The security of a WordPress website is perhaps one of the most important things to take care of. It can be very frustrating for a webmaster to have an insecure website that’s vulnerable to all the potential security threats such as hacking, phishing etc.
Here, I will share 6 major reasons of WordPress website hacking and how a website developer can fix them.
So, let’s get started, shall we?
#1 Using weAk passwords
Let’s start from the basics. Having weak passwords is among the major reasons why most of the WordPress websites are vulnerable to different kinds of security threats.
Ideally, every WordPress web developer must ensure that he or she has changed all the default passwords and made them stronger. Below are some of the important accounts that must have strong & hard-to-guess passwords :
- WordPress admin account
- FTP accounts
- Cpanel (control panel) account
Additionally, you must always change these passwords frequently in order to maintain the security of your WordPress website.
#2 Incorrect file permissions
What’s file permission?
File permissions are a set of rules used by your web server. These permissions help your web server control access to files on your site.
You website may have incorrect file permissions because of which the hackers can easily access them in order to write and change some of the important files.
Therefore, your website developer must always ensure that all your WordPress files should have 644 value as file permission, while all the folders should have 755 as their file permission.
#3 Unreliable plugins & Themes
Using plugins & themes from unreliable sources can also compromise the security of your website. Not only this, but these unreliable plugins can also steal the confidential information of your website users.
If your WordPress website also have some unreliable plugins or themes, you can hire a web developer who can remove them and install some other alternatives available to integrate those features.
As a precautionary note, the plugins & themes must be downloaded from reliable sources such as WordPress repositories and plugin developer’s website only.
#4 Lack of WordPress admin access protection
The admin section is the most commonly attacked area of your WordPress website. If not protected well, it can invite different hackers to attempt and crack your website.
There are a few ways in which your WordPress developer can protect the admin area of your website and make it difficult for the hackers to enter.
- The first way is to password protect the admin area so that your website has an additional layer of security. This will make it almost impossible for the hackers to get in.
- Additionally your website developer can change the conventional login URL & username of your admin area. For example, instead of “admin” as your username, it could be “admin2020super” and instead of login URL as “wp-admin” it could be “login”.
By ensuring above measures for your WordPress admin, you can protect your website from almost all the hackers.
#5 Outdated plugins & themes
One of the most common reasons of WordPress websites hacking is their outdated plugins & themes. These obsolete plugins & themes may have security flaws and bugs that could further lead to a compromised website.
Your WordPress developer can upgrade all the plugins & theme of your website to their latest versions. And if any of the obsolete plugins don’t have any option to upgrade its version, your developer can help you to find an alternative plugin and integrate it with your website.
Not only plugins & themes, but the WordPress version of your website must also be updated regularly.
#6 Unreliable web hosting
There are thousands of options to host a website. But are all of them reliable? Not really.
Some of these hosting companies do not pay attention to the security of their servers. As a result, it makes all the websites that are hosted on their servers vulnerable to hacking attempts.
Being experienced in hosting several WordPress websites, your developer can help you to choose a reliable hosting company for your website.
Below are some of the basic qualities that you must look out for in your hosting company:
- 24/7 Chat support.
- One-click WordPress installation.
- High performance servers.
- Security enabled hosting servers.
- Good reviews