Looking for WordPress security tips? Here’s an expert guide to WordPress security to protect your sites from hackers in 2024 and beyond.

Did you know that on average over 30,000 new websites are hacked every day?

Almost 60% of hacked WordPress sites were due to hacked plugin

 

 

WordPress is an easy target for hackers due to weak passwords and plugin vulnerabilities.

Most newbies don’t know how to secure their websites and most of them don’t even think about securing their WordPress sites. If you are one of them, you are in danger.

Some time ago, hackers stole some links from search engine results. Some files on my blog had a malicious backdoor script injected into them to steal backlinks. This was very painful for us, not only because it cost a lot of money, but also because it ultimately led to a drop in blog sales.

It wasn’t until the BlogPasCher attack occurred that we started taking extra precautions to protect WordPress sites.

If you are also one of those people who have never worried about the security of WordPress sites, stop wasting time and secure your WordPress sites as soon as possible. Otherwise, hackers can even steal your blog links.

That being said, this detailed article is written with the goal of protecting your WordPress sites from hackers who steal your backlinks, data, or passwords. Without further ado, let’s dive into the details.

How to Protect Your WordPress Sites from Hackers

Protect your WordPress sites from malware and viruses

This is the reason why our blog was hacked. This was a malicious attack that involved inserting a backdoor script into one of our blog files and stealing over 100 links. Now the problem is solved and my blog is completely protected from attacks.

This can also happen to your blog and you never know who will hack your site by injecting corrupted files into your site folders.

We highly recommend that you install a WordPress anti-malware security plugin as it can protect your WordPress sites from all malware and viruses.

This plugin runs a full scan of your website files to automatically remove all security threats and backdoor scripts (if you have any). This will also protect your blog from known vulnerabilities.

Here are some features of this WordPress security plugin.

• It protects your blog from known threats.
• Also helps prevent connection vulnerabilities.
• Protects it from backdoor scripts.
• This will restrict others from accessing .htaccess scripts.
• Also provides greater protection against timthumb exploits.

If you want to protect your blogs from malware attacks, you should definitely install the plugin mentioned above.

Protected against WordPress brute force attacks.

The Bruce attack is the easiest way for hackers to gain access to your WordPress sites. This is a password-guessing attack that usually aims to steal all your data or backlinks from your websites.

If you are not prepared to deal with these attacks, your WordPress sites can be easily hacked.

This is what it looks like;

As the saying goes, “Better safe than sorry,” here are some simple ways to protect your WordPress sites from brute-force attacks. You can easily avoid them by using the following methods.

• Install a security plugin (limit login attempts)
• Use stronger passwords
• Change passwords frequently (at least once a month).

Protect your .htaccess file

The .htaccess file is one of the most difficult files to configure in WordPress.

If done correctly, you won’t need to install any of the plugins mentioned above and by simply editing your .htaccess file, you can protect your WordPress site from hackers. This is such a powerful file.

But I don’t recommend anyone (unless you know what you’re doing) to edit the file because it can shrink your WordPress sites right after you open them.

So how do you protect your .htaccess file?

Using the BulletProof WordPress security plugin. Again, this is a free tool for WordPress users, but it has a ton of features for securing your WP sites as well as protecting the .htaccess file.

This plugin completely protects your .htaccess file by providing a switchable firewall around it. Without your permission, no one will be able to access your root files, and access to the admin panel is also limited. You can also prevent directory browsing by installing a firewall around your .htaccess file. And this plugin does just that.

Apart from the above security features, this plugin will also help you in the following areas.

• Real-time file monitoring (IDPS)
• Intrusion Detection System (IDS) DB Monitor
• Database backup: full and partial database backup. Manual and scheduled database backups and Zip backups via email.
• Firewall plugin (IP Firewall): Automatic whitelisting and updating of IP addresses in real-time.
• Logging out of an Idle Session (ISL)
• Authentication Cookie Expiration (ACE)

Set up website firewalls

A firewall is a security network that protects your computers and websites. Setting up a firewall is necessary if you want to improve the security of your website files.

Every firewall uses filtering to filter all data entering your servers, networks, and websites. It also analyzes the data, checking all the files so that you are safe from hacker attacks.

If you are wondering how to set up a powerful firewall system on your WordPress sites, there is a great plugin for you called “Ninja Firewall”.

This plugin itself is a web application firewall, a standalone firewall system placed in front of your WordPress sites to protect your files.

This plugin can scan, validate, or reject all HTTP requests sent to PHP scripts on your websites, protecting your files from malware or other security vulnerabilities.

In addition to the PHP scripts written above, NinjaFirewall will also filter out hacker shell scripts and backdoors.

Here are some amazing features of this plugin.

• This plugin is a completely standalone web application firewall. This works before WordPress loads.
• Has a powerful filter mechanism.
• Supports a wide range of encodings.
• It also has an antivirus scanner.
• Blocks/allows downloads, and clears names of downloaded files.
• Blocks suspicious bots and scanners.
• Hides PHP error messages and notifications.
• Make regular backups of your website files.
• Taking regular backups of your website is key to keeping it secure.

In the worst-case scenario, even if your site gets hacked, you won’t have to worry about losing all your blog posts, pages, comments, and links.

You can simply restore the data points to get all that data back. Even if your site doesn’t get hacked or you might just lose all your data while redesigning your sites, regular backups can also help you a lot.

We highly recommend that you start using BackupBuddy. It is a premium tool to backup all your website files regularly and you can restore them anytime in case of file loss.

If you’re looking for a free option, try BackWPup. This is a useful free plugin for backing up all your files, including databases.

This plugin automatically saves your entire installation including /wp-content/ and stores them in an external backup service such as Dropbox, S3, FTP, etc.

BackupWordPres s This is also another great (free) WordPress plugin for regularly backing up all your site files. This plugin runs in low-memory “shared host” environments so your site speed won’t be affected much, and there are options to email every backup file to your inbox. You can also exclude a few files that you don’t want to be backed up.

So, what are you waiting for? Be sure to use one of the plugins mentioned above to start backing up all your sites. We recommend making backups every week (at least) to avoid future regrets.

Top 10 Best WordPress Security Plugins

WordPress is perhaps the most popular CMS in the world, used by millions of websites. WordPress is also the #1 platform most attacked by hackers worldwide.

1. Wordfence security
2. iThemes Security
3. All-in-one WP security and firewall
4. Bulletproof security
5. Sucuri security
6. Two-factor authentication from UpdraftPlus
7. Limited access to the site
8. Authorizer
9. Hide the login page

10. g Security Ninja

8-Point WordPress Security Checklist

If you want to protect your WordPress sites from hacking, be sure to use and follow the following 8-point WordPress security checklist as it covers almost everything.

• Update WordPress Regularly
• Update your themes and plugins
• Back up your site frequently
• Limit login attempts to secure login.
• Install the security plugin
• Create your own WordPress login URL.
• Move your WordPress site to HTTPS
• Use a secure host

Stay Safe from the Most Common WordPress Security Threats

WordPress has its own security risks and vulnerabilities, including the following.

• Brute force login attempts
• Malicious redirects
• Cross-site scripting (XSS)

Denial of service

If you want to protect your WordPress from hackers, you should ensure that the above-mentioned WordPress security threats are addressed. So, let’s briefly talk about these WordPress vulnerabilities to ensure the security of your WordPress site in 2024 and beyond.

Frequently Asked Questions about WordPress Security in 2024

Here are some important WordPress security considerations that will help protect your sites in 2023 and beyond.

1. What are the most common WordPress security issues?

While there are many security vulnerabilities in most WordPress sites, here are the most common WordPress security issues.

• Brute force attacks (which mainly occur due to password guessing and decoding tools)
• Malicious attacks (where hackers install malicious code into your website files to redirect traffic from your website to other sites such as adult sites, gambling sites, gaming site spam, etc.)
• SQL injections (when hackers gain access to your website’s databases to insert malicious data into your databases)
• Cross-site scripting (mostly due to WordPress plugins, so make sure you only install plugins from trusted developers with a proven track record)

2. What are the best WordPress security tips and tricks for 2024?

Here are 3 quick WordPress security tips and tricks you can use in 2024.

• Choose premium WordPress themes instead of free themes.
• Use a secure hosting like WPX Hosting as it takes strict security measures and offers features such as guaranteed “fixed for you” in case of cyberattacks on your site.
• Install a firewall on your computer (and don’t download apps, files, etc. from unauthorized sites)

Here are some simple yet effective ways to secure your WordPress blog in 2024.

• Take regular backups of your site (it’s better to have a host like WPEngine, or WPX that automatically backs up your site, or you can use premium tools like VaultPress, or BackupBuddy).
• Install the security plugin
• Limit login attempts
• Change your default WP Admin login to something else.
• Use stronger passwords and change them frequently for greater security (to avoid brute-force attacks).

4. What is the best security plugin for WordPress?

We’ve already mentioned the 10 best WordPress security plugins in one article (be sure to check them all out). If you’re still interested, here are the 3 best security plugins you can consider.

• IThemes Security
• Sukuri safety
• Wordfence Security

5. How to perform a WordPress security scan to detect WordPress vulnerabilities?
The great thing about using WordPress is that it provides you with some great plugins that make it easy to scan your WordPress sites for any vulnerabilities. Here are some WordPress vulnerability scanners to scan for WordPress security in 2024.

• WPScan plugin
• Sucuri (one of the most commonly used malware-scanning plugins)
• WP Sec (a great website to scan your entire site for automated WordPress analytics)