Is your website powered by WordPress? Congratulations! You, like 20% of all other site owners, have opted for a user-friendly and versatile CMS. What’s more, it’s as free as a walk in the woods. Unfortunately, you’ve also opted for a CMS that, if not updated, is highly susceptible to hacking. And it just so happens that 49% of all WordPress sites are running an outdated version, according to security firm Sucuri in their 2019 Website Thread Research Report . Risky? Absolutely. Luckily, there are 4 things you can do about it.
How secure is WordPress compared to other CMSs?
Before we move on to the solution to the problem, I want to first go into the background of the situation. I will show you how bad (or how good) WordPress scores on hackability according to Sucuri compared to other CMSs. And I will explain why that is. That way, I will give you enough knowledge to understand the nature of the problem, so that you will not hesitate for ten seconds to apply my tips.
The answer to this question is: not that bad at all
When it comes to the percentage of infected sites running Since we collect data through professional people so 100% accurate coding in our database Our dump is full valid and up to date until 2024 We provide high-quality fresh business databases We offer bulk email services with top ensured special database of delivery. Provide you GDRP base databases Our databases to influence a different by low price so purchase our s one of the recent new tool or way in online marketing, If you using itsyou can do more advertising and increase sales via Single business sector. an outdated CMS version, WordPress doesn’t score so badly with its 49%. The other big players Drupal, Magento and Joomla run much more often on an outdated version, as shown by percentages of 77%, 87% and 90% respectively. This is, according to Sucuri, due to a more complex update process.
Why does WordPress get hacked so often?
However, if we look at the total number of websites that Sucuri cleaned, WordPress does worse. 94.2% of all sites that the company cleaned were running on WordPress! So we can say that WordPress, although it is more up-to-date than its competitors, is more susceptible to hacking.
By the way, you may now be asking yourself: Don’t these other CMSs deserve attention? Certainly. But the task of writing about Drupal, Magento and Joomla lies with others. I am a WordPress expert, so I write about WordPress.
But let’s now take a look at what exactly is going wrong with WordPress. Because there must be a reason why so many WordPress sites are getting infected?
I’ll give you three reasons:
The first reason is of course that WordPress site owners neglect to update the CMS itself. It is of course understandable that you forget something like that: as a site owner you have other things on your mind, such as running your business, keeping your boyfriend or girlfriend happy and reading bedtime stories to little Louise and Pim.
The second reason (and this is the main reason) is that on many WordPress sites the plugins are not up to date. This is a huge weakness for your website because it gives attackers a good opportunity to attack your beloved internet portal.
A third reason (although this is also a major weakness for sites running on Drupal or Joomla for example) is the programming language PHP. Many infected sites run on vulnerable versions of PHP. More than two-thirds of all sites use a version of PHP that is at the end of its life and therefore can no longer be updated. This PHP problem makes it quite easy for hackers to put unwanted content on your site or to have your website redirected to a spam site.
Now that we’ve established that your WordPress site might be vulnerable to hacking (and why), we can move on to troubleshooting the problem.
Preventing Your WordPress Site From Being Hacked: 4 Tips
There are several ways to keep your WordPress site up to date so that it becomes less susceptible to infection.
Tip 1: Always update WordPress to the latest version
I know you are busy with your work, your wife and your children, but nevertheless make time to keep your site up-to-date. If necessary, ask a WordPress specialist for help. There are countless: look on Google or ask a business associate who updates his site for him. External help is definitely an added value for the security of your site: after all, a specialist’s goal is to keep your site safe. He regularly visits all the sites he manages and updates the CMS when necessary.
Tip 2: Update your plugins
Especially with WordPress, outdated plugins cause a huge security hole. Update them regularly. (I do it every month.) Also ask a WordPress specialist for help now if you need it. When an external person regularly updates your plugins, it is always a quick and easy job. And that means types of leadership in management that it does not cost you much per month. On the other hand, if you wait two years to update your plugins, you will receive a hefty bill all at once.
Tip 3: Keep your PHP up to date
PHP is a complex programming language and updating it is not obvious for everyone. That is why I repeat my adage: ask for help when you cannot (or do not want to) do it yourself.
Security plugins have many benefits. They limit brute dy leads force attacks, they require strong passwords and test your password for its strength, and they let you know when the site has blocked someone for entering incorrect credentials too many times. A security plugin also notifies you by email of detected security vulnerabilities in other plugins. That way you can take immediate action and prevent worse. iThemes Security is my personal favorite, but there are many other plugins that do a good job.
Tip 4: Install a security plugin on your website
Finally
Do you have any additions to my tips, or have I missed aspects when listing the reasons why WordPress is vulnerable to hacking? Let me know, so we can all learn from it.
