9 Simple Tips to Help Buff up Your WordPress Security!

Are you using WordPress? If you are then that’s a good choice. Easy to use, loads of great features and powerful SEO means it’s no surprise that WordPress is the world’s number one Content Management System (CMS).

But with that popularity, hackers are always getting attract easily towards WordPress and try a number of ways to exploit your site and hence hacking has become insanely common nowadays. No matter how many times WordPress security revamp, you constantly have to protect your website just to keep it from falling prey to hacking.

When you dedicate additional time to the security of your website, it deprives you of spending time on other important matters of your business. So you have to take out additional time from the working schedule which is also quite strenuous to your sanity.

However, you have to be vigilant of everything when it comes to your website, whether it is about installing a plugin or creating an add-on.

To get ahead of potential security threats, we’ve prepared the right measures to keep you ahead of the crooked minds. Here are the tips for WordPress Security given:

1. Do Not Use “Admin” As a Username

By using “admin” as your username, you’re leaving yourself prone to hackers and phishers. The only way to evade a malicious attempt from such elements, you need to use the different usernames.

For a strong layer of  WordPress security, we would suggest you that you should create a name with a combination of different characters and numbers. Similarly, you should not use an old username as it will be easier for an intruder to guess your name and enter into your website.

Therefore, you should create a different name using the above-mentioned criterion or by following the instructions laid out by wpmudev to avoid an invasion from cyber criminals.

2. Make a Solid Password

If you’re thinking of “12345” as your next password, you’re likely the most gullible person in the world. You have no idea how many users pick that kind of password to intrude in a website.

With this kind of password, it is impossible not to be hacked. To stop your website becoming a victim of your naivety, you should choose a strong password.

Don’t pick any password that hints anything about you or your websites, such as your name, birthday or website domain name as they are easy to predict.

Your password should be long enough to avoid an easy guess (at least 15 characters). Make sure that it has numbers and symbols. Use a password generating tools if you cannot do it yourself.

3. Change Your Password From Time To Time

No matter how strong or complex your password is, it can still be hacked. Therefore, you should keep changing it every now and then. At the very least, you should change it after every 72 days. By doing this, hackers will have no clue to hack your password.

It is also pretty effective against former employees who want to ruin your company to vent out their vendetta.

4. Use Two-Factor Authentication

WordPress has various apps to keep the interlopers at bay and a two-factor authentication is another addition to this set of apps. By far, the hottest app for the job is Clef, which you can operate from the screen of your mobile device.

You can log in without passwords, sign in and out and use a smartphone to access your site instead of using extra devices. Cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Google, and Apple iCloud are prime examples of this type of security.

5. Safeguard Your Email

You have to ensure that your email account is not accessed by the crooked elements. Leaving your email unattended for a long time can make it vulnerable to hackers.

To ensure the safety of your account, you should check your login history to see if there have been any unauthorized attempts to read your emails. If you find any suspicious access, you will be able to change your password and save it from theft.

6. Turn Off Login Hints

Avoiding a password hint is another way you can save your site from hackers. This is because it will make it easier for the hackers to access your site. Every time you type a wrong password, a login hint will show up.

You can turn this off from WordPress by adding the below code within your theme functions.php file.

function no_wordpress_errors(){
  return 'Something is wrong!';
}
add_filter( 'login_errors', 'no_wordpress_errors' );

After adding the above code, now if someone enters incorrect username, password, or email, WordPress would simply show the error ‘Something is wrong!’ without giving any hints.

7. Implementing Login Limits

Reducing the number of login attempts is a simple but effective way of preventing determined hackers and unauthorized manual login attempts. All that’s involved is a locking mechanism in the login retry of your WordPress login page.

The WP limit login attempts plugin lets you prevent any attempted brute force attack to your login page by blocking any IP addresses that cross the threshold of failed login attempts in any given time period.

8. Don’t Use the Same Secret Answer

If you use the same secret answer for all of your sites, you are just allowing the intruders to get access to your online business. By using the same password for every WP website, you will enable the hackers to inch even closer to taking control of your website.

To avoid making your websites vulnerable to illegitimate access, it is important to use a unique secret answer for each of your websites.

9. Keep Your Computer Free Of Viruses

Viruses provide a backdoor access for online thieves. Any kind of malware is bad and it can leave your WP websites vulnerable to illegal activities. The only solution to this issue is to install antivirus software that can prevent any viruses and malware programs to affect your website.

Additionally, you should keep updating the anti-virus program to synchronize it with latest tools to fights with potential threats.

Wrap Up:

There is a substantial amount of time and work that goes into the creation of a WP website and you would never want to waste all that efforts by making your websites falling prey to hacking and phishing. The above-mentioned 9 WordPress Security tips serve to provide you that shield against any such elements.

What are some things you do for WordPress security? If I miss some other things then feel free to put your comments.