Keeping your site secure and therefore available and serving your business can seem quite daunting at first but the basic things you can do to help protect your WordPress website from cyber attacks are actually very simple.
At it’s the most simple level, you need to have a strong password security for user accounts, keep all plugins up-to-date, install security software on your website, use a firewall and pay attention to website changes such as new users, pages and uploads.
Update, Update, Update
There are many reasons why having a good WordPress maintenance routine is key to the overall health of your site. One of them is that it helps to keep your website secure and running smoothly. There are many ways that hackers can get into your site, but if you regularly apply security updates, hackers wanting to exploit known vulnerabilities will be blocked before they can do any damage.
But a word of caution. Applying updates casually or enabling automatic updates can wreak havoc with your site and even cause it to crash permanently with a Critical Error displayed in place of your business website.
If you can, test your updates on a staging copy of your site before changing the live site.
Know your enemy
If you want to avoid WordPress vulnerabilities, you have to have a good understanding of WordPress security issues. You should know how hackers are attacking your website, their motives and how they can exploit the site. You must also know how to protect your website against these hacking attacks.
It’s important to understand that generally, hackers are not targeting your business website specifically. Many hackers simply want to build a network of sites under their control they can use to delver denial of service, malware or spam campaigns en masse. These types of hacks are often opportunistic and automated and are easily defeated with some simple techniques.
Installing and configuring a reputable security plugin can help here as it will include checks for the common issues.
Growing Pains
As your site evolves so does the burden of maintaining it. Your website needs regular care and upkeep for it to run smoothly and securely. That’s why it’s important to take care of your website with regular updates of WordPress, plugins and themes. Take backups periodically rather than waiting until something goes wrong before taking action. The larger the site, the more moving parts require care and attention and the higher the likelihood of a conflict happening, resulting in a website problem.
Ecommerce and membership sites are a juicy target
The maintenance and security of your WordPress website is even more important when running an online store. Hackers will target your site in the hope to be able to access personal data and credit card numbers. Security should be a primary concern when your business is being conducted online as a hack could cause significant brand damage and loss of customer confidence.
How Quickly Can You Recover From an Attack?
Having a disaster recovery plan for your WordPress site should the worst happen is an important first step to recovering quickly from an attack.
Do you know how to access your hosting, DNS accounts and website administration console? Do you have the contact details available for your Developer (if you have one) and can you be certain they’ll respond quickly to get you up and running again?
If you think you’ve been hacked, the first thing you should do is to change your WordPress admin password and update it with a strong password that includes special characters and numbers. Do the same for all other Administrator accounts.
You might consider changing all passwords, including those for email accounts and social media.
It’s also an idea to take your website offline immediately if you don’t have technical support to hand want to be sure that it won’t be hacked again shortly.
Want to learn more?
Website security is a key business responsibility, and in many cases, it’s a good idea to seek professional advice. If you would like to learn more or have questions relating to your site, please send us a message.
