either write it down the old-fashioned way, and hide it somewhere safe, away from prying eyes. Or you can use a free password manager like LastPass, which can generate hard-to-guess usernames and passwords for you.
The thing with password managers though is you have to remember the master password. If you lose your master password, you may find it hard to recover your private details. Never forget where you keep a copy of your master password, so you don’t inadvertently lose access to login details for your favorite websites.
Alternatively, you can also try looking into using two-factor authentication for your WordPress website. When you log in to your site, you’ll also get a passcode sent to your smartphone or tablet which you then need to enter in your site within 5 or 10 minutes.
This lessens the chances of anybody hacking into your site. Because even if they know the username and password, but they don’t have access to your device, then they still won’t be getting in. The idea is really simple, but it works to keep your website safe from hackers and other malicious people!
The problem with being online is that with a simple copy and paste, someone can easily rip off your content. Sometimes they even copy verbatim and post it as if it was their creative juice that came up with the content.
Thus, it is important to secure your posts, photos, videos, music, and the lot. Piracy is a thing, and it is eating the blogging and website industry.
First off, make sure to put watermarks on your photos and videos. Don’t make it obnoxiously big though, just the right ratio between the actual watermark and the photo.
Some use their own logo, some use graphics, some use simple text and just put in their website address. Whatever your preference in watermark is, make sure you turn it into a habit. Protect what’s yours.
Second, disable copy-paste and right-clicking. Content piracy can be done by anyone, regardless if they are a “techie” or not. You can minimize content theft by disabling keyboard shortcuts like Cut, Copy, and Paste.
For your self-hosted WordPress site, there are a lot of free plugins that you can install such as “WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click.” This plugin will disable keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+S and Ctrl+V in just a few clicks.
Protecting your content is important. After all, you spend hours creating just one piece of valuable content! So, it’s truly unfair if someone were to steal all your hard work without giving you credit for it.
While making your site thief-proof is a challenge, you can add a Terms of Use page for your website where you let people know how they can use your content.
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It’s what makes a website’s URL go from “HTTP” to “HTTPS”. Websites with “HTTPS” are secure, and normally your browser will display a green padlock at the top if your site has SSL.
If you haven’t installed SSL yet, browsers like Chrome and Firefox will tell your website visitors that they are visiting an unsafe website which will turn most of your visitors away!
This is important if your website is an online store where you require your buyers to enter their sensitive information, such as their name, address, contact information, and payment information.
Having SSL gives your customers the confidence to give you their information.
If I’m a buyer, and I see that my information will not be secure if I buy from you, then I won’t be buying no matter how enticing your product is.
With SSL installed on your WordPress website, your customers won’t have to worry about having their payment details stolen by third-parties like hackers and bots. SSL allows encrypted data to be shared between your web server and your customer’s browser, so hackers “listening” in on the transaction won’t be able to make sense of the data being transmitted.
If you search “google requires SSL,” you will see that Google itself aggressively encourages eCommerce websites to have SSL, or they will flag your site as “not secure.” You and I both know that is not going to look good to your clients and potential customers.
Many commercial web hosts now include free SSL with their hosting plans. If your host doesn’t offer free SSL, you can still use Let’s Encrypt SSL which is a free, automated and open Certificate Authority.
Installing though will take some technical know-how, so if you’re not confident in your technical skills, you can either hire a developer to do it for you or you can just go with a web hosting provider that offers free SSL!
Popular sites can get defaced by hackers at any time. Even if you are a “small” website, make sure that if unfortunately, that happens to you, you are secured by the fact that you have a copy of everything, and it’s just a matter of re-uploading your content.
It’s not just about the hackers, though. It is important to have a copy of everything should there be a case where your files on your local computer get corrupted.
Sometimes, your hosting provider might do an update for added features or added security, and the update MIGHT go wrong, erasing all your files. You panic for a minute, then you rest easy because you have a copy of your site’s data and you can simply re-upload it to your web server.
Or, how about the horror of viruses! A malicious email or software opened by a naïve employee, and your files will be gone forever. Avoid this by having regular backups, and perhaps train your employees to learn how to recognize malicious software from a legit one.
Human as we are, we tend to make mistakes. Employee errors on website files? That can be catastrophic. If you have a back-up of your site, you can go back to a working version of your site and continue with your business as usual.
Just think about it this way: with regular backups, you’ll have the reassurance and peace of mind that you have all your WordPress files saved.
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