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WordPress website hacked. You see it all the time in the press.
And if you are one of the millions of people who have chosen the popular platform to run your website, you may be nervous.
Your website is only secure if you take the appropriate precautions to keep it that way. Without it, you leave yourself vulnerable to getting hacked. The number of sites that get hacked every year continues to increase, and the tactics used to bypass security measures are becoming more sophisticated.
Suppose you have a physical shop or office premises for your business. In that case, we bet you take all the necessary precautions to keep it safe from break-ins—such as CCTV, multiple locks, and relevant insurance to be extra cautious. So why wouldn’t you take the necessary steps to prevent your WordPress website from getting hacked?
WordPress Website Hacked: How Does it Happen?
Knowing how hackers work is the first step in protecting your site. There are several ways a hack attempt can occur, and we will discuss the top three ways they can penetrate your site.
1. Brute force attacks
This is the most common type of attack, with an average of 26 million daily attacks. In this attack, hackers use automated software to try to guess your WordPress username and password until they successfully hack into your site. It may sound long-winded, but it takes only a few minutes for a bot to try a few hundred combinations and gain access to a site.
In this case, having a strong password with a random string of numbers and letters can greatly reduce the likelihood of being hacked. Removing unused accounts will also reduce the chance of them breaking in.
For complete peace of mind, enabling 24/7 security monitoring on the server level will detect and block attempts to hack into your site.
2. Access through an unsecured hosting server
The hosting environment you choose plays a big role in the security and performance of your WordPress site. If you’re on a shared hosting platform, your site has a higher risk of getting hacked.
Shared hosting is often appealing because it’s cheaper, but if just one of the sites on the server becomes compromised, every site is at risk.
A managed WordPress environment is better for your site’s security and performance. In this setup, the hosting service handles all the technical details, such as backup services and server updates.
3. Hacking through a WordPress plugin
Another clever way hackers can access your site is through WordPress plugins. Plugins are great for adding new functionalities to your site but need regular monitoring to ensure no hidden vulnerabilities.
Plugins that aren’t updated regularly are open doors to hackers until the developer creates an update to secure them, so they should be reviewed monthly for any updated versions.
In addition to plugins, you will want to keep your themes and core up to date to keep your site secure and performing to the highest level. A new WordPress version is released every few months, offering higher security.
Is your WordPress Website hacked?
Security is essential for every business owner – even if you are starting and have no financial transactions on the site. If you’re worried that you have already been a victim of a hack attempt, check out these subtle but common signals that may indicate your WordPress website has been hacked.
At WP Tech Support, your website’s security is our priority, and we know exactly what we’re looking for regarding site vulnerabilities. We can implement measures to improve your current security level and back up your entire website to our secure cloud server daily. Look at our monthly plans to find the one best suited to your requirements.