How To Protect Your WordPress Blog From Hackers

Feels really weird when you open your website and you see an ugly looking image pasted it the front of your blog “Hacked by…..” Yea, I know that feeling. Some bloggers even quite once their blog is hit by hackers, others get so confused they just abandon the blog and get another domain and the process repeats itself over again. And I fell victim to script kiddies constantly looking for new blogs to hack three times before I kicked up my a-game and started doing things to completely secure my blog leaving no loop hole what so ever.

It’s no news that thousands of new wordpress blogs go down everyday because of lack of security. So what do you do? Would you sit there and wait for yours to join the never-ending list before you do something about it? Nah, you would have to do something about it and leave them confused and frustrated anytime they try to hack your blog. Below are some steps you should follow if you want your blog to be totally impenetrable by hackers

4 Tips To Easily Protect and Secure Your Blog From Hackers

1. Check The Theme For Malicious Codes

Malicious code is the first step a hacker takes when they are trying to attack your blog. They put it there forehand, hidden between the lines in a free theme you download from them unknowingly. If you are using a free theme, the risk of your blog getting hacked is higher, but gladly there is away of finding any code they might have put in theme. Kindly Follow the guide in this article to learn How To Scan Your Theme For malicious Codes

2. Delete Any Profile named Admin

Most hackers can find a loop-hole to access your site database if you have any user named “admin”, I even read an article before on how you can use Google Search To find blogs with username admin in their database. When you install WordPress for the first time, it usually comes “admin” as the super user on your blog. But you have to remove this to improve the security of your blog. Once deleted, you can then add a new user with full admin privileges and it serves as the administrator to the blog.

Adding A new User with Admin Rights

Goto the “Users” menu on the left side and your blog, it should bring out a sub-menu which you can then choose ad user from. If you have done that correctly, you should see the image below. Fill the fields with the details you want to use e.g. firstname, last name etc.

After you have filled all fields, on the last field named “role” (Its circled with red in the image below) Click the arrow on it to drop it down and select administrator as the role of that user and click “Add New User” button below it. You have successfully added a new admin profile

Deleting The Profile Named “Admin”

Go over the menu name users again but time choose the “All Users” link from the menu. Locate the admin user and check the box behind it. Once you are on it, who new link should appear under it (Edit|Delete). Click delete and you are done

3. Update To The Latest Version Of WordPress Immediately it is Available

At least once in every two months, WordPress release a new update. These updates usually fix a security problem or bug that was found in the previous version. If you use an outdated version, chances are that it would be easier to penetrate your blog. So Once you notice there is any update available, it is advisable to update immediately. This process has been made easy as WordPress would always pop up a notice once there is something new either in a plugin or on the WordPress itself

4. Limit Login Attempts to the Admin Area

Some hackers use some tools to continuously try random password on your blog until they get the right now. This usually takes about two hours for a regular password. Some times someone close to you may even attempt to access your account. You can put a limit a user can attempt to login using Limit Login Attempt WordPress Plugin, you set the limit a user can attempt to login before login is disable and an email notification is sent to you. This is a really cool plugin and I recommend every blog should have this as it makes it totally impossible for amateur hackers to access your blog

The security of your blog to optimize it fully. Remember not to have any hidden link on your blog because most search engine general hates this. Also back up your blog frequently in case anything  happens, you can simply remove that the hacked one and put it back and continue right where you left off.

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