WordPress is one of the best and low-cost option when it comes to setup a business website, however, with the threat of hackers looming heavy in the cyber atmosphere, it is your safest bet to ensure that your WordPress hosting sites are safe and secure for your clients and readers.
The most common way for hackers to gain access to your account is using brute-force by tracking your login page. In such an attack, hackers do a trial and error method for your username and passwords.
Thus many companies deploy website security system what is called security through obscurity. If the attacker can’t gain a point of entry, intruding becomes difficult. Most WordPress sites’ access would be via a common yourwebsite.com/login.php. Thus it’s important to mask or camouflage the login page URL.
There are many ways to hide the login site but the two most common ones are by using a plug-in or by using .htaccess file. The plug-in route is fast and easy to do. WPS Hide Login and Protect My Admin are the best when it comes to hiding login. It cleverly helps the user to set a custom URL to the login and blocks traffic to the default login URL. The plug-in is highly user-friendly and the set-up is time efficient.
So are we secure with the plug-in?
To an extent, yes. But beyond that if a persistent hacker is hell-bent on wanting to attach your account, he can still access it via using an encoded URL, an option available only in Firefox or by trying to reach ../wp-admin/customize.php.
It’s is a difficult task for the hacker but not impossible and definitely not an unlikely scenario when it comes to security issues. Hence an extra layer of safety is advised. There are means of .htaccess and using SSL which can guarantee this. SSL or Secure Safety Locker makes any information that is sent and which commutes between the browser and the server cannot be intercepted by a third party.
This can do wonders for the protection of your login page. You just need an SSL certificate which you can get from hosting provider, certificate authority or SSL reseller like ClickSSL to get started..
Limiting the number of allowed login attempts can curb brute force attacks drastically. Hackers exploit the fact that they have innumerable attempts to stumble upon the right combination but if this can be tackled, a majority of hacking attempts can be foiled.
There is also two-factor authentication that can be followed. A Google Authenticator works via an app and generates a QR code that allows the user to manually enter a secret code. This has to be entered each time you log in to your WordPress account.
.htacess also gives two ways to hide the login page. One is to use .htpasswd to generate a password to be able to use the wp-admin. The other way is to restrict particular IP address to access wp-admin.
Thus ensure your WordPress login remains out of harm’s way with these simple handy steps. There is no foolproof method to stop hackers but we can use ways to make the task of hacking as difficult as possible.
