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With the advent of platforms like Content Management Systems(CMS), owning a website is a familiar dream for new internet users. A user-friendly interface and an array of choice themes make your website attractive, and varied website designs make it a winner.
In addition, taking care of all future changes to your website with easy-to-use features for, say, changes in content or design makes your life so simple.
With the ease of operation comes the responsibility of maintaining the security of your website. WordPress is a CMS that has taken CMS popularity to the next level.
According to a study by W3Techs, WordPress has a significant share of 41% of the world’s 10 million most visited websites, whether or not they use CMS. Also, among the CMS platforms, WordPress has the top market share of 64.7%.
At the same time, WordPress websites have seen the most cyberattacks, too.
WordPress is indeed a safe platform with hardened security features. Still, sometimes, users’ lousy security practices, like using outdated WP and plugin versions and installing a wide array of plugins with vulnerabilities, contribute majorly to the high rate of cyberattacks it faces.
Let’s focus on some straightforward yet effective security hacks. After that, you will achieve a high degree of WordPress website security and be ready to protect your website against cyber threats.
Select a Reputed and Good Hosting Provider
You must invest in a good hosting provider with the most robust security policy.
Research well and settle for a reputed hosting provider that offers competitive and reasonable plans and security features like DDOS protection, automatic software updates that include security software, WordPress, and the operating system.
Most importantly, check if the hosting provider supports WordPress and has a hardened WordPress Firewall.
An essential security feature is that the host server must have a valid WP account and website management. In addition, it should have an architecture such that each WP account is isolated from the others to eliminate any risk of cross-contamination in case of an attack.
If you choose a reputed hosting provider, you will gain faster and more reliable service.
Secure Your WP Site with SSL Certificate
It does not matter whether your website handles transactions or sensitive user information; securing all types of websites with an SSL Certificate is imperative.
As a policy, Google also gives an SSL-secured website a better ranking on its search engine result pages.
You can acquire an SSL Certificate for your WordPress website and ensure encryption of all communications between the user web browser and the web server.
This protects users’ crucial information from getting into the hands of hackers through cyberattacks like Man-in-the-middle attacks.
After the website is secured with an SSL Certificate, its protocol changes from HTTP to secured HTTPS, a visual symbol of trust. In addition, a padlock is added to the website’s URL, which helps gain visitors’ trust.
Thus, SSL Certificate secures your WordPress website and carries out website authentication. With a wide variety of SSL certs available in the market and at varying validation levels, one often needs clarification regarding the perfect choice of SSL certificate for your website.
If your website has multiple first-level subdomains under the main domain you need to secure, such as payment, blog page, etc., – we recommend going for a wildcard SSL certificate. Are you worried about the costs of burning a hole in your pocket? That is no longer a concern because many premium yet cheap SSL certificates are available in the cybersecurity market.
Use Of Nulled Themes Should Be Discouraged
WordPress offers some attractive, premium themes with round-the-clock support and highly customizable themes with no restrictions, but they can prove a little expensive.
Taking advantage of their interest in these premium themes but not so affordable costing, nulled WP themes have found a place in the pirated WP themes market.
To save a few bucks, you should never compromise on the safety of your website and go for cracked or nulled premium WordPress themes sold by some sites illegally.
These nulled themes carry a very high risk of malware contamination. They contain malicious codes that can infiltrate your configuration files and cause havoc on your website.
Install a WordPress Security Plugin
It is nearly impossible for an average internet user to keep a close security check for malware on your website. So here come the WP Security Plugins like Sucuri, iThemes Security Pro, Jetpack Security, etc., to your rescue.
It can take total charge of website security, including regular scans for malware and vigilant monitoring of any spurious activity on your website.
Any good plugin services may range from remote malware scanning, monitoring file security, security activities auditing, post–hack support, etc. Overall, WP Security Plugins improve your WP security and increase the user’s trust in your website.
Use Strong Password to Protect Your WP Account
Protecting your WP account login credentials with a strong password is vital. If hackers can break through the admin account, the database and configuration files could be infected with malicious code, which can prove disastrous for the whole WP website.
Hence, it would help if you used strong and long passwords with a good mix of lower- and upper-case characters, numbers, and special characters.
In addition, changing passwords occasionally and limiting the number of login attempts can help you ward off brute-force attacks to crack your login credentials.
However, creating strong passwords for multiple accounts and remembering them can be daunting for users. Password Managers, such as Password, LastPass, etc., provide practical solutions.
They help you generate strong passwords, remember them for you, and keep them safe in a vault. Hence, the use of a Password manager is highly recommended.
File Editing Should Be Disabled
WordPress allows editing your theme or plugin files through its code editor function provided on the dashboard. It can either be done by going to
Appearance > Editor
Or by accessing Plugin Editor under
Plugins > Editor
As shown in the image below.
However, it is always advisable to disable the file editor in WordPress. This can be a weak link. Suppose hackers happen to infiltrate your WP admin login. In that case, they can infect your theme and plugin files with a subtle malicious code that is very difficult to suspect unless it becomes a more significant threat to the security of your WP website.
So, to disable the theme and plugin editor in WordPress, place the code below in your wp-config.php file or your theme’s functions.php.file
define(‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT,true);
This will disable the file editor in WP.
In conclusion, you must be constantly vigilant as WordPress security is ongoing. However, equipped with the most effective hacks discussed above to improve your WP website security, you can stay ahead of any potential security threats to your website.