We’ve said before that your website is like your shop window. You want to use it to impress passers-by and draw them in. Sadly, cybercriminals and hackers are all too ready to throw a brick through the window of your unsuspecting site, and make it hard for you to conduct your day-to-day business.
It’s essential to protect your website and keep your cyber security up to date. Here are our top WordPress security tips to make sure that your website is ready for anything.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a great tool for all businesses. It’s an easy to use content management system (CMS) that will help you build a high quality website.
Yes, you may have to pay for certain plugins and themes if you want something really jazzy. But most elements of the site are free and really easy to use. This is why WordPress has cornered 50-60% of the global CMS market.
Unfortunately, its popularity makes WordPress a popular target for hackers and cybercriminals. If you have a WordPress site you need to up your security now. In 2013, 73% of WordPress sites were considered “vulnerable”, so there was a huge surge in methods to ‘harden’ your security. We’ve picked through all of them and found the best ways to keep your site secure.
Install Wordfence – the best in WordPress security
Wordfence is a plugin that is dedicated to keeping WordPress users safe from cyber threats. It acts in real time and even blocks brute force attacks to make sure that your website is secure.
Their ‘forensic lab’ analyses threats in order to develop the latest protection and detection rules. The threat defence feed arms the plugin with the latest firewall rules, malware signatures and a list of malicious IP addresses to keep your website safe.
The security plugin comprises a web application firewall, malware scanner and many other security tools. This makes Wordfence the most complete WordPress protection system on the market. Free and premium versions are available, with the latter offering an ‘alert’ service.
Our other top 6 security tips
Keep your WordPress up to date – tell your webmaster to click that ‘update available’ button as soon as you see it – out of date sites are more vulnerable to attacks.
Keep your plugins and themes up to date too – these act as backdoors into your site’s admin, so make sure yours are properly secured through vetting and updating them regularly.
Delete any plugins or themes you’re not using – why take the chance?
Only use plugins and themes from well-known and reputable sources – WordPress.org is your best bet as they will have already vetted each theme/plugin
Don’t use ‘admin’ as a username – it’s obvious, and hackers will use it to get into your site.
Change your password often. Random number/letter strings are best, and there’s a password generator in your WordPress admin interface.
Use these simple security tips to make sure that your WordPress site is protected from the big bad world of cybercrime. This way, your website will be able to carry on as normal and continue to bring in customers to your business.
For more information on WordPress security, contact NS Design today.
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