Tips And Tricks To Protect Your WordPress Website From Hackers

 

Hackers are the notorious guys all webmasters afraid of. They tend to enter your website forcefully and create chaos out of order. Yes, I know that sounds scary. Hackers often target WordPress website. Many of cybersecurity experts always wondered why WordPress hadn’t taken any step to at least rectify well-known security threats.

 

Now I would like to quote, “That is not the fact”. WordPress release numerous updates to fix security flaws as well. However, nothing can be totally secure. In this post, you will get to know how to make your WordPress website more secure to banish hackers from your website.

 

There are many amendments that can be done on a WordPress website. Let’s discuss them deeply in this post.

 

First Things First, Secure Your Login Area
We all know what the WordPress login page looks like. This makes it easy for any notorious hacker to get access to your login page. A brute force is inevitable then. How can you avoid these situations? Follow my lead here,

 

Ban The Users & Lock Your Website Down For Failed Login Attempts
That is exactly what you need to do. Harsh measures must be taken in order to secure your WordPress website. Are you wondering what brute force attack is? A brute force attack is a malicious sequential code designed by hackers to constantly try various combinations of username and password.

 

In order to avoid this attack, you must limit the login attempts on your WordPress website’s admin panel. For that, you must use a WordPress plugin. There are loads of plugins that will help you to serve the purpose. In addition to that you must also understand that when an anonymous user crosses the limit of login, you have to lock him down. Blocking his IP address is the best way. You can make use of iThemes Security. It is one of the best WordPress security plugins.

 

Why Don’t You Use Two-Factor Authentication?
Imagine that logging on your website doesn’t just require your username and password. That can act as a second layer. You can use either an option to receive a one-time password on your email ID or on your phone number. This is actually possible with the right WordPress plugin. You can apply a two-factor authentication on your WordPress website and secure your admin area from all sorts of malicious attempts of brute force or any other hacking attempts.

 

Renaming Your Login URL
You might be wondering what this gonna do? As I said earlier, everybody knows what a default WordPress login URL looks like. It is like this,

www.yourwebsitename.com/wp-login.php

 

Oh bollocks!!!! Now the community of hackers knows that this is your login page. Don’t worry fellas, they already know that. You need to change it so that they don’t misuse your precious server resources. How can you change it?

 

A good question indeed. As I mentioned above, iThemes Security plugin can help you in changing your login URL. Having secure passwords is a tip everyone knows. Make it difficult and don’t store it anywhere online.

 

What About Your Admin Dashboard?
The homepage is the most engaging area for your visitor. Similarly, admin dashboard is the most engaging area for hackers. If they get the access there, then, believe it or not, you are doomed.

 

Follow the points given below and secure your admin dashboard.

 

Start With Your wp-admin Directory
Wp-admin is the centre of your WordPress website. Encrypting it with a password is the best solution. Just so you know, when you secure the wp-admin directory with a password, you have to enter the password twice when you log in every time. One for your WordPress login page and one for WordPress admin area.

 

Use password for your WordPress admin area with AskApache Password Protect security plugin and secure your admin area from malicious hackers.

 

Always Monitor Your Files
Taking action to keep your WordPress website secure is one thing and maintaining the order to make sure that it stays that way is another. Maintenance is one of the major aspects of securing your WordPress website.

 

Keeping a close eye on your WordPress website files will help you in serving this purpose. There is no other way around this. Make use of all-round security plugins like Wordfence, Sucuri, or iThemes.

 

WordPress Database Security
The WordPress Database is the data hub of your website. All the data associated with your website is in this database. If hacker owns this segment of your website, they will crush your website. They can penetrate the security of your database with targeted SQL injections. How to banish these attacks? Follow my lead here,

 

Changing The Prefix Of WordPress Database Table
When we install WordPress, all its database file starts with default wp- prefix. Hackers know that too and they target that to get access to your database. In order to stop them, you must change the prefix. Instead of using wp- use something unique. You can use whatever suits you. Any phrase or even three-four letters will do the trick (Just don’t use your name please, in fact, don’t use any name or noun).

 

You can do that with WP-DB Manager or again iThemes Security can come in handy again. So, make sure that you have changed all the wp- prefixes to your custom prefix. This will disable all the active SQL injection of the hackers and your WordPress database will be secured for good.

 

Make Sure To Use SSL Encryption
An SSL encryption is a smart way to keep your admin area secure. Secure Socket Layer ensures that the data transfer between your servers and your user’s browser. Spoofing your information will become difficult for a hacker when SSL security is active. For that, you have to contact your hosting provider.

 

Generally, every hosting provider facilitates its users with an SSL certificate. Still, you need to make sure that you have that in order to secure your WordPress database and website.

 

What Do We Learn From This?
Website Security is an issue which can break down your website instantly. Many big corporations have faced consequences due to their security vulnerability on their websites. Let’s take a detour and understand what we learnt from this post.

 

– Secure Your Login Area

• Ban The Users & Lock Your Website Down For Failed Login Attempts
• Use Two-Factor Authentication
• Rename Your Login URL

 

– Securing Admin Dashboard

• Wp-admin is the centre of your WordPress website. Encrypting it with a password is the best solution.
• Taking action to keep your WordPress website secure is one thing and maintaining the order to make sure that it stays that way is another. Maintenance is one of the major aspects of securing your WordPress website.

 

– Securing WordPress Database

• Instead of using wp- use something unique. You can use whatever suits you. Any phrase or even three-four letters will do the trick.
• An SSL encryption is a smart way to keep your admin area secure. Secure Socket Layer ensures that the data transfer between your servers and your user’s browser. Spoofing your information will become difficult for a hacker when SSL security is active.

 

I hope this post will help you in securing your WordPress website. The amendment for website security is a never-ending process. Keep a close eye on every development. Keep your plugins, themes, and WordPress app up to date.

 

Did I miss something? Let me know via comments. Till then safe online venturing fellas!!!

 

Author Bio:
Sarah Clarke works as a writer for Media Fortress, an SEO Agency offering cost effective search engine optimisation services. She is a web addict and spends too much time in front of the computer. When she actually manages to get away for more than 10 minutes, she is usually reading books, travelling or shooting photos. For more blogs you can follow her on Facebook, and Twitter.