Whenever a hacker thinks of attacking a website, his favourite area is the admin panel, wondering why?
Because once you are in the admin area, you can do pretty much, starting from nothing to everything, including deleting the blogs or website content. Therefore it is quite essential to keep your potential admin area always secured.
We have seen many cases where a WordPress website gets hacked because of their vulnerable security of the admin area. I have seen people ignoring the WordPress website’s security protocols and then later repenting after the website is hacked.
These incidents just show that when you ignore your WordPress website, it can get hacked as well. Today we will show you some tips you can use to secure your WordPress admin area from attackers.
Let’s get started,
1. Changing the username of the admin
If you are installing WordPress, make sure that the admin account’s default username is not admin. WordPress websites with the username admin are probably the most vulnerable WordPress website with the highest chances of getting hacked. So if you prefer to protect your admin area, it is better to change the admin section’s username.
2. Creation of custom links
Everyone is aware of the fact that if you want to access the WordPress admin panel, you just need to enter your URL of the website along with /wp-login.php. If you are just lazy enough to create a new password and have kept the same password, then it is jeopardized that it will be much easier now for the hacker to hack your website. If you have used the same password in more than one location and it was jeopardized,
There is a plugin called Stealth that allows the WordPress website owner to create some custom URLs for logging in, logging out of the WordPress website. There is also a stealth mode that prevents the users from accessing /wp-login.php directly. Even if someone has the username and keeps trying random passwords, we are helpless because WordPress does not ban any user based on entering random passwords.
3. Limiting login Attempts
As I said previously that WordPress does not ban any user for any unsuccessful login attempt, but we can ban that user using a plugin that limits the login attempts to as much as you desire and also keeps a ban for trying out unsuccessful logins. For example, Wordfence Security and Login Lockdown.
4. Password Protect Wp-Admin Directory
There is nothing absurd with adding another layer of security in the form of two-factor authorization or using two passwords on the WordPress site just to make it more secure. AskApache is the plugin that can be used to password protect the admin panel. It encrypts the password and saves it on a file named .htpasswd file, and sets the correct security-enhanced file permissions on both.
5. Remove error message on the login page
Upon entering a wrong password or a wrong login then the error shows up in the error box. The hacker can easily hack your admin page, and then your website reading that error. So if a hacker gets one thing right, he can try to guess the other thing that gives direct access to the admin page. This can be used efficiently to attack the admin panel of the WordPress website. Open your Functions.php located in your theme folder and paste this into that,
add_filter(‘login_errors’,create_function(‘$a’,”return null;”);
6. One time Password
One Time password plugin enables users to log in on the website using one-time login details for the weblog, which are valid for one share only.
7. Update WordPress to the latest version
Not the least, but staying up-to-date with the latest WordPress versions is also essential because WordPress always keeps updating the software with the latest bug fixes and exploits the previous version’s holes.
8. Using a Captcha at the Login page
Using a captcha at the login page adds extra security to your WordPress site. You don’t have to change your website password every time. You just have to add the additional option of adding the login through the captcha method.
You can use the ‘Captcha Soft’ plugin, which can add the captcha to the login page. Even if you enter the correct login details, you will still not be able to login into the website until and unless you enter the captcha into the captcha box.
9. Always monitor your files
There are numerous plugins for the WordPress website that allow you to watch your WordPress activity. Installing plugins not only helps in providing features but also functions as a service provider, which is majorly used to record or monitor those actions which have signs of intrusion or unauthorized success.
10. Backup Regularly
You cannot keep your system 100% secure even if you install random plugins in the name of security. If your server is infected with malware, then you can try to remove that particular malware, whether it is in the form of a text document or anything concerning WordPress panel rights.
Sometimes, we come across situations where we cannot remove a piece of malware from the server. Having a backup is important because, in cases of severe data losses, you might have to delete the entire server or reset everything.
There are many WordPress hosts around, first comes those who are relatively easy to find and use. While other hosts will automatically backup your data daily, these are the best ones to use preferably.
If you ever wish to backup the WordPress website manually, the safest way is to backup the entire WordPress directory.
Conclusion:
This was some knowledge about WordPress and some tricks and hacks to protect your WordPress admin panel from hackers. We hope you liked the blog and the steps which you can follow to get your WordPress website’s admin panel from the reach of hackers. If you have any doubts or suggestions please feel free to let us know in the comments section.
