When you leave your home or your apartment, you make sure that the windows and the doors are locked. This is basic security. The same security principles apply when discussing your WordPress theme. Your WordPress theme likely represents a considerable investment on your part not only of time but also of financial resources. If your WordPress site is used for business, it is directly linked to your ability to make money. You need to take steps to secure it like the gold mine it potentially could be.
What Leads to WordPress Themes Becoming Compromised?
Before you can take steps to protect your WordPress site, you need to have a better understanding of why it is that they get compromised in the first place. Studies have shown that approximately 41 percent of WordPress site breaches happen because of something connected to the hosting platform. Number two on the list is vulnerable WordPress themes, which account for 29 percent of hacks. Next on the list are issues with WordPress plug-ins, which account for 22 percent of hacks. Finally, eight percent of hacks are attributed to poor login information. Knowing this information gives you a heads up on the steps you need to take in order to increase WordPress theme security.
1. Only Use Quality Plug-Ins and Themes
Everything starts with the WordPress theme that you select. When picking WP themes, it’s important to do some research and pick custom themes that provide added security. Picking the first free theme that you see is a recipe for disaster. After looking at the above statistics, vulnerabilities in themes and plug-ins account for almost 50 percent of all hacked websites. Protecting them is key to eliminating a gateway for hackers.
When it comes to themes, we recommend that you only use well-supported plug-ins and themes. If you look at the theme and you see that it has not been updated for a considerable amount of time, it is likely that there are some serious security breaches that have not been addressed. There are unpatched security holes or some bad code that is just waiting to make your site vulnerable. Pay close attention to the level of support before you install a theme.
When it comes to plug-ins, only take what you need. If you have a bunch of plug-ins installed, they are going to negatively impact the performance of your website and are going to make your site less secure. The more components that are used to make up your site, the more vulnerable it becomes.
Finally, don’t download from unknown sources. Most unknown sources are looking to take advantage of you in some way. And definitely do not fall for offers that tell you that you can purchase a premium theme or a premium plug-in for free. As the saying goes, you will always get what you pay for.
2. Keep All WordPress Components Up-To-Date
WordPress is an open-source platform that is constantly being updated. It can seem difficult to keep up with all of the updates However, like updates to your theme , updates to WordPress are designed to fix security holes that were identified in other versions. This is especially true when there are minor updates.
For this reason, it is imperative that you apply the newest version of WordPress as quickly as you can. As of WordPress 3.7, all minor updates happen automatically. Still, you are responsible for all major updates. As you do with plug-ins and themes, make sure that you create a backup of your site when you see the warning that it is time to update. And then do the update.
WordPress recently made a change that allows you to schedule to have major updates installed automatically. This is more convenient, but you do run the risk of something going wrong. That’s why we still recommend that you manually perform major updates. This gives you the opportunity to protect your valuable information.
3. Minimize Access to Your Theme
It does not do a lot of good for you to go through all of the steps of keeping your site up to date and monitoring everything only to have it compromised by people you have intentionally given access to your site or those who have gained access because you failed to adequately protect your site.
Even people who you think are trustworthy should only have roles and capabilities that they absolutely need. This minimizes the chance of an accident happening or someone intentionally damaging your site.
An important part of securing here how-to-select-the-right-WordPress-theme-for-website your WordPress theme is protecting your login information. This goes a long way in protecting you from brute force attacks. With a brute force attack, hackers try a number of theme username/password combinations until they are able to gain access to your site.
You can protect yourself by not using admin as your username. In earlier versions of WordPress, the admin was the default username. Hackers found this to be a godsend because basically 50 percent of their work was done for them. Now, WordPress allows you to create your own username. But people still opt to use admin. A good rule of thumb is to have a separate account for publishing content and for admin work. When you publish content with your admin account, your username is going to show up in the author archive URL. This is a tool that nefarious people can use to gain access to your site and exploit vulnerabilities
It takes a lot of time and energy to create a WordPress site. The last thing you want is for that time and energy to go to waste because someone exploited a vulnerability in your WordPress site or in your WordPress theme. By using some of the above-mentioned suggestions, you will be able to reduce your exposure.
As always, I love to hear from you. What tips do you have for protecting your WordPress theme? Let us know in the comments section below.
WordPress Tech Support For Theme
WordPress tech support for your theme security Website security is business-critical. We know you can’t afford any downtime from attacks and hacks that can impact WordPress websites. The consequences of a hacked website can be huge, with impacts on your reputation and finances. It’s estimated that the cost of security breaches can run to $300,000 for extreme breaches in small businesses. Not only that, but there is the time and resources required to rectify the problem. And while we all love WordPress, the number of Brute Force Attacks and Denial of Service Attacks continue to increase. Thankfully, taking a proactive approach to security and maintenance can put you ahead of more than 70% of WordPress websites on the web. WP Tech Support will help you with your theme security by removing the hassle and workload of WordPress support and provide an additional revenue stream at the same time. Our goal at all times is complete client satisfaction.