WordPress websites seem to be all the rage representing almost three-quarters of the Content Management Systems (CMS) used to build websites worldwide. Does this mean they are safer when it comes to cyberattacks or does this create additional risk for the website owners?
To answer this question we must first understand why websites get hacked. We covered this topic in this article – Why Would Hackers Hack My Website? – and all these reasons are applicable to WordPress websites. Your website can be used to further spread infections and be a launching pad for attacks on other websites or your customers’ and users’ data can be stolen and used for fraudulent activities. Maybe the most frustrating reason your WordPress website might get hacked is just that it can be – some script-kiddie decides to “practice” and your WordPress is hacked beyond repair.
The popularity of the WordPress platform unfortunately means that hackers can quite easily find ideas and solutions on how to hack it. It is rather simple to literary Google known vulnerabilities and how to use them to hack a website. But on the positive side, with this also comes a large community of developers and users that pick up on security issues and provide fortifying patches with a quick turnaround.
How to prevent WordPress website hacks
The first thing to tackle is the “human error” element – passwords that are not secure. With more and more human activities moving online, keeping track of one’s passwords is becoming more and more challenging. 23.2 million victim accounts worldwide used 123456 as a password and compromised or weak passwords are expected to be the root cause of most online fraud.
The lesson here is quite obvious – make your passwords strong and secure. Use a password manager and One Time Password (OTP) solutions whenever possible.
The second thing to do is a result of that “strength in number” feature of WordPress websites. As noted already, WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, and patches and security solutions are widely available. The issue is, often owners or developers do not keep track of those and neglect to check and implement those quick enough. WordPress community has thought of this as well and has introduced automated theme and plugin updates. This is a great solution but should be used carefully at first given some updates can cause technical issues on websites and it would be advisable to test them.
Whatever is the case, keeping your WordPress and all its components up to date is critical when it comes to preventing malicious attacks.
As with any website, WordPress is no different – implementing proactive protection in form of a firewall is key. OneHourSiteFix team is here to help and can not only diagnose if the website has been hacked but also clean and protect it.
We Can Help Save Your Business
SITE FIXED IN LESS THAN 1 HOUR
WordPress website defaced ? If we don’t fix a defaced website in less than 1 hour then we do it for FREE!. Luckily for us we are very good at fixing sites fast!
Leave A Comment