Pairing WordPress Hosting with FTP? How to Keep Your Site Secure

WordPress hosting is extremely popular as more and more people realise the benefits of creating a blog. Many companies offer this service as a part of their package, and with some technical know-how, anyone can create a blog in less than 10 minutes. This is great for people looking to get their feet wet with blogging or who just want to create a quick online diary for themselves.

One of the primary advantages of having a blog is the ability to have complete control over the content that is published. This means that as a webmaster, you can add or remove content as you see fit and decide what to publish when you feel like writing. While this is an incredible freedom, it also means that your blog is completely open to misuse. Anyone can find your blog’s address and publish spam, hijack your blog, or steal your content (aka: plagiarism).

To avoid these issues, you need to take certain steps to ensure that your content is safe and that your site isn’t hacked. This blog post will discuss five ways in which you can do this, as well as how to protect your blog’s content should someone else decide to steal it. We’ll cover everything from installing the proper security plugins to regularly changing your blog’s passwords.

Install The Proper Security Plugins

Installing a security plugin for your WordPress site is the best way to ensure that your content is safe from hackers and that your site isn’t compromised. There are a plethora of free and premium plugins that can be used to protect your site. Some of the more popular ones are listed below:

• Prestige. Prestige is a free WordPress security plugin that utilizes a firewall to protect your site from hackers and spam. It also offers two-factor authentication (2FA) support for added security.
• Security First. Security First is another popular option that checks for malware and keeps your blog’s files clean of any spyware or adware. It also provides limited anti-hacking protection against brute-force attacks and prevents login redirects.
• Swift Security. Swift Security offers an additional layer of security similar to the ones above with advanced malware scanning, brute-force defense, and more.
• Surveillance. Surveillance is yet another great security plugin for WordPress because it checks for live activity on your site and not just caches of suspicious files or activities.
• All-In-One WP Security. All-In-One WP Security is a complete WordPress security suite that offers advanced malware protection, login session checking, encrypted file storage, and more.

Change Your Blog’s Passwords

If someone breaks into your blog and creates content using your webmaster account, they will be able to access your site’s backend without any problems. When this happens, you’ll want to change your webmaster’s password as quickly as possible so that it is no longer linked to your account. You should change your passwords for all of your accounts (like WordPress, Gmail, eBay, etc.) that you use daily.

Additionally, you should change the passwords for all of your online marketplaces and social media accounts that you use for blogging. Hackers have gotten fairly clever at figuring out how to get around two-factor authentication (2FA) in order to access your online accounts, so you should change your passwords frequently and ensure that they are highly complex.

Restrict Access To Your Blog’s Backend

In addition to changing your webmaster’s password, you should also look into changing the access permissions for the WordPress back end. By limiting access to the WordPress backend, you can prevent unregistered users from accessing your site’s files and folders except through the WordPress online dashboard. This dashboard allows trusted users to check out new posts without having full access to the site’s files and folders. You can use the Security plugin (as discussed above) to change the access permissions for the WordPress backend. Just click on the gear icon next to the login box and select “restrict access to the backend” from the list.

Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Using two-factor authentication (2FA) for your WordPress blog is one of the simplest and most convenient ways to ensure that your content is safe and that your site isn’t hacked. This type of authentication requires that you input a code that is generated each time you log in to your account or online marketplace. Most providers of 2FA will send you a text message or generate a code for you to enter on their website when you log in. This is to prevent offline hacking of your account or web-based attacks from computers that you don’t own (aka: “Man in the Middle” attacks).

Adding 2FA to your WordPress blog is easy. Just head over to the Settings section of your dashboard and click on the Tools button. From here, you can add the Google Authenticator or Authy plugins to your site. Both of these plugins will generate a code that you can enter when you log in to ensure that you are who you say you are. If you decide later that 2FA wasn’t a suitable option for your account or blog, it is easy enough to remove it should you decide to do so (more on this below).

Use A VPN To Secure Your Blog

A virtual private network (VPN) is another great way to secure your WordPress blog. A VPN encrypts all of your internet traffic, ensuring that your personal data stays private and that your site isn’t accessed by anyone else. Installing a VPN plugin for WordPress is extremely easy and only takes a few minutes of your time. Just click on the Settings button in the WordPress dashboard, scroll down to the VPN section, and select the plugin that you want to use from the drop-down menu.

Additionally, you can use a VPN when you are browsing the web to ensure that your personal data is protected and that your ISP doesn’t give away any information about your online activity (like your IP address) to untrusted entities.

Regularly Back Up Your Blog’s Data

Last but not least, we have backups. Regularly backing up your blog’s data is one of the most important things that you can do to ensure that your content is safe from deletion and that your site isn’t compromised. It is a good idea to have an external hard drive that is connected to your computer that is solely dedicated to storing your blog’s data. This way, if your computer fails or is corrupted by a virus, you can still access your content.

To ensure the security of your blog’s data, you should take the following steps:

• Create a regular back up of your blog (at least once a week).
• Keep your external hard drive safely disconnected from your computer (except when you need to use it).
• Store your backup files on a different device or location (this is to prevent malware and ransomware from infecting your important documents should your computer be compromised).
• If you ever lose connection with your external hard drive, you’ll lose access to your content (unless you also back up offline).
• If your computer is ever physically damaged or lost, your insurance may not cover the cost of backing up your content (not sure – talk to your insurance company).
• If you are still using the same password for your WordPress blog as you used for Amazon, eBay, etc., you will undoubtedly end up with a compromised account (easy to do) – change your password now!

The above steps will help ensure that your content is safe from unwanted visitors, hackers, and malware. However, you can never be too careful, so it is always a good idea to further protect yourself by implementing some decent cyber-security measures. The best way to do this is by installing a security plugin for your blog. These types of plugins automatically scan your blog for malware and viruses, keeping your content safe and improving your site’s security in the process.