WordPress is on the list of most famous CMS that have gained the trust of bloggers and business owners alike. After all, the WordPress platform gives the owner plenty of options to customize the website according to the business needs.
Nevertheless, every WordPress site owner must be aware of the fact- What puts the website at risk? A WordPress website that is not secure may allow cyber criminals to cause damage to your business as a result of ignorance. Therefore, it is imperative to know the threats to your WordPress website.
If you want to secure your website, you must learn how it is vulnerable? It is because you can never find solutions to your website’s problems without understanding them. We will now go through the issues in detail and how we can fix them. First, let’s see why your WordPress website is not completely secure.
Why is WordPress website not safe?
There are a few key reasons behind the vulnerability of your website, which you should not ignore:
- The vast majority of problems arise from ignorance, and using outdated versions of popular software is a typical example. Hence, make sure you check what version of WordPress you are currently running.
- How secure is your website’s main entry point? Is it possible to know it? Yes, periodically checking the login credentials of your website will help you to know it.
- Do you know what technology you are using to maintain your WordPress website? Is it the most recent version? Your website may be at risk if you continue to use the previous version of that technology.
Knowing these points can help you realize that you need to keep your website secure. Unfortunately, cyber criminals may find many other ways to attack your website. Now, let’s look at 10 WordPress security issues that attackers may discover useful in damaging your business. At the same time, we will see how to fix them.
10 WordPress security issues and how to fix them
To provide a better level of security for your WordPress site, consider the following points:
Login credentials:
In order to attack your website, hackers might choose the main entry point. If the login credentials of your websites are not strong enough then your website may be at risk. Cyber criminals can use certain programs to access your website’s private information. In what ways do these programs help them to access your website? Well, they assist them in finding the correct password and username. Cyber criminals are skilled at hacking passwords. If they figure out the password, they can easily access your website.
How can you fix:
- Choose a password that is difficult to crack. There is therefore no substitute for strong passwords.
- Ensure that you haven’t forgotten to safeguard the admin and host accounts for your website.
- Adding Captchas to your website login process will help you limit the number of login attempts.
Check the Plugins and Themes:
The user-friendly nature of WordPress means you can customize your website to your liking very easily. In fact, WordPress themes and plugins allow users to create websites according to their preferences. However, there is a problem with these themes and plugins. When developers make errors in their code while developing themes and plugins, security related issues can occur. It is often outdated themes and plugins that cyber criminals prefer. Hackers will eventually figure out how to get access to your website.
How can you fix:
- Update your WordPress themes and plugins regularly. Keeping these up to date will keep attackers at bay.
Spam aimed at SEO:
SEO spam or search engine optimization spam may not easily come to mind. Still, cyber criminals take full advantage of it. But what is it exactly? Through this method, cyber criminals are easily able to redirect your website traffic to another site. Attackers may tamper with your Google search results or they can even add code to your website. However, you can never detect all of these easily.
How can you fix:
- Never attempt to remove these malware manually; it’s nearly impossible.
- You should carefully monitor your ranking on SEO and note any abnormal changes.
- Last but not least, never hesitate to seek professional assistance. An expert WordPress development company in India can be your savior to help you with this issue.
The main software needs to be updated:
In order to maintain your WordPress website, you should make sure that you download updated versions of the software on a regular basis. Why? By upgrading it to the new version, you are actually updating your current version to fix all the security issues. If you continue to use the old version of WordPress, you may leave your website vulnerable to hacking.
How can you fix:
- You should update your software frequently whenever new versions are available.
- Keep your eyes on the dashboard of the WordPress. The update tab is available there. Be sure to check this for upcoming updates.
The threat of Phishing malware:
Cyber criminals use this malware to deceive us into sharing all our personal information. Generally, it is not possible to detect that hackers are taking such steps. It is possible that an admin of a WordPress website would receive an email expressing the need for an immediate update. Thus, attackers may deceive admins into sharing their login credentials.
How can you fix:
- You should keep updating your website. Keep an eye on your website’s activities as well, since they are very important.
- Always set a strong password, and be sure to change it frequently.
- A re-captcha system is an excellent tool for keeping your website secure against phishing malware.
Using the same password for all accounts:
It is certainly not a good habit to use the same strong password for every account you have. Why? Think of what could happen if the password of your social networking site and your bank account are the same. You expose your bank account to risk. Consequently, using the same password for your WordPress website and other websites is definitely not a good idea.
What should you do:
- Create unique passwords for every account you have.
- Ensure that the passwords you create for each account are not easily crackable.
XSS attack:
A cross-site scripting attack or XSS is another way cyber criminals target your website. How does it occur? By doing so, hackers are able to inject harmful code into the back-end code of your site. So, they can easily interfere with the functionality of your website. Eventually, the hackers can attach a fake website to get access to the users’ details once they have gained control of your website.
How to fix it:
- Firstly, there is no substitute for updating the entire system of your WordPress website.
- Secondly, a Web application firewall can safeguard your website from XSS attacks.
Backdoor codes:
Attackers are always looking for backdoors. Hackers are well aware of backdoor codes since they can use them to damage your site. Backdoor codes come with malware, which is dangerous. Although you remove the malwares, the backdoor codes may enable the hackers to gain control of your site again.
How to fix it:
- Removing the malware manually is not going to help your system. Hence, do not try it.
- Your WordPress has a security plugin. This will certainly assist you in removing backdoors from your website.
The threat of SQL injection:
Hackers try to gain control of your website in many ways, and SQL injection is one of them. SQL injection, or structured query language injection, allows the attacker to see the data on your website. Moreover, it can also change the data from your website. The most frustrating thing is that you may observe other data and content related actions that you did not initiate.
How to fix it:
- Do not permit users to submit special characters when collecting user submissions.
- You may include a captcha during the submission process.
Inactive accounts:
A WordPress website owner is responsible for removing accounts that are no longer active. If hackers obtain access to these accounts, they can attack your site. After all, you are not updating passwords for these accounts anymore.
How can you fix it:
- Monitor the activity of each and every account you have on your website.
- Immediately remove the inactive accounts from your website.
- Keep updating the passwords of all the accounts.
Conclusion:
Having a WordPress website comes with responsibilities, especially if you want to ensure its security. Therefore, knowing the threats to your WordPress website is a must for every owner of a WordPress website. Keep all these points in mind next time you check the security of your website. Also, you must always reach out to the best WordPress website development company to support your online business by developing a glitch-free website built on WordPress.