A hacked website can cause major upheaval to a business – both your reputation and sales. There are a number of ways hackers can access your website, so how do we keep them out?

Hosting probably plays the most important role in your website security. A good hosting company monitors suspicious activity, keeps their servers updated and runs backups of sites. Shared hosting means you share server resources which could allow for cross-site attacks – where a hacker uses one site to attack another.

Login details are very important too. Using a username like Admin is very risky, and a password that is a word or numbers 123 makes it easy to hack. Use a website like https://passwordsgenerator.net/  to generate strong passwords for your users.

Updates are definitely something to keep on top of. You need to keep your WordPress Core files, Theme files and plugins updated at all times. If you find you dont need a plugin anymore, deactivate it and DELETE it.

HTTPS websites have a padlock sign before the domain name. These sites have SSL certificates installed. This encrypts data transfer between your website and users browsers, making it harder to steal information.

Security plugins are vital – they are like the window bars and alarm system in your house. Wordfence security and Sucuri both have free and premium plugins available to use.

Cloudbric is a cloud-based web security provider that offers a WAF, DDoS protection, and SSL solution and protects websites from SQL injection, cross-site scripting, identity theft, website defacement, and application layer DDoS attacks.

Limiting Login attempts on your site is another way of securing it. There are free plugins like Login Lockdown that allows one to limit how many failed login attempts someone may have on your website.

Two Factor Authentication requires users to authenticate using a seperate device. This will send you a code to fill in on signing into your website.

One can also add security questions to your WordPress Login screen. Should one fail to answer these correctly, they will not be able to access your site.

At Clicks Count we offer wordpress website hosting, and have specific security packages to suit your needs. We also offer monthly packages including daily backups, updates to WordPress, plugins and theme files, as well as additional website based and server based security. Contact us for more information.