Is Your WordPress Installation at Risk? 3 Ways to Tell
It is common that you would sit back and breathe a sigh of relief when you finally launch or upgrade your WordPress website. However, unless you have taken care of providing your site with the best possible WordPress security, that sigh will often turn into one of dismay.
The Price of Popularity
As the world’s most popular website builder and platform, WordPress has millions of followers and fans. Precisely because it is so popular, WordPress is also a favorite target of hackers. These individuals and groups spend their time looking for known vulnerabilities in WordPress websites and this should make WordPress security a top priority for all website owners.
Fortunately, there are a number of practical steps you can take to ensure provide proper WordPress security for the most common problems. To properly address your site’s security issues, there are three areas where you can take proactive steps that will minimize your risks. Failing to do so means you are increasing your probability of being hacked by robot spiders. These three areas include:
- Not replacing standard defaults and parameters. As a free program, and with the availability of free themes and plugins, there are a number of standard defaults that are favorite and frequent targets of hackers. These include the log in page, the admin user setup and passwords, and URL parameters. If you have not reset these defaults with custom code, it is important to do so immediately. These are relatively simple fixes that add an important first line of defense against active hacking.
- Ignoring available updates. In the ongoing battle against hackers and malware, WordPress security is frequently updated to address security holes and problems. The world of hackers quickly communicates any newly discovered weaknesses, and it is vital to eliminate them with the updates WordPress and others will provide. This includes taking action with basic WordPress updates as well as for plugins, widgets and themes.
- Relying on a free theme and plugins. If your site is an important part of your business, it is generally a good idea to upgrade to a paid theme from a reputable vendor to provide a higher level of security. Likewise, any plugins you use should come from the WordPress Plugin directory and be current. Many free themes and plugins are actually used to place malware on your site and to provide easily exploitable security leaks. Plugins that are no longer actively developed are likely compromised from a security perspective. Take the time to select your theme and plugin vendors carefully and ensure your theme is properly installed. Once you have installed them, you should regularly check for updates for both the theme and all plugins and download them.
You shouldn’t be intimidated by the issue of security, nor should you allow yourself to be complacent about it. You can find reliable WordPress security firms to help with your security issues if you don’t have your own webmaster or IT resources. Of course, vet anyone you use carefully, as some hackers pose online as security experts just to get access to your site. You can often get solid referrals from your business contacts or your trusted online communities.
One important step for your WordPress security is to engage such a third-party resource to evaluate your site from a risk perspective. A qualified individual will look at all the items discussed above and a number of other areas. They know the common weaknesses and will quickly find any you might have. You can then implement any recommended changes and modifications. If you want to TEST the level of security on your current WordPress website, visit https://www.core4secured.com for a free “Quick Scan”.
5 Vital WordPress Security Facts
If it can happen to Target Corp. and the director of the CIA it can happen to you.
Hackers, it seems, are hiding everywhere. They’re in the shadows of the Internet, overseas in Russia and maybe even sitting in your local neighborhood coffee shop, sipping lattes and looking for vulnerabilities on websites far and wide.
Don’t let them get into yours.
Maximizing WordPress security is part art, part science and always important. Here’s a look at five vital WordPress security facts that just might help you make your site a lot more secure:
Fact One: Passwords are your first line of protection
One of the simplest and most effective ways to improve WordPress security is to improve your passwords. If you’re familiar with “newpassword1,” “newpassword2” and “newpassword3,” you’ve got a major problem.
Passwords are the first line of protection against people with nefarious intentions. Make sure your passwords are at least 10 characters long, include capital letters and special symbols–and change them often.
Fact Two: Updates are important
Yes, it gets annoying having to constantly install updates. Yes, it can be frightening to update your site and have to worry about breaking the theme. Yes, it’s easy to understand why some people think the seemingly constant barrage of WordPress updates is just a clever ploy to produce Google News search results. And yes, updates are important.
WordPress does not release updates just for fun or to make online headlines. The company releases them to fix bugs, improve website function and fix security issues. All are good reasons to make sure you make the most of them. If you don’t imagine how annoying it’s going to be to fix all the problems the hackers cause (which can include messing around with your theme).
Fact Three: Malware is malicious
This isn’t an earth-shaking fact; everyone knows that malware is malicious. But it is certainly worth repeating because it’s a good reminder that you need to constantly be monitoring your site for malware.
Work with a vendor that knows how to do deep dives into your file structure and doesn’t just focus on your site’s vulnerabilities. Keep a constant eye out for malware, and then when you find it make sure you do something about it. Monitoring for malware is the first in a two-step process. The second step is cleaning up the malware once you find it.
Fact Four: WordPress security is an ongoing effort
Your WordPress website is just like your kitchen–the cleaner it is, the better it’s going to be for everyone. When dishes are piled up in the kitchen it creates chaos and clutter, and it’s only a matter of time before something spills or breaks. The same is true for your WordPress website. The longer you let old themes and plugins that you are not using anymore sit around, the more susceptible your site is to security breaches. If you are serious about WordPress security, you’ll be serious about keeping your WordPress site squeaky clean.
Fact Five: WordPress security doesn’t have to be complicated
If the idea of focusing on WordPress security makes you uneasy, don’t worry because you are not alone. A lot of people who aren’t necessarily IT professionals are positively perplexed by website security. The good news is that protecting your WordPress website doesn’t have to be vexing.
All you need to do is stay vigilant, partner with the right professionals and make sure you pay attention to the five facts listed here. If you do, your website should remain safe and secure from all the ne’er-do-wells hiding in the shadows of the Internet.
Why Should My WordPress Security Be Hardened?
There’s no denying the massive popularity of WordPress. Today, this behemoth powers nearly 75 million websites around the world. Individuals and brands continually choose WordPress over its competitors due to the platform’s developer-friendly content management system, user-intuitive controls, and seamless plugin integrations. Websites powered with WordPress can do virtually anything a designer can code in. Unfortunately, such mass appeal and use also has its downsides, as this popularity has also attracted the attention of hackers and digital criminals.
While WordPress is adept at blocking a vast majority of would-be hackers, the staggering amount of websites running WordPress means that even the most minute vulnerability or security flaw is likely to impact thousands, if not millions of users and brands around the world. And such vulnerabilities are constantly evolving as users forget to update third-party plugins that aren’t monitored by WordPress’s tech team.
This is why the addition of a simple security plugin, no matter how flexible or robust it claims to be, just can’t cut it against the vast majority of evolving attacks, and in some cases may even open a backdoor to a future hacker. This is why when we talk about security, we don’t focus on installing and using standard plugins, but rather about how you can harden WordPress to make your security impenetrable.
Here are a few of the things you should check to harden WordPress:
- A secured site starts with a secured server. Choose a server that offers the best in terms of security, stability, and reliable methods for safe backup and swift recovery.
- Keep your computer clean. A computer rife with virtual infections should never be used to log into a server or WordPress site. Keep your operating system and software constantly updated to protect against security issues arising from spyware, malware, and other viruses.
- Harden WordPress with updates. Just as with your operating system, it’s important to keep updated with the latest WordPress version. That’s because each regular update is done to address the new security concerns that have arisen. While it’s WordPress’s responsibility to keep abreast and resolve potential security issues, it’s the responsibility of the user to follow through with these updates.
- Establish a strong password. It’s integral to use a strong and unique password that will be hard for both humans and bots to crack, and to make it difficult for any brute force attack. However, what most people generally know as a secure password is wrong. Frequently, websites will ask you to create an eight-character password using at least one lowercase, one uppercase, a number, and a symbol (ie. C@tch@22). However, while this is great at protecting against human attempts, it’s not so adept at escaping robotic and cracking software attempts as such ‘mangling tricks’ have been in play for more than a decade. Long enough for hackers to plan ahead. Instead, use a combination of at least four random words (ie. markerwindowleftpenguin). The higher number of characters and randomness of the words will make it hard for both humans and bots to guess at. To better understand how this helps harden WordPress and other secured access, check out this comic by XKCD.
For more help on how to harden WordPress, you might consider calling in the experts at Core4Secured.com. Our experienced technicians are adept at keeping your site safe while simultaneously increasing website traffic via redesigning and updating your websites.
Just read a few of our client testimonials to learn why businesses throughout a variety of industry sectors choose us when it comes to keeping their WordPress site secure. Contact us to learn what we can do for you.
The Importance of Keeping WordPress Up to Date!
WordPress is one of the most popular blog and website content platforms in the world, but its popularity has a downside that has recently been revealed. Even though WordPress is simple to use and provides an extraordinary number of powerful features, it has become a major target for hackers. WordPress security is of the utmost importance for anyone who uses the software, and the best protection against security breaches is keeping the platform updated.
Fortunately, we offer a “WordPress updates Security Package” and we can quickly and reliably do regular updates and security checks for WordPress by our team of experienced professionals.
The Need for WordPress Updates
Most webmasters never worry about hackers and malware installations on their WordPress websites because the problem is not directly in front of their eyes. However, an infected website can be difficult to detect until it is too late. Securing your WordPress website is a task best left to experienced professionals who know how to discover security vulnerabilities and prevent them from being exploited.
How WordPress Updates Can Save Your Website
WordPress is an open-source software platform, but it is professionally maintained by teams of volunteers and, in some instances, paid programmers. When vulnerabilities are discovered in the software, these teams work diligently to plug the holes and make a fixed version of the software available to the public. However, with each version, notes are also released that detail exactly what was fixed, and hackers can use these notes to target websites running older versions of WordPress.
WordPress updates are critical because the information hackers need to attack old versions is being set right at their feet with each new release. Once the website is updated, only hackers who are clever enough to discover new vulnerabilities will be able to break into it.
Professional WordPress Updates Calgary
WordPress updates can be achieved with a minimal amount of work and frustration by hiring a company that does the job for you. For only $30 per month, Core4Secured.com will continually monitor your WordPress website in order to keep it updated and secure. In addition, five days of backups are always kept on file so that you can fully restore your website in the event of a disaster.