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From just a simple blog to a business website running on WordPress, protecting it from hackers and security threats is equally important and that is something you just cannot compromise. Do you know the hackers one sudden day can just prevent you to login as administrator while just tampering with all your contents? Yes, the threat of hacking is real and the sooner you get an alert on this, the better it is for you.
If you think big businesses are more vulnerable to such security threats, you are just having a big misconception. The fact is, the small businesses and startups are seen to be more vulnerable to security threats than their big counterparts. So, if you are not still ready to deal with the security challenges, just prepare for the worst and get some measures in place.
Here are some of the time tested measures that can save a WordPress website from the hackers and other security threats.
Make Sure Admin Logins Using The Email
Most users while login as the admin use their username registered with the WordPress and though there is nothing wrong with this, using email instead of the username is considered as a more secure approach. Do you want to know why using email is considered more secure as an option? Well, here below we explain.
Usernames tend to be very commonplace and hence are more predictable. In contrast, the presence of different characters and numbers and the length of the email makes it harder for prediction. Finally, for setting up a WordPress website the admin must have already used an email ID and hence using it doesn’t require following any extra step.
Use 2-Factor Authentication (2FA)
The authentication data is the most important gateway for the security vulnerabilities to occur and break through the first layer of web security. Naturally, the authentication process must be stronger and multilayered. This is where the 2-factor authentication (2FA) appears to be more effective. According to this authentication feature the users when accessing the website through an unknown device needs to provide two sets of login details. As for making a mix of these login detail options, the admin has few options such as below.
- Things users know: An unique email ID, password or an alphanumeric pin.
- Things users have: Mobile devices, smart wearables and cards that can be digitally connected for authentication.
- Things that represent users: This sort of information include personal identification data such as fingerprints, voice recognition, fingerprints and retina scan data.
Make Sure The Site Has A Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
This is long regarded to be one of the basic and widely acclaimed security measures for any website. The Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates ensure that the data being transferred between the server and the browser remains protected and secure from all sorts of malicious attempts and hackers. For websites dealing with user information and crucial data such as payment information, SSL certificates play a hugely important role in strengthening the website security.
Besides ensuring optimum security for transferring data between the server and the browser, the presence of SSL certificates also gives users a kind of relief from security concerns. This is also reflected in the search engine results as Google considering it as a sign of trust gives websites with SSL certificates better search ranks.
Make Sure You Use A Reputed Hosting Service
You may think that choosing a good hosting service is important for optimising the website speed and performance more than anything else. But actually, a bad hosting can also take a serious toll on your WordPress website security and hence choosing a good hosting service is equally important for the security reasons. Most custom WordPress development services insist on taking a highly professional and quality focused hosting service to make a positive impact on performance as well as user experience.
To ensure optimum security measure for your WordPress website, look for the following attributes in your hosting service provider.
- Regular service updates including updates for tools and software applications.
- Integrated CDN services to deal with the DDoS attacks that are lethal in compromising the server performance.
- Timely and regular backup services and support for restoration in case any security threat destabilise your website.
- Round the clock customer support for helping the users to deal with all types of server issues.
- Protection from malware threats, protection for datacenter, and integrated firewalls to safeguard websites from attacks and security threats.
Availing All WordPress Updates
If you think all the WordPress themes, plugins and the core of the WordPress software gets updates just for the sake of improving performance, you are only partially right. Yes, apart from performance optimisation the most important reason behind most of these updates is to deliver the latest security patches for dealing with the emerging security threats and vulnerabilities.
WordPress Core updates: Remember, every subsequent WordPress update comes with improvement of all types, particularly some crucial security patches and bug fixes. So, by not updating your WordPress website you not only risk losing latest WordPress features and performance enhancements but you also risk compromising the website security.
Plugins and Themes: The same reason is valid for keeping the plugins and themes updated. Only use those themes and plugins that are published by the reputed developers and publishers and the themes and plugins that are updated frequently. Just stay away from any plugin or theme that hasn’t been updated in the last 6 months.
The PHP Version: WordPress is written in PHP and hence using the backdated PHP version also enhances security risks for a WordPress website. A backdated PHP version stops getting the support of WordPress and hence can be risky from the security point of view.
Get Onboard A Backup Solution
In case your website security is compromised in spite of all the measures and precautions, you can simply lose the website data with a huge impact on your business growth and prospects. This is where automatic backups play an important role by safeguarding the data from any potential damage that can take police.
Even when the regular web hosting service provides you site backups as part the hosting plan, you still need additional backup services for extra protection. This is because, a number of times even the hosting server crashed creating vulnerabilities of data loss a real probability. WordPress offers several quality backups plugins and you can choose one as per budget and frequency.
WordPress Security Plugin
Apart from all the measures we mentioned above, many WordPress websites also find it highly effective to use a dedicated security plugin from the WordPress repository and enjoy the extra protection. There are few premium security plugins that can completely take care of all your website security concerns and risks.
Some of the most notable WordPress security plugins include Wordfence, iThemes Security, Sucuri Security, and several others. Some of the most crucial security features that you should look for in such plugins include WordPress network security, firewalls, DNS monitoring, malware protection, IP address monitoring and blacklisting, old password reset, etc.
Conclusion
All the above measures are quite tested and tried as the most effective security safeguards for WordPress websites. Uncompromising security is what makes your website trustworthy and these measures will ensure you to win the trust of users.
Author Bio: Yakshit Bose is the Senior Developer at leading Web Development Company CMARIX Technolabs Pvt. Ltd. He is an experienced WordPress developer. He likes to share his thoughts on Web development, CMS development, and Technology News.
