WordPress Security Tips

In this ever changing world where hackers look to hide spam links on your blog and hackers try to crack into your blog posts to try to spew their malware out at your expense, it makes sense to keep your WordPress blog secure.

Here are a few thing that I do and recommend that you consider to keep your website and blogsite safe. First, why do I say website? Well, it is not uncommon for a blog to be hacked and used as the springboard to compromise your website. So if you have a blog on your server, make sure you are keeping it secure to protect your website.

I use the following items for our managed blogs:

Login Lock Down
This plug-in protects you from brute force robot attacks that try to gain access to your blog by simply trying a million possible login combinations. This plug-in allows you to set login attempts to a specific number before access is locked for a specific time period you select.

Exploit Scanner
This is a very good plug-in and can actually let you know if your blog has been hacked and where the files are residing. I really like this one and have solved and cleaned up a number of hack attacks with its use.

WP-MalWatch
This is another very helpful plug-in. After installation look for it on the dashboard. It will let you know if your site has been compromised with the Pharma Hack and searches your locales.php file and file ending combinations.

WordPress File Monitor
Oh, I really like this one. Once you have cleaned up after a hack, this plug-in will advise you by email or text message when any of your WordPress core files is changed. This is very helpful if you are having trouble keeping your site clean from problems.

There are other great plug-ins these are just the top three that we use that come to mind. In addition to using scanning application, make sure that your logins are secure, you keep all your plug-ins up-to-date and keep your WordPress version on the most recent version.

If you don’t have time to keep an eye on your own WordPress application, get a blogmaster likeĀ  us to watch your blog and scan it monthly or weekly.