3.0: Video – Introduction to WordPress Security

Video Transcript

WordPress is by far the most popular platform for building websites, powering 34% of them worldwide. But popularity comes with a downside. Hackers like to target WordPress because it allows them to infect a huge number of websites at the same time by using automated attacks.

Most attacks on WordPress sites are conducted by bots, programs written by a hacker to perform attacks for them. In many cases, large groups of bots, or botnets, attack thousands of sites simultaneously. Hackers sometimes target high-value sites manually, allowing them to make more devious decisions about how to attack and avoid detection.

Hackers attack websites for a number of reasons:

• To use the server to send spam
• To host malicious content
• To steal your website data
• To spamvertise
• Or to use your server to attack other web sites
• All of these activities can have a negative impact on your business and reputation

It is important for you to follow these best practices to keep your site secure:

• Use strong passwords
• Choose a reputable hosting provider
• Keep WordPress, your themes and plugins up to date
• Use an intrusion detection and protection service like Wordfence, as an additional layer of security
• Remove all old and unmaintained web applications from your web server
• Ensure that there are no sensitive temporary files lying around on your web server
• And if you use a source code repository, make sure that the configuration files are not visible on your website