WordPress is one of the most popular blogging and content management systems on the internet as of today. While the software itself is stable, tried and true, the popularity of the software makes it a prime target for thousands of people who for multiple reasons may want to gain access to your website. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, they say, and much of the risk associated with a potential break-in can be solved by thinking ahead and planning for security from the start. We will share with you several tips that can help minimize the chances that your site will be the victim of an attack.

Safeguard Your Computer

While no precise data is available on the incidence rate, there is documented proof that many website break-ins originate from data that is stolen from a personal computer. This can be done through a compromised email account, an installed key logger and usually occurs when the computer in question is not using up-to-date anti virus protection. By securing your PC (and only accessing your website’s control panel through secured computers), there will be no chance for data to be collected by malicious sources. You should also make a habit of changing both your email and website passwords frequently.

Use Secure Hosting

Not all hosting providers are created equally, and unfortunately, this leaves wide holes open for attack if you are using a less than adequate provider. Before starting a website, consider balancing cost, performance and security by reading many reviews for the biggest providers out there. Free hosting in many cases is highly insecure and should be avoided. Paid providers generally offer security tools that attempt to detect malicious or unauthorized activity. They also generally provide access logs that will alert you to any unwelcome access to your website (Tip: use Pingler’s Reverse IP/Lookup Tool to find the domain name of any given IP).

Update Constantly

With WordPress, you will probably have the core software with many plug-ins attached to it. Each plug-in has problems and those problems are generally corrected in a later release. Whenever you have an outdated version of a plug-in, hackers can use this information to attack your website. Developers always announce security flaws that have been fixed between updates, so malicious deviants seeking to gain access to your website can use this information to determine if you are a worthy target. Combat this by updating your core WordPress software and plug-ins constantly; you can do so from the control panel and each plug-in’s indicators let you know when there is an update.

Backup Your Site

Having a copy of your website on-hand in the event of a disaster is not just crucial but is a smart thing to do. We back up our files, music and photos. Why not websites? Many premium hosting providers offer tools that allow you to set times and dates for automatic backups; perhaps you wish to backup your website once per week or even once per day. WordPress also has plug-ins that can be utilized to create backup versions of your site, making a total restoration easy in the face of a malicious attack.