How to Prevent Attacks and Hacking of a WordPress Site

Today, 43.2% of websites Worldwide Use WordPress Content Management systems. However, this Popularity Increases The Percentage Of cyber attacks on These Types Of Sites, Although This Does Not Mean That WordPress is an unsafe system for your site. 

Hacker attacks happen to all sites, and each site should be protected against cyber and hacker attacks based on its content management system.

Why should WordPress be secure?

Ensuring the security of sites is a critical issue for business owners and site managers because the site goes viral, and the loss of important information destroys all their efforts. Google also detects many websites every day because it puts malware problems on its blocklist and does not value any site that does not have security, so if you do not care about the security of your site, you will waste your efforts. You will not have a place in Google’s ranking.

Necessary measures to increase the security of the WordPress site

Now, we are going to examine the most important criteria to maintain the safety of the site:

WordPress update

• You should check regularly that your site’s WordPress core is up to date. To check if the WordPress core is up to date, go to the updates section on the dashboard, and if you have a message to update, do it.

Use of security plugins

•  Plugins provide many features to your site; without using them, your site will be devoid of many elements. Installing a security plugin is one of the most necessary security measures for the site. A security plugin regularly monitors your website and prevents malware and hacker attacks. You can use plugins like WordPress or iThemes Security plugins.

Enable SSL site

•  Activating the SSL certificate for a site is considered a symbol of gaining users’ trust because, without this certificate, you will not issue the necessary permissions for the site. On the other hand, Google gives more value to sites with SSL, which is considered a positive SEO score for the site. You can use hosting or configure SSL to activate this certificate through the IT Hemes Security Pro extension.

Use a strong password.

•  After setting up the site, set a strong password for your login system; for example, do not choose simple passwords such as 123456 or guessable ones. Plugins can help with this. For example, the security item plugin makes using a complex password mandatory and sets an expiration date for passwords.

Restrict user access

•  WordPress can consider different user roles for your team members, such as administrator, salesperson, regular user, etc. You should limit users’ access to your site so that only administrators can access the site’s main parts; you can use the item security plugin to do this.

Backing up the database

•  Never forget to back up the database from time to time. Then, your worry about information loss due to a possible site virus will disappear. To back up the database, use backup or security item security plugins.

Use a two-step password.

•  One of the most common attacks on your site is a brute force attack, where hackers try to guess your password using a script to enter your location. Finally, having a two-step password makes it even easier for hackers to steal the initial password. The site requires confirmation sent to your mobile phone to enter. Now, how do you activate the site’s two-step password? You can easily enable a two-step password using WordPress and Item Security plugins.

Limit user login attempts.

•  By default, WordPress allows users to try to enter the site as often as they want, but you can easily limit the repeated attempts of users and prevent brute-force attacks by using the WordPress plugin. Also, the Item Security plugin can block suspicious users; if a user tries to log in but fails, it identifies the user as a vandal and puts them on its blocklist.

Hide the wp-config.php and .htaccess files.s

•  One hacker attack is to change or add malicious code to your site’s essential file. Important files must be hidden, and this action is an advanced step in preserving the site’s safety. Please note that this action is significant, and you cannot perform it yourself; an expert must do it. The item security plugin can notify you quickly by email if the regulations are varied, but it is another way to maintain security.

Do not use cracked plugins.

•  Never use free and untested plugins on the site because they may have security bugs that cause problems for your site, and they may not have updated files.

In this article, we discussed the reasons for maintaining WordPress’s security, how to prevent the website from being hacked, and methods of increasing WordPress’s safety. We hope you will protect your site from hacker attacks by taking the measures mentioned.

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