WordPress’s popularity is a double edged sword.
On one hand, you can find the solutions to any problems instantly but on the other hand, hackers can find exploits and hack thousands of blogs running on WordPress.
As a WordPress blog owner or developer, you need to learn the essentials to secure your blog.
Here are some tips to ensure that your blog stays safe:
- Stay Up To Date: The automatic updates of WordPress make it super easy to upgrade your installation, plugins and themes to latest version. Always make sure that you are up to date and if possible, keep an eye on technology blogs as anything major related to WordPress security will surely be covered there. In case you are wondering how to handle all these upgrade notifications and stuff, I recommend checking out Handling WordPress Upgrades.
- Avoid Free Themes: Free themes are quite good. But you should really be avoiding free themes from any other source than WordPress Theme Directory. “Why?”, you’d ask. Well, because themes from other sources usually have code injected into them. What kind of code? Well, in best case, this code can inject a few links into your footer (which will affect your Page Rank) and in worst scenario, it will open a backdoor into your installation.
- Install Security Plugins: You should install basic security plugins like WP Security Scan and BulletProof Security. These prevent basic backdoors and make sure that your blog is not hacked by script kiddies.
- Change Your Ways: Many times, the biggest security threat exists between the computer and the chair. Yes, the user. You should choose a good password and make sure that you do not give it to anyone. Secondly, do not create administrator accounts unless absolutely necessary. Read more in Hardening WordPress at WordPress Codex.
Have any other tips in mind? Do not forget to share in comments.
