In a word of constant identity theft, hacking, and computer threats it is important to secure your WordPress websites from potential attacks. There are several ways to ramp up the security of your website including:
- Stronger passwords
- Limiting login attempts
- Moving login page
- Security Plugins / Solutions
- Add an SSL
Creating a Strong Password
It is important to protect your website with a strong password. Passwords are, at the end of the day, the final line of defense between your website and the people who would like to do you harm.
Choosing a strong password is of extra importance on WordPress because anyone can access your website login page simply by typing yoursitename.com/wp-admin into the search bar. This leaves your site vulnerable to potential attacks. Luckily this can be changed in order to ramp up your website security.
What Does a Secure WordPress Password Look Like?
Secure passwords should be a random sequence of characters, numbers, and special characters. It should not include any reference to your website’s URL as that is the most common thing to guess in a hacking attempt. For example, if your username is “yoursitename” and your password is “yoursitename1” you can see that it would be very easy to guess.
A great way to choose a potential password is through external tools like Password Generator. Here you can generate secure and random passwords that will add an extra level of security to your page.
Examples of Secure WordPress Passwords:
- GsSgj6s5m3ijEIBR
- rFbEVFnn0tcGxwwP
- JZIiWa6GUHZA1rX7
Limiting Login Attempts
Another way to reduce the possibility of brute force hacking into your website is to reduce login attempts. I am sure that we have all run into the error that “too many incorrect attempts have been made” and that you now have to wait for a time or we are banned from the system. These might be annoying but they do stop a serious security threat, brute force attacks.
In a brute force attack on your website, hackers use a bot to try thousands of potential logins for a chance to break into your site. One of the best ways to stop this is by limiting the number of login attempts allowed before they are blocked from the site.
This helps to reduce any chance of hackers being able to break into your site and potentially gain control of your information.
A great plugin that can be used in order to limit login attempts is Limit Login Attempts Reloaded by WPChef.
Moving Your Login Page
Since WordPress has a very public login place by default it can be a good idea to move the URL that the login takes place on. You can do this by using a simple plugin like Defender WordPress Security.
This plugin will allow you to move your login page from /wp-admin to a URL of your choosing. By moving your place of login you can stop a potential attack before it ever even starts. If hackers cannot find your login page it will make it a lot harder to get into your site.
Install Security Plugins and Hosting Security
Another great way to improve your website security is through some simple plugins such as:
- Sucuri
- iThemes Security Pro
- Jetpack Security
These plugins, and many more, help to defend your website and protect all aspects of your internet security. They help to monitor for potential attacks as well as protect against many forms of data theft. It is important to download one of these plugins. If you would like to take it a step further you could also purchase the paid version of any of these plugins for more advanced protection and security monitoring.
Hosting Security Solutions
A great way to further protect your website is by buying a security solution from your hosting provider. Most hosting providers have some kind of additional security package that can help your website. Look for this in your products manager and consider buying it as an upgrade for your site.
Add An SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate or Secure Sockets Layer Certificate helps to protect transactions between you and your customer. This can help to add an additional level of security to transactions such as an exchange of information or purchase from a credit card. Adding this to your website will result in a safer site for your customers to browse and interact with. Having an SSL will also display as a secure padlock in the far left of the search bar which shows that you can be trusted.
Security Conclusion
In the age of internet attacks, it is always important to keep your website security in mind as well as the security of your customers. Informational losses and data theft can destroy any company and greatly hurt customer relations. Keep your website safe from any potential attacks and do what you can to protect yourself in the big wide web of the internet. If you would like any assistance keeping your website secure contact us here for additional help and support.