How to Secure WordPress From Being Hacked

Securing WordPress is a big issue these days. A lot of sites/blogs get hacked on daily basis. How to secure WordPress from being hacked is what I will teach you in this article. In the very beginning let’s discuss some of the causes of being hacked

Causes of WordPress Hacking

• Using Nulled or Free Downloaded Premium Theme ? Why would someone give premium and paid themes for free? Of-course they have malicious codes hidden in them which can hack your blog, or use it for adding their link s automatically in your blog
• Wpconfig.php has no security keys defined in it.
• wpconfig.php is not secure it can be secured in a lot of ways, we will discuss them later in this post
• Database password does not contain any of the alphabets-numbers and characters. Make a strong password eg V!r2U3s$

Security Tip #1

Goto your cpanel >> File Manger >> Root Folder in which look for .htaccess file, open it and add this at the end

# protect wpconfig.php

<files wp-config.php>

order allow,deny

deny from all

</files>

Security Tip #2

define('AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here'); define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here'); define('LOGGED_IN_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here'); define('NONCE_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');

Visit the official secret-key generation service and paste the results into your wpconfig.php file (replace the four lines beginning with “define”)

Security Tip #4

For New Installations

In  wpconfig.php  file you will find the line stating the table prefix change it to something new if you are installing new WordPress

$table_prefix = 'wp_';

Change it to whatever you want but it has _ after it eg

$table_prefix = ‘yoursomethingwp_’;

For Running Blogs

If you have a running blog and you want to change your database prefix then easy way to do it is using pluigns. Use this plugin   WordPress Security Scan Then  Goto WSD Security >> Database >> Now change the prefix  from the options you view.

Security Tip #5

Use this plugin WordPress Security Scan it is a great security notifier. Any change that occurs in your site will be notified to you on your admin Email ID.In short if I list out its features, it will check your website/blog for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions such as:

1. Passwords
2. File permissions
3. Database security
4. Version hiding
5. WordPress admin protection/security
6. Removes WP Generator META tag from core code

Security Tip #6

Keep your WordPress Installation up to date. Keep yourself aware of the latest trends. If you see any strange changes in your blog look for your funtions.php file. In  Appearance >> Edit >> Theme Functions (functions.php).  You can also install WordPress Exploit Scanner and TAC plugin to verify your code is correct or not.

Your Turn:

I am quite wiped now, going for a break to get some coffee in the meantime tell me

• What are your views about sites’ being hacked an why?
• Did you manage to do all what I explained?
• Any comments, suggestions compliments?