How To Secure Your WordPress Blog From Hackers?

If you are a blogger you definitely have heard about this extensively used blog software called WordPress. It is one of the leading open source blog software available on the net .But no matter how many excellent features WordPress holds, the internet is filled with dangerous hackers and malwares threatning the security of your beloved blog.

If u have been a WordPress user for quite a while, you should have known by now that it is impossible to block every attack, instead you can maintain maximum level of security for your blog. Since WordPress is an open source software with an excellent community support, it can be configured easily.

Make your WordPress blog as secure as possible with the following simple steps:

1: UPDATE TO LATEST VERSION:

Don’t make your WordPress blog vulnerable to hackers. Updating your WordPress blog is the easiest thing that you can do to fix all the security loop holes that can jeopardize your blog. Also keep your software plugins up to date because latest versions fix the bugs and security issues.

Hackers will always try their best to exploit any kind of loop holes which may compromise the whole WordPress system. So use the ability to install automatic updates in WordPress blog and maintain the latest plugin versions to ensure high security.

2: Use Secret Keys in the wp-config file:

A secret key makes your blog harder to crack by adding random elements to the password. Always use a secret key to protect your blog, because hackers are always coming up with new innovative ways to break through the security walls of WordPress blogs.

Secret Key is in your WordPress configuration file, the wp-config.php. A wp-config.php is the file which stores the database information that WordPress needs to connect the architecture. This file contains the name, address and password of the MySQL database that stores all of your user information, blog posts and other crucial content.

Go to https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/ , copy the results and paste it into this section of your wp-config.php file if you haven’t set up a secret key.

It is in fact the heart that keeps a WordPress blog moving. By using a secret key it can be more difficult for hackers to gain access to the blog.

3. .htaccess Files to Secure Your WordPress Blog :

By using .htaccess files user limits of the blog can be restrained. .Htaccess files can be altered to manage the overall behavior of accessing your website through the internet. This includes redirecting files and directories, blocking access to files, IP addresses from certain referrers. Be sure to backup your .htaccess file before attempting to make any changes, as errors can crash your site temporarily (until the problem is resolved).

There’s no limit to what you can do with your .htaccess file, let me show you the minimum commands I would recommend adding to your .htaccess file. You can add the following directly above what WordPress already added:

Disable Directory Viewing

# disable directory browsing

Options All -Indexes

Disable The Server Signature

# disable the server signature

ServerSignature Off

Block Bad User Agents

Block all the bad bots, scrapers, rippers and other malware from accessing your website

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^BlackWidow [OR]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Bot\ mailto:craftbot@yahoo.com [OR]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ChinaClaw [OR]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Custo [OR]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^DISCo [OR]

RewriteRule ^.* - [F,L]

Block Access to WP-Config

# protect wpconfig.php

order allow,deny

deny from all

Block Access to .htaccess

order allow,deny

deny from all

satisfy all

4: Use strong passwords for WordPress accounts:

The most important one is a secured and strong password for your WordPress account. Never use common dictionary words for passwords. Always use a case sensitive password which contains both uppercase and lowercase letters including numbers and symbols. Never choose your password relevant to your blog niche.

Don’t make your password easy for hackers. Choose a strong and unique password. With a strong password, and secret key you will have a extra layer of security for your WordPress account.

5: Changing File Permissions:

Use file permissions to harden your WordPress blog. Don’t leave files or folders with too simple permissions because hackers can access them with ease. File and directory permissions can be changed within the administrative page from your web host. Don’t alter it unless you have a very good idea about what you are doing.

Use “WordPress Codex” to gain the knowledge of what permissions are acceptable.

[WordPress Codex =http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress#File_permissions]

Some more tips you can use are encrypted logins, limit login attempts. Never use admin as your username and make hackers job easy and regularly backup your WordPress blog, install trusted plugins, protect your wp-admin folder, remove WordPress version info since each one has its own security issues and last but not the least do a security scan regularly.

These points are just a simple glimpse of things you can do to make your WordPress blog more secure. Do Share your own security practices in the comments.

Dave is a freelance writer and security expert working for ivpn.net,one of the leading VPN service provider.