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WordPress Website hacked: the prevention and cure

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 getting nervous.

The truth is, 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 getting more sophisticated by the day.

If you have a physical shop or office premises for your business, 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 put the necessary steps in place to prevent your WordPress website from getting hacked?

WordPress Website hacked: how does it happen?

Having the knowledge on how hackers work is the first step in helping to protect your site. There are several ways in which a hack attempt can happen, and we will talk you through the top three ways they are able to penetrate your site.

1. Brute force attacks

This is the most common type of attack with an average of 26 million attacks occurring every single day. It’s where hackers use automated software to try and 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 that is a random string of numbers and letters can make a huge difference to the likelihood of being hacked. Removing unused accounts will also ensure there is less 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 unsecure 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 as its cheaper, but if just one of the sites on the server becomes compromised, it puts every site at risk.

A managed WordPress environment is a better choice when it comes to both the security and performance of your site. In this set up, the hosting service takes care of all the technical details such as backup services and updates to the server.

3. Hacking through a WordPress plugin

Another clever way that hackers can gain access to your site is through WordPress plugins. Plugins are great for adding new functionalities to your site, but they do need regular monitoring to ensure there are no hidden vulnerabilities.

Plugins that aren’t updated regularly are an open door to hackers until the developer creates an update to secure it which is why they should be reviewed on a monthly basis 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. Every few months, a new version of WordPress is released which offers a higher level of security.

Is your WordPress Website hacked?

Security is important for every business owner – even if you are only just starting out and have no financial transactions occurring 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 when it comes to site vulnerabilities. Not only can we implement measures to improve your current security level, we also backup your entire website to our secure cloud server every single day. Take a look at our monthly plans to find the one best suited to your requirements.

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