None of us would leave the door to our house, or our car, open at night and feel at ease. You wouldn’t allow just anyone to enter your home, especially by force, right?

I don’t think it’s crazy to think that we all take a minimum of precautions, so why is it so surprising that website and blog owners often don’t take the necessary steps to protect their pages?

And although we all know how cyberattacks have evolved in recent years, it seems we are still resistant. Just as a curiosity, in 2021 INCIBE (National Cybersecurity Institute) managed more than 100,000 incidents. That is no small feat.

But why do these things happen? In this article, we give you some simple tips to take precautions and avoid future problems. This way, we will save ourselves from having to fix potential hacks down the road.

WordPress Security: Why is it so important?

The WordPress platform is open source. This means its code is freely available online for anyone to view or edit. This is great for the WordPress community, as it allows developers to make new changes and improve the code easily and simply whenever they see fit.

This also means that malicious users and bots can view the code and find holes in the system where they can enter your site and do whatever they want, including stealing your data. That’s why it’s so important to secure your WordPress site as much as possible to prevent intruders from entering and causing havoc.

Basic security precautions

We can take certain basic precautions so that our WordPress is not a target for cyberattacks, for example: using complex passwords, avoiding connecting to public computers or Wi-Fi networks, avoiding generic access with easy-to-recognize usernames (like ‘admin’)…

Keep your WordPress installation updated

Every few months, new versions of WordPress are released that fix bugs in the current version, add new features that may be interesting, and, above all, improve its security.

The same applies to third-party software on your website: plugins and themes. It is advisable to always keep them updated to the latest version to avoid potential security holes.

If you have custom-developed code, the developer should have taken measures so that you can update the theme and plugins without issues. At Cactus, we are experts in custom development and we know how to act so that the website continues to function normally and can be updated without problems.

Enable only the functions you need

WordPress allows the installation of certain add-ons that serve to increase the natural functionalities of WordPress; these add-ons, called plugins, can be very practical and offer many additional functions for your site, but they can also open up new security risks.

We will improve security by enabling only the plugins we really need. This will help avoid unnecessary vulnerabilities.

There are also certain natural WordPress functions you should avoid: pingbacks, posting comments via proxy, URLs with malicious strings… A series of technical elements that are a common source of vulnerabilities on many websites.

Install a security plugin for WordPress

Although WordPress has good built-in security, there are some plugins you should definitely have installed on your site. Plugins that enable captchas for comments and login (you’ll avoid a lot of spam this way!), that limit file editing, or that can perform scans for malware among your files.

These plugins will help protect you against threats like brute force attacks or malware, viruses, and other malicious code. On the other hand, you need certain knowledge to correctly configure these plugins because an overly aggressive configuration can slow down the web too much, overcomplicate access to the admin panel, or directly block your IP so you can never access it again.

Alternative security measures

Additionally, WordPress websites are usually hosted on a third-party server (hosting), which makes them more vulnerable to attacks. Therefore, your hosting should have the most up-to-date version of PHP possible and offer additional security features: firewalls, DDoS protection, and monitoring.

Conclusion

According to a study, 85% of WordPress sites have some type of vulnerability. This, combined with the fact that WordPress is the most used web system in the world, has made the platform the target of many cyberattacks.

That is why having good security is fundamental. Especially if we work with sensitive data such as that found in an e-commerce site (with customer names, emails, and addresses, among others). At Cactus, we are WordPress experts and can advise and help you improve the security of your website. Simply contact us and we will help you from minute one.

If you prefer that we take care of it, the security and maintenance of your WordPress are part of our web development service.