6 Ways to Protect Your WordPress Website From Hackers
Most novice bloggers are entirely upbeat, to begin with, WordPress, thanks to plenty of themes and plugins offered by this platform that are absolutely free to use.
If you have been using WordPress for quite some time now, you would know how vulnerable it is to hacking. We know that websites are hacked every minute of the day and sensitive information is being spilled out. Since WordPress is so vulnerable to hacking and spamming, hackers have made WordPress their primary target to gain access to a variety of WordPress powered websites and misuse the platform as well as the information. WordPress website development company can help in protecting the website from hackers with their well -established method and strategies.
However, there are small things that you can do to protect your site against hackers and keep your data safe. Today, in this article, we have compiled a list of 6 ways to help you combat the WordPress Security attacks.
1. Use strong passwords
A strong password is one that incorporates a series of letters (capitalized and lowercase), numbers and images as they are most hard to figure. It ought to be at least 10 characters in length. Your name, birth date, and phone numbers are among the weakest passwords. Abstain from utilizing the same password for numerous records.
2. Upgrade themes and plugins often
WordPress is an ever-growing software that comes with updates every now and then. The primary reason for releasing updates is to include new elements and fix bugs and security escape clauses in the current version. Therefore, it is important to update your themes and plugins when they are made accessible.
3. Disable hotlinking
Hotlinking is a common practice that leads to hacking. It is a method where websites link to the images on your site increasing your server load. Thus, it is always a bright idea to disable hotlinking.
In order to disable it, put the code in your .htaccess file- Disable hotlinking of images with forbidden or custom image option
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www.)?sparringmind.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www.)?google.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www.)?feeds2.feedburner.com/sparringmind [NC]
RewriteRule .(jpg|jpeg|png|gif)$ – [NC,F,L]
4. Regular Backups
As a matter of fact, you can only prevent your site from hacking. And no method or security technique is full-proof. The hackers are always one stage ahead. Therefore, it is better to be safe than sorry. If you don’t want to lose your website and its data, you better back your website up every now and then. WordPress comes with a variety of security plugins that allow you to back up your site automatically.
5. Confine Login Access
The original admin account is one of the security loopholes most hackers exploit. The first thing to do is delete the original admin account and create a new one with a different name (not admin). Make sure you attribute the old content to the new account. Do not allow too many people to log in to your WordPress dashboard as well as the number of apps you can access.
6. Adds an expires header
An expires header is a method of specifying a time in the future to prevent fetching any static data over and over again including images, Javascript files and CSS files. This reduces your server load time drastically and tightens your website’s security.
Copy and paste the following code in your .htaccess file
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/gif A2592000
ExpiresByType image/png A2592000
ExpiresByType image/jpg A2592000
ExpiresByType image/jpeg A2592000
Conclusion:
WordPress is a powerful platform to build sites but still, it has its own limitations that make it vulnerable to hacking. However, following the above-mentioned ways can really save your site from getting hacked.
