Home » WordPress Security: Top Tips to Protect Your Website

WordPress Security: Top Tips to Protect Your Website

June 22, 2022 • security

WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) used by millions worldwide, including many businesses. Unfortunately, this also makes it a target for cybercriminals who want to exploit its security vulnerabilities. That’s why protecting your WordPress website from cyber attacks is essential. This article will discuss some of the top tips for WordPress security.

WordPress Vulnerabilities

One of the most common WordPress security vulnerabilities is weak passwords. Many people choose passwords that are easy to remember, which also makes them easy to guess. Hackers can use automated tools to try thousands of different password combinations until they find one that works. That’s why it’s important to choose strong passwords that are difficult to guess. You can create strong passwords by combining upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.

Another common WordPress security vulnerability is outdated software. WordPress itself is regularly updated with new features and security fixes. However, many people need to update their WordPress installations promptly, which leaves them open to exploitation. It’s essential to keep your WordPress installation up-to-date to ensure that you have the latest security fixes.

You can update your WordPress installation by logging into your WordPress dashboard and navigating to the Updates page. From there, you can select the option to update automatically or manually update your WordPress installation.

If you need help determining whether your WordPress installation is up-to-date, you can check the version number by looking at the footer of your WordPress dashboard. The version number is displayed in the format “x.y.z”, where “x” is the primary release number, “y” is the minor release number, and “z” is the patch level.

At the time of this writing, the latest stable release of WordPress is version five point two point three.

You’re running the latest stable release if you see a message that says your WordPress installation is up-to-date. If you see a message that says there is a new version of WordPress available, then you should update your installation to the latest version.

It’s also essential to keep your plugins and themes up-to-date. Outdated plugins and themes cause many WordPress security vulnerabilities. You can update your plugins and themes from the Updates page in your WordPress dashboard. As with updating WordPress, it’s essential to keep your plugins and themes up-to-date to ensure that you have the latest security fixes.

How to protect your WordPress website?

Backups

One of the most important things you can do to protect your WordPress website is to create regular backups. If your site is hacked, you will be able to restore your site from a backup and minimize the damage. Many WordPress plugins can help you automate the process of creating backups.

We recommend that you create a complete backup of your WordPress site at least once per week. We also recommend that you make a separate backup of your database. This way, if your files are corrupted, you will still be able to restore your site from the database backup. You can store your backups on your computer or a remote server.

Security Scans

Another good way to protect your WordPress website is to scan it regularly for security vulnerabilities. Many WordPress plugins can help you automate the process of security scanning.

We recommend you scan your WordPress site for security vulnerabilities at least once weekly. If you find any vulnerabilities, you should take steps to fix them as soon as possible.

Take advantage of two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication is one of the most effective methods for keeping your WordPress website safe. Two-factor authentication adds another layer of security by requiring you to input a second code in addition to your username and password.

You can install a plugin such as Two Factor Authentication to use two-factor authentication on your WordPress site. We recommend that you enable two-factor authentication on all your WordPress sites and discourage the usage of easy passwords. This will assist in the reduction of brute force attacks on your websites.

Conclusion

These are just a few things you can do to protect your WordPress website from cyber attacks. Taking these steps will make it much more difficult for hackers to exploit your site. Of course, no website is 100% secure, and there is always a risk of being hacked. However, by taking these precautions, you can significantly reduce the chances of your WordPress site being hacked.

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admin is a senior staff writer for Government Technology. She previously wrote for PYMNTS and The Bay State Banner, and holds a B.A. in creative writing from Carnegie Mellon. She’s based outside Boston.