{"id":1658132,"date":"2022-03-16T15:08:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T15:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.famethemes.com\/?p=1658132"},"modified":"2022-04-04T09:38:45","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T09:38:45","slug":"wordpress-security-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.famethemes.com\/blog\/wordpress-security-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Tips to Help You Improve WordPress Security"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Contrary to popular belief, website builders like Wix and Shopify make a small impact on the market share of WordPress<\/a>. To this day, WordPress retains a firm stronghold of being the leading content publishing platform on the web. And because of its popularity, it is one of the most common targets for various attacks from hackers with bad intentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In late 2021, a group of Vietnamese security researchers reported an SQL injection attack<\/a> in the WordPress WP_Query function. This left millions of blogs and websites exposed to potential attacks that could lead to customer data being stolen and worse. The WordPress 5.8.3 version rectified this attack, which is why it is so important to keep your site up-to-date at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact of the matter is, that there could be dozens of similar vulnerabilities out in the wild. So, in a sense, the goal is not to achieve an impenetrable website. Rather, you should aim to implement certain security features and precautions to ensure that hackers have a hard time accessing sensitive data, for example – your admin dashboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a fundamental level, WordPress can be considered a secure platform. Even though it has had certain vulnerabilities found in its core system, it doesn’t have a bad track record of security issues. The bigger problem is that WordPress users themselves don’t follow even the most practical security precautions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some of the things to look out for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, ultimately, to keep WordPress secure you have to be mindful of the choices you make in regard to using external features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you look at the most common vulnerabilities<\/a> being exploited in the wild, that list is too long to even begin talking about. So, rather than assuming your website is vulnerable to everything, we need to look at vulnerabilities that are most commonly exploited on WordPress sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of these attacks can be circumvented by applying the security tips outlined in this article. Keep reading to learn more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you implement the tips below, you should significantly reduce the risk of having your WordPress website hacked. The way in which modern attacks work is that hackers will typically mass target a large number of sites at once. Using tools and software to scan the site for potential vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, if you’re more technically savvy – you might see things like unusual requests in your Apache2 access logs. In fact, there are numerous WordPress plugins that provide detailed logs about the requests being made to your site. And, while this may look alarming at first – it’s really just hackers looking for cheap ways to try and break into your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More often than not, such requests are harmless. Especially if you use the correct combination of tools and plugins to mitigate all risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The following tips can be implemented in less than a minute each. And, what is a few minutes of your time in exchange for peace of mind, anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n All new WordPress websites have the same Login Page URL for the admin dashboard, and it is located at \/wp-admin\/<\/em><\/strong>. So, it comes as no surprise that hackers can easily launch brute-force attacks on any given WordPress site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One way to fix this would be to limit login attempts. However, the best solution for avoiding brute-force attacks is to change the login URL entirely. And this can be done with a plugin such as WPS Hide Login<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you have the plugin installed and activated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n What this means is that the next time you log in to your dashboard, you will need to use the new secret word you specified instead of the default wp-admin page. So, make sure to save that word somewhere safe!<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is hardly ever a scenario in which you would disable automatic updates to the latest WordPress version. In your admin dashboard, you should be able to see the status of this by going to Dashboard -> Updates<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, things get a little bit trickier when it comes to auto-updating themes and plugins. First off, a theme update can potentially break the design of your site unless you are using a child theme<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A child theme means that whatever changes you make to your site design will remain within the child theme itself, so whenever you update your theme – the child theme will remain intact. At the very least, you should have a backup of your theme (see below for recommendations) if you do plan to apply an update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to auto-update WordPress plugins, you have to do enable it manually for each plugin. So, head over to Plugins -> Installed Plugins from your dashboard. On this page, on the right-hand side, you will see the option to “Enable auto-updates” which are turned off by default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Auto-updates are particularly important for plugins with millions of active users (Yoast, Elementor, Akismet, etc.) because if one of them is exposed to an attack – it means millions of sites are once are vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Backups don’t just provide a layer of security against your site being hijacked. A backup can be a life-saver in situations where you accidentally lose data and have no means to recover it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides, not having a backup and losing access to your content can mean days of hard work to try and salvage it through external channels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our recommendation for a WordPress backup solution is UpdraftPlus Backups<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plugin has over 3 million active users. And it makes it effortless to set up automated backups which can also be sent to a remote location, such as your email, once complete. It also includes the option to upload your backups to Dropbox, Google Drive, and other services, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s imagine a hypothetical scenario where a hacker has gained access to your WordPress admin account. Other than tarnishing your blog posts, what else could they potentially do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, number 1 and 3 can be rectified by using a security plugin (see below) but number 2 is up to you to manage. In other words, to avoid hackers from tampering with your files – disable the file editor feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can disable file editing in WordPress by adding the following snippet to your wp-config.php<\/strong> file (located in the root directory of your WordPress site):<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can further improve this security aspect by modifying the file permissions on your hosting account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The official WordPress documentation site has already provided a detailed explanation on how to do it: read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For additional peace of mind, getting a security plugin is going to go a long way. We recommend the Wordfence Security plugin which has over 5 million users and is an absolute household name in the website security sphere. But more than that, Wordfence does a really good job at automatic certain security checks, such as malware scanning and potential exploit detection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the things that make Wordfence unique is that the brand behind the plugin is an actual security company<\/a>. Their business model is to help protect website owners from attackers, and they do it through a variety of unique features, only available through the plugin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And a lot more! To get started, you can activate the plugin and run your first scan. This should give you plenty of starting points to start adding some serious security features to your WordPress site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, to conclude – improving WordPress security is a matter of choice. And why shouldn’t you? It’s bad enough if attackers are able to steal your sensitive information, then imagine having to deal with your site users and customers who also had their data stolen! It’s a nightmare scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, as we learned throughout the various tips – it’s not even that hard to add hardened security measures. The thing about a lot of the “hacker” type people is that they rely on automated tools which often contain outdated and poorly structured attacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As such, by doing things like changing your admin URL or blocking file editing – you practically solve 99% of your security problems with those steps alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Contrary to popular belief, website builders like Wix and Shopify make a small impact on the market share of WordPress. To this day, WordPress retains a firm stronghold of being the leading content publishing platform on the web. And because of its popularity, it is one of the most common targets for various attacks from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58649,"featured_media":1659302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs WordPress a Secure Blogging Platform?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Are the Most Common Types of Website Attacks?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Is Your Website at Risk of Being Hacked?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to Optimize WordPress Security<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n#1: Change the Default Login URL<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
#2: Enable Auto Updates for WordPress & Plugins<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
#3: Enable Backups<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
#4: Disable File Editing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
#5: Install a Security Plugin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n