Initially when a website is developed,the developers are aware of the layout,facilities and enhancements that are required to get the end result, building a website is a step by step process,like the designing and the coding process,now instilling security measure is also of utmost importance.

Why is blog security important ?

Like all the other websites even websites developed using WordPress are prone to online security issues,we can implement some basic techniques to avoid security nuisance. Since WordPress is a CMS open source platform it gives the owner and the hackers equal opportunities to develop and customize or exploit the code according to their needs.

As your website starts gaining popularity it also increase the risk of hacking and other security risks.

Of late hackers are less interested in causing mischief and more involved in making fast cash by burning your site in the search engines, they are smart and have a lot of time to look for loop holes and exploit them for their benefit. A hacker can cause a lot of damage to your website and if your are maintaining multiple corporate websites then the loss occurred can be tremendous.

To avoid being the target of such unpleasant situations we need to employ security measure to our websites.

How can you maintain your WordPress blogs security?

One does not have to be a computer whiz to implement these basic security precautions. Categorizing briefly there are two ways of how you can combat these security problems, one is by manually implementing some techniques and the other is installing multiple plugins that are widely available or if your proficient with coding you can modify and come up with your own security plugin.

Here are some essential website security measures that can be taken up by the website administrator to enhance blog security-

• Delete the “admin” user login that gets created by default and instead create a new administrator user with a new login name.
• Choose a strong and difficult login password of at least 12 characters,change the password regularly so as to make it impossible for someone to guess.
• Instead of using FTP for transferring files online,use SFTP (Secure FTP) to do so as it will encrypt all your files before being transferred thus making it more secure.
• Renaming the URLs,files and folders that start with “wp” would make it hard for the hacker to detect and access.
• Give your blog a unique touch,name your blog title,comments,URL accordingly instead of just referring to it as blog comments,blog title etc.
• Hide the WP version,you can make some edits in the coding under the “head” section to hide the WordPress version you are using,doing so prevents the hacker from knowing what exploit to use to get into your site.
• Needless to say you should update and or upgrade WordPress with out any delays. The upgraded version does not only contain additional features but also patches many major and minor security loopholes with every update.

WordPress Security Plugins :

Finally the popular and trusted WordPress Security Plugin you should use –

LockDown Plugin
Install and activate the LockDown plugin on your site to prevent hackers from intruding and attacking your site. The plugin keeps a record of failed “Admin” login,It activates a lock out and blocks the ip address that was attempting to login as the admin. You can access the blocked ip addresses manually though administrator panel.

• AskApache Password Protect

The AskApache Password Protect plugin provides an additional HTTP authentication defense layer for the website. It is used to protect your directory,content,plugins etc. It simply needs you to choose a user name and password.

WordPress Security Scan Plugin

Like any other scanning application WP Security Scan Plugin also scans your files and directories and this plugin scans your site and checks vulnerable file/directory permission and then recommends corrective actions. The corrective actions include changing your database prefix, hiding the WordPress version number from the header and allows you to test out the strength of your password. You should run a scan using this WordPress security scan plugin on regular intervals to avoid any WordPress security issues.

• Invisible Defender Plugin

Invisible Defender is a WordPress plugin, which protects registration, login and comment forms from Spambots by adding two extra fields hidden by CSS. This WordPress security plugin can provide anti-Spam protection on your websites.

• WordPress Database Backup

This blog security plugin creates backups of your core WordPress tables as well as other tables of your choice in the same database.

One should keep up with the currently used WordPress security plugins and implement regular WordPress security updates. I’ve listed the most commonly trusted and implemented WordPress security plugins, simply installing and activating these security plugins and taking care of few WordPress security issues can go a long way in keeping your WordPress website safe and secure.