Do I really need to worry about WordPress Security?

WordPress Security Issues and Concerns :

WordPress has become one of the most popular platform for creating websites and posting blogs. With the increase in popularity of WordPress the security risk increases as well. As the traffic on your website develops the more prone it gets to hacking and other security issues.

When a blog gets hacked (through methods like password brute force and SQL Injections), hacked and added content may be malicious, which can even cause a site to be banned and removed from Google and other search engines.

The most important part of any website is your content. Imagine losing all of your valuable content, including posts, media, and comments etc. Even worse imagine Spam links hiding in your content. Keeping your website safe from hacker bots should be a top priority for anyone running their own website.

It is always better to spend some time to secure your blog before tragic strikes. You never know what could happen. Following few steps WordPress blog users could help make your blog secure and discourage hackers, though unfortunately, there is no 100% way to stop them, only greatly discourage them.

How to Secure WordPress :

Just following the set of precautions can save your valuable information and save you from all the inconvenience that can be caused otherwise.

• Upgrade Your WordPress Installation

This is one of the easiest and simplest security steps. Upgrading not only fixes bugs and adds new features, but most importantly, it fixes security issues.

• Hide Your WordPress Version Number

Hackers can easily find out if you are running an out of date installation and use old security holes to exploit and hack your blog.

• Prevent Viewing of Your Plugins Directory

Hackers can find out what plugins you are running as well as figure out if you are running an outdated plugin and can exploit security holes just by going to the /wp-content/plugins directory.

• Make Regular Database and File Backups

Always maintain regular database backups , if your website gets hacked or your server fails you will have a secondary copy of the entire data base handy.

• Change the WordPress Admin User name

By default, the WordPress admin password is ‘admin’. Hackers trying to brute force into the admin account already has the user name done. The user name can be changed using a plugin.

• Protect your wp-admin directory

Hackers know where your wp-admin directory is so they often use brute-force style attack to simply guess your admin password until the correct one comes up and logs in. There are several methods available to prevent this.

• Firewalls

Putting your server behind an appropriate firewall can help with certain types of attack

• Use a Strong Password

As always, use a strong password. The are many password generator tools that can be used to accomplish this task.

• Always Log Out When Finished

If you log out when you finish your work in the back end of your site, you’ll be much less likely to fall victim to a cross site scripting vulnerability. So make a habit of it. Alternatively, have a browser that you only use for WordPress.

• Consider using top web hosting services

Choose a web hosting service that is reliable and efficient and less prone to security attacks.

These are few basic precautions that can be implemented ,apart the above installing multiple WordPress security plugins are always advisable.

List of popular and effective WordPress security plugins :

• Invisible Defender

Invisible Defender is a WordPress security plugin, which protects registration, login and comment forms from spambots by adding two extra fields hidden by CSS.

• AskApache Password Protect

AskApache Password Protect adds some serious password protection to your WordPress Blog.

• WP Security Scan

Scans your WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions

• WordPress File Monitor

Monitors your WordPress installation for added/deleted/changed files.

• Admin SSL

This WordPress plugin secures wordpress login and admin pages, supports all SSL setups and encrypt cookie contents.

• Login LockDown

Login LockDown tracks the IP address and time stamp of every failed WordPress login attempt.

• Anti Virus

This plugin is very easy to use and it allows you to do manual testing with immediate result of the infected files.
Just implementing the aboves techniques and WordPress security plugins can go a long way in making your WordPress website secure.