Today, hacking has grown to be a major concern for most WordPress blog users worldwide. Hundreds of blogs are victim to hackers who become more complex in their own ways. These hackers are motivated with a wide range of reasons, starting from pure malicious intent to the desire to seize your website ranking (especially your Google Rankings) for their own personal gains. So how can someone prevent this from happening? The actions WordPress users should do are to identify the signs of hacking, where the hacking originated and ultimately to hack proof the blog.
Here are some indications that your blog might have been violated or hacked:
1. The loading time for your blog is a bit outside the norm.
2. Unexpected ranking drop.
3. Links suddenly starts to appear without your knowledge.
4. Unreasonable drop in the blog’s traffic.
5. The blog produces strange titles and descriptions when searched on search engines like Google.
Hackers use different methods when attacking your blog post. In most cases, they’ll likely start by cracking your admin, FTP or database password. Once they find a way to crack any or all of your passwords, they will then attempt to take advantage of any vulnerable information inside your WordPress plug-ins or installation. The hackers may change your files, place malevolent codes within your database, or add new scripts to run their malware depending on the hacker’s intention. Furthermore, some may also open a bogus WordPress admin account that is invisible inside the admin page.
Here are some helpful countermeasures to increase your WP blog’s protection:
1. Generate different password variations for your admin, FTP, and database. Instead of using SEO123 change it to S1E2O3. Longer passwords are harder to crack so make sure to generate a 10 character-long password or above, to improve its strength.
2. Once you open your WordPress account, your current admin account should be deleted immediately. You can then precede opening a whole new admin account using a unique name. Avoid the mistake of your personal/business information on your account info.
3. Always update plug-ins and WordPress installations.
4. Only allow trustworthy individuals or a web design company to gain access to your wp-admin folder and blogs to stay away from hacker crosshairs.
