As a website building platform: Is WordPress secure or not?

By Guest Author | wordpress | April 5, 2021

WordPress has become the most popular platform for building websites. Several questions arise in the mind of an entrepreneur when it comes to developing a WordPress website. We have tried to answer in this blog the most popular question i.e. Is WordPress secure or not?

By JAIN SIDHARTH

Before directly jumping on our topic, let us first understand exactly what is WordPress? What are the advantages and disadvantages?.

What is WordPress?

It is an open-source content management system, Which is written in PHP and managed with a MySQL database system. It started as a blogging platform in 2003. From that point forward it then evolved to become a content management system and an application development framework. It is free as an opportunity.

If you want to create your website, you can use WordPress. You can use it for any reason, and nobody can suspend your site because of censorship or terms of service violation. You likewise have the opportunity to tweak WordPress to your requirements with no limitation. Therefore, it is the world’s most popular site builder.

WordPress is an easily adaptable platform, which is the only reason why it is a popular choice to assemble a site. You can use WordPress to design any sort of site possible. You can design a blog, make a private venture website, make an e-commerce store, build a membership website, online courses, run a commercial center, and then some. The excellent part about WordPress is that it adjusts to your necessities. It tends to be as simple and creative, as you need, or as mind-boggling and modern as you need it to be.

There are several pros and cons of building a WordPress website. So let’s jump and understand it.

Advantages of using WordPress:

— Simple to Use
— For the individuals who are utilizing Search Engine Optimization (SEO), such devices simplify it to improve the perceivability of your site.
— Mobile-Friendly
— Adaptable
— Convenience
— Versatile
— Continually Improving
— Customizable
— Excellent scalability

Disadvantages of using WordPress:

— It Jumbles Plugins and Themes Ecosystem
— Helplessness to Slow-Loading Websites
— We Worry Over Security and Vulnerability Risks
— It Probably won’t Be Suited For High-Performing Websites

Is WordPress Secure?

The short answer is yes, yet it requires an unassuming measure of work and training with respect to the website owner. To clarify our statement, we have listed down points that will help you understand why WordPress is secure?.

Decreasing Your Attack Surface

You will likewise have to attempt to decrease the number of things that can be attacked on your site. Consider your site a huge dartboard, and hackers are attempting to throw darts that simply have to hit the board. The more plugins you use, the more themes you have installed, and the more web applications you run, the greater surface area that the Hacker can hit. Reduce your attacked surface by eliminating unused or pointless applications,

Staying up with the latest

For WordPress to be secure, you should stay up with the latest. Fortunately, WordPress really does a lot of this work naturally. If you have the default configuration setting, then the new version automatically gets updated when the core team releases a new update on WordPress. Security fixes are done as minor versions are released. You will likewise have to stay up with the latest. Our security plugin updates automatically when we have a new version release.

Not Installing SSL

A WordPress site regularly moves and gets information from programs and web workers. In some cases, this information contains delicate data like login accreditations and installment data. On the off chance that a site utilizes HTTP (Hypertext move convention), the information is moved in plain content. Programmers attempt to capture this information. In the event that it is in plain content, they will actually want to exploit it.

Install a security and firewall plugin

A security and firewall module is your first line of guard against programmers. We suggest utilizing the plugin – MalCare, this is the best security plugin amongst other security plugins out there. It will check your website routinely for malware. The web application firewall will likewise block malicious traffic from getting to your website.

Practicing Good Security Hygiene

Lastly, you and the clients of your website should use great security hygiene. That implies you ought to:

— Utilize solid passwords that are not effectively cracked. We suggest utilizing a secret word chief like 1Password.

— Apply the two-factor confirmation provided by WordPress in the Premium version.

Use updated Theme and Plugins:

A plugin or theme has penetrability and because of the fact that there are not however many eyes on it as the WordPress core software, that penetrability goes undetected. The developer has quit chipping away at the augmentation yet individuals are yet utilizing it. You can utilize premium WordPress Security Plugins. Paid services have a group of designers who will guarantee customary examination against hacks and spam.

Therefore, free items come up short on the asset needed to offer a similar thorough exertion. Normally, the nature of the quality of the free products suffers leaving the whole website vulnerable to an attack. Something individuals love about WordPress is the confounding cluster of accessible plugins and themes. As of composing this, there are numerous on the WordPress store, and a huge number of extra premium ones dissipated across the web. While every one of those choices is incredible for broadening your site, every expansion is another likely potential gateway for a malicious actor.

Poor Hosting Environment and Out-Of-Date Technology

Past what is going on your WordPress site, your facilitating environment, and the innovations that you use affect, as well.

Execute WordPress Hardening

WordPress suggests certain safety efforts that will solidify your site. So, hackers will think that it is significantly harder to break in. However, WordPress Hardening is a theme that needs considerably more point-by-point consideration.

Hide Your WordPress Version

Hide your WordPress variant contacts again regarding the matter of WordPress security by lack of clarity. The fewer others see about your WordPress site configuration the better. Therefore, you can see the WordPress form appear in the header of your site’s source code.

Change the Default “administrator” username

In the past, the default WordPress administrator username was “Admin”. Since usernames make up a portion of login accreditations, this made it simpler for hackers to do savage power hacking.

Disable File Editing

WordPress accompanies an inherent code proofreader, which permits you to alter your theme and plugin files directly from your WordPress admin. In some unacceptable hands, this component can be a security hazard, which is the reason we suggest turning it off.

Always remember hackers, as to target websites that are not difficult to hack. By executing sufficient safety efforts, you make it harder for them to hack. They may make few attempts and move on from your to your website.

Conclusion:

WordPress can be an extremely secure, profoundly practical, and all-around upheld stage that can serve you or your association and scale for quite a long time. In any case, this necessitates that you follow the essential security steps I laid out above and that you keep up to date with the most recent security advancements. If you run a WordPress webpage or are simply starting to set out on your WordPress journey, realize that you have a local area behind you, including our group, to help you secure your site as long as possible.


  • Sidharth Jain, Proud Founder of Graffersid, Web and Mobile App Development Company based in India. Graffersid has a team of designers and dedicated remote developers. Hire WordPress Developer, Trusted by start-ups in YC, Harvard, Google Incubation, BluChilli. He understands how to solve problems using technology and contributes his knowledge to the leading blogging sites.