UPDATED:  There is a new hacking effort taking place using bots to access Word Press sites.  Read more about it here.  Follow the below instructions and you’ll be fine…

There are several ways to make your Word Press site more secure and this is always a good idea.  Proper security can be a pain in the tush but also can save you a lot of time in the future…  Below are some options ranked minimal, better and best.  Take some time to read through these and decide which one you need to focus on.

If you do not feel comfortable doing these things yourself we would be happy to help.  Give us a call for a quote.

Most hacking takes place through the Word Press admin panel and so our first goal is to make this area safer.

Minimal

When Word Press is installed it creates a default user called “admin.”  The first step in securing Word Press is make sure the would be hacker not only has to guess your password, but also has to guess your username.  Here’s how we do this:

1.  Log into your site and go to USERS.
2.  Create a new user with a unique name that is NOT associated with your blog.  (i.e. If your name is “Bill” and you name is all over your website then “Bill” or even “William” is a very poor choice for a username.
3.  Fill out the information for Name, email, etc and then create a strong password.  This password should be at least 8 characters and be a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.
4.  Log out of the admin panel.
5.  Log back into the admin panel using your newly created username and password.
6.  Again, go to USERS.
7.  Delete the admin username.
8.  IMPORTANT!  It will ask you if you want to delete the posts associated with this user or put those posts underneath your new user.  Put them under the new user….
9.  Look at your user profile and make sure your “display name” is your name and not your username.

Best

1.  Create custom login links by using the Stealth Login Plugin.
2.  Protect your admin area with a custom htaccess file.
3.  Hide your plugins directory.

*NOTE:  You should always be keeping your site and software up to date and you should always be backing up your site!