How safe is your WordPress Website from the hackers?

November 13, 2019

‘Agree technical blogs are long, but on the other side, quite useful to read.’

What is the first thing that comes to our mind when we build a website? Of course, designing and development part. And what is next? We all look for safety. For us, website security becomes an essential part.

This blog is pointing towards all the tricks that can be used for saving your website from the hacking attacks.

Table of Contents:

How safe is your WordPress website from hackers?
Why does your Website need Website Security?
2.1: Critical backdoor attack in 2018
Problems that occur after a website malware attack
3.1: How attackers technically hack your website?
What is the excellent defense against WordPress threats?
Simple WordPress Security Tricks shared by WP Experts in 2019.
5.1: Secure Website Login Feature
5.2: Securing Website through the admin dashboard
5.3: Securing Website through the database
5.4: Preventing website attacks through themes and plugins.
Introduction to PowerPack Plugin with Security.
The takeaway, how to secure your website from hackers.

Introduction:

You may ask a question that ‘Why you should worry about your WordPress Website Security? Because, according to you, your website database is secured.

But do you know???????

WordPress accounted for 90 percent of all hacked CMS sites in the year 2018.

Magento, Joomla, and Drupal were accounted as the rest hacked CMS in 2018.

So, how about your business website? I am sure you are using WordPress, and hence you have opted to read the blog further.

How safe is your WordPress website from hackers?

If this question crosses your mind, then you are in the right place.

Who does not take security seriously? Everyone does. But still, hackers become successful in hacking the websites, resulting in data loss and theft.

WordPress Accounting 90% of the total hacked CMS sites in 2018

WHY DO YOU NEED WORDPRESS SECURITY?

If this question still hits your head, read the second introductory line again; after all, security is everything for the people who take it seriously and for those who do not take it too seriously.

As per the reports submitted by the WordPress team, Malware affects about 18.5 million websites on the internet. Moreover, the average webpage attacked over 40 times per day.

Critical Backdoor Attack Warning issued to 60 Million WordPress Users

If you are concerned with your WordPress security issues, you must have gone across the news of the ‘Backdoor attack’ that was viral a few months back, attacking 60 million WordPress users in the world. It was one of the most talked ‘website hacking campaigns’ to date.

So how does this backdoor attack campaign started?

Technically, the campaign has inserted an additional script that focuses on installing a backdoor into the target website by completely exploiting an administrator’s session. The ‘Defiant Threat Intelligence Team’ confirmed the same in an interview.

STILL NOT CONVINCED…

Let us throw some simple questions. Are your car, house, and other essentials insured? If yes, why do you do that? The apparent answer will be security.

You might have put cameras, alarms to secure your home from unwelcome guests, i.e. thieves. The same applies to the website. Why do you then treat website security differently from any other securities?

Malware, viruses, and other security threats can steal our private data without our primary knowledge. And we believe you do not want to do that.

If hackers, Malware, or viruses attack your website, you might encounter any or all of the problems stated below:

The inability to visit your website
It is frustrating to see the site-loading symbol. If the hackers did this to your website, you can do nothing but sit helplessly and blame your luck for that matter. It can damage the brand image as visitors switch to another site if your website witnesses downtime.
loss of data
Hackers can do anything sitting under a single roof. They can take your website control away, delete, or modify your data without your knowledge.
loss of access
Imagine you visit your website and notice that the access is lost. How would do you feel? This can be heart-breaking. After all, you have made your website with all the love. But you forget to provide it with the due care it needed to sustain in the market. Hackers can do every possible thing to take the website control away from you.
wrong use of website
Sure, you love your reputation. Who does not? If hackers attack the website, then they can use your website to distribute malicious code to the visitors, which can damage your site reputation.
loss of private information
Your site does not always hold private information that belongs to only you. If you are an e-commerce website like Amazon or Flipkart, you have storage for payment details of your consumers. And none of your customers want their private information leaked.

How are attackers hacking your website?
The third-party WordPress plugins, especially the ones that are not used or updated for long, are easy to manipulate by the hackers for breaching your website’s security. Imperva recently revealed that 98% of the WordPress vulnerabilities are through plugins.

During the backdoor WordPress attack, the following plugins were at risk:

Bold Page Builder
Blog Designer
Live Chat with Facebook Messenger
Yuzo Related Posts
Visual CSS Style Edito
WP Live Chat Support
Form Lightbox
Hybrid Composer

What is the excellent defence against WordPress threats?

You might be wondering,

We have talked about the problems, but where is the solution. Do not worry. Here are we with the possible security solutions.

You can secure WordPress manually or using WordPress Security Plugin.

Since securing WordPress manually can be a lengthy process, we recommend using WordPress security plugins. Not only they will share the workload, but also they will ease the process.

But, technically, the excellent defence is always keeping your WordPress themes and plugins up-to-date.

Are you running an eCommerce business using WordPress? Here’s what you shouldn’t miss analyzing.

Simple WordPress Security Tricks shared by WP Experts in 2019

When we are talking about WordPress, we are talking about the most used platform for website development. Hence, it has got on a number of solutions and tricks for keeping the website safe from hackers.

Apart from the techniques that we shared above, here are we sharing the WordPress Security tricks by the experts that were most prominent in 2019. So, let’s begin.

Part 1: Secure the website login page

The login page of the website is through the backend, where you can access the website dashboard. This is what you need to protect the login page by customizing the backend URL by either adding WP-admin or WP-login. This is how you help the hackers to stay away from your backend URL.

To stop the brute forces from crashing your website login page, you can add more security to your website backend by setting upon a lockdown feature. It will also help in banning the users or brute forces with continuous failed login attempts. The locked feature will even notify you of every failed login attempt on your website.

Are you wondering how to set a lockdown feature?

A lockdown feature is usually set with the help of a plugin. For formerly and better WordPress security, you can download plugins such as iThemes Security. It delivers more than 30 ways to protect your website from hackers.

Also, you can download PowerPack multipurpose plugin with Security. The plugin replaces the use of 20+ different plugins into a single one, thereby offering more security and efficiency.

How about setting a two-factor authentication for WP Security?

PowerPack Multipurpose plugin with security helps to set two-factor authentication for your Website’s login page. To secure your WordPress website from the brute hacking attempts, it is vital to set 2FA.

So, how to set a 2FA (two-factor authentication) code?

There are two ways to set a 2FA code on your website login page.

(a) Either set a secret question, which needs to be answered or a set of characters

(b) Another option is to choose Google authentication that sends a code on your phone number. The code further needs to be entered in the authentication box as a password or key.

Changing your Login type

Do you know that most of the website owners choose a username to login in the website? This practice must be changed by using an email address to login in to your webpage. Usernames are quite easy to predict, whereas an email address is not easily predictable.

rephrasing your password

Your login password can be altered every 15-20 days or once a month to keep the hackers away from attacking your website system. To have a strong password, you must consider using- uppercase, lowercase, special characters as well as numbers in your password.

A strong password is not easily predictable. It must not be easy to guess, and hence, it should be set different from your name, surname, spouse name, children’s name, school name, hobbies, favorite dish, favorite music, etc.

Idle log out time for your webpage

Many times the website owner or admin or other users forget to click on the logout page of your website. This is where the hackers get a chance to enter through the backend. By automatically setting the log out time for your website, you can prevent your business or eCommerce website from getting hacked.

You will also get additional features with WordPress security plugins such as:

Malware detection
Site Monitoring
File scanning
Blacklist Monitoring
Firewalls
Notifications if there is any security threat.

Part 2: Secure the website through admin dashboard

The admin dashboard is the strongest part of the website. Attacking an admin dashboard is a real challenge for hackers. Still if you are not in a mood to take risk, you must follow the below techniques for securing the admin dashboard of your webpage.

protecting the wp-admin directory
use ssl to encrypt data
add user accounts with Utmost care
use secure passwords for user accounts as well
change admin username
monitor your files

Part 3: Secure the website through database

The database is the most crucial part of your website. All the information is stored in the database and hackers are always looking forward to stealing the information, for which database is on their radar.

Here’s how you can manage to protect the website database:

Changing the WordPress database table prefix
Conducting regularly backups for securing website
Setting strong passwords for the database
Monitoring audit logs

Part 4: Appoint a wordpress host for your security

A secured website is more important than investing a small amount for appointing a website host company. We all generally overlook the idea of appointing a host for saving a few bucks. But, what about security issues? Who will professionally guarantee your website security?

You can secure the most crucial file of your database ‘wp-config.php’ with the help of a hosting provider. Once you do it, it is most difficult for the hackers to crack the security of your web walls.

Disallowing the editing by the users is one of the best things to secure your website. Again, one more thing that adds a feather to your website security is setting directory permissions carefully. For a great move, you must keep changing the files and directory permissions.

You can prevent website security threats by disabling directory listing with ‘.htaccess.’ Also, with the help of the website administrator, you can learn and understand how to protect your website against the DDoS attacks.

Set the directory permission to ‘755’ and files to ‘644’ for protecting the entire web system.

wordpress security scan

Have you scanned your WordPress website before? Or do you have no idea what is going on?

In any case, you can do a WordPress security scan. It is an essential step in establishing a security protocol for the WordPress site.

Apart from the one mentioned above, there are many more reasons to do a security scan. Security scan shed light just not on overt issues but primarily over covert issues.

A security scan will help you know what is happening and how to deal with the whole situation.

Running a comprehensive security scan will provide information on:

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW?

There are many security scanners available that you can use to perform comprehensive security tests.

Some of them are:

Part 5: protect your website through themes and plugins.

Themes and plugins are the essential ingredients of your WordPress website. At the same time, these plugins and themes can be the path for hackers to attack your website. Here are some really interesting tips that will help to keep your website secure from brute forces.

WordPress security plugins are top-rated among the users using this platform. At the same time, they are simple to use and quite helpful too.

Count on ten, and you are on the go.

We will recommend all the plugins on you reach number 10. Be slow.

Say one with us. Take a deep breath. Now two. Breathe. Repeat the process until you hit number 10. Until then, we will finish by mentioning the best WordPress security plugins for you.

What should you know about PowerPack Plugin with Essential Security?

The major issue while choosing a number of plugins is the issue of security. The more numbers of themes and security = hacking made easy. With PowerPack plugin with essential security, the numbers of plugins are reduced to a single plugin.

WP PowePack with essential security offers high-end security to your webpage with hiding WP login screen, rename WP login URL and login lockdown features, two-factor authentication for login screen, prevent XML RPC DDOS attack, hiding basic identity of WordPress from the hacker, website iframe protection, disallow file editing for unauthorized users, content copy protection, etc. to name a few.

What other plugins are replaced with WP PowerPack with security?

As you choose to replace many plugins with a single plugin for enhancing your WordPress web security, you are doing a great job for your website safety. The following plugins are embedded in a single plugin with PowerPack:

FAQ Accordion
testimonials
buttons
login customizer
timeline and more
post slider
team showcase slider
logo showcase and slider
portfolio showcase and slider
ticker ultimate
video gallery
extra info slidebar
before and after image slider
social links
coming more soon screen

The great thing is you do not need all the plugins. You only need one WordPress security plugin development. Please click on the names of plugins hyperlinked above to know in detail about each plugin.

Why should you trust WP OnlineSupport for your website security?

WP OnlineSupport offers 50+ plugins and themes for your WordPress website. The best thing is the brand offers the best security plugin replacing all the single plugins of your WordPress website.

It enhances the security of your website and also offers customization for keeping your website more engaging and interesting. Apart from security plugin and customization, you can also expect the brand to support you with attractive themes layout and templates.

IN THE END

Secure your WordPress website from hackers, viruses, and Malware. And if you want to do it in minutes, decide the approach and security plugin you want to invest your time.

Carefully invest your time in updating your existing WordPress themes and plugins. Keep your website up-to-date to avoid viruses from attacking it.

We hope that you find this article useful. Be wise while choosing security plugins as there is no need to install all of them on one website.

Keep your WordPress website secure. Visit WPOnlineSupport for any WordPress related query and help. We are available to resolve the basic or high-end website security issues on a single click.