What is going on with the internet today? Hack after hack is being reported. Huge companies are having their sites and networks compromised even those with layer upon layer of security. Is it possible to secure your website?
Some of my clients have asked me if there is any threat to the websites of small businesses or bloggers? The answer is complicated but with the recent worldwide activity indicated by the Wordfence Security plugin, there is evidence that the number of attacks per minute has reached over 30k and they are growing. The image displayed here is an actual page of brute force attacks (attempts to log into the CMS dashboard) on a client site. Take note of the countries that make attempts. This is common on every site we manage. With this growth and the variable methods of attack, it does not appear that size or popularity is an issue to the hackers. A hacked site can cause malware to install on visitors computers and will eventually cause the site to be blacklisted. Blacklisting will effectively render the site useless as all traffic will be warned of the security risk prior to entry. An indication of why hackers hack and the results can be found here (watch the video).
How Can You Secure Your Website
Your system should be configured to minimize the amount of damage that can be done in the event that it is compromised. As hackers find new ways to penetrate the security of websites keeping backups and knowing the state of your WordPress installation at regular intervals is important. Having a plan to backup and recover your installation in the case of catastrophe can help you get back online faster in the case of a problem.
Like many modern software packages, WordPress is updated regularly to address new security issues that may arise. Improving software to secure your website is an ongoing concern, and to that end you should keep up to date with the latest version of WordPress. The extensions of WordPress, known as plugins, add functionality such as slideshows or contact forms. These applications must also be updated regularly to successfully thwart attacks. They can be easy to exploit when they are out of date and make it difficult to secure your website.
In addition to regular updates and backups, individual files within the WordPress codex can be augmented to harden the entry points and make your latest version of WordPress less susceptible to unauthorized access. However, these are advanced techniques that require some knowledge of coding skills.
At Out In Front Marketing we have packages that update, backup and monitor sites on a monthly or quarterly basis. We make sure that threats are mitigated and attacks are rebuffed. In addition we restore our client’s hacked WordPress sites for a flat fee regardless of our time involvement. Visit our website for more information or contact us by clicking the pointing finger or CONTACT tab.