A lot of bloggers spend a lot of time online with their mobile and computer devices. With a lot of things someone can do online, there’s no surprise that majority of the people spent their free times tapping on their screens or typing on their PCs. There are numerous ways blogs can be attacked. Read on 10 steps to make your blog secure and safe.
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Your Blog Security is Under Attack: Here is Why?
Bloggers around the world are transferring files and messages with their clients and partners through email services. The improved Internet Connectivity and devices now enable two people from different sides of the world to communicate in seconds.
But if people flock at one place, the bad guys will also start coming in. As long as money and data run on the Internet, there will always be hackers who will do anything to take advantage.
Hackers are individuals or groups that exploit networks to change the way how a computer system work in line with their motives. These hackers would want to get access to your PC to either steal your personal data or make money by taking your data “hostage” using ransomware.
How Your Blog Security is Compromised?
Your browsing habit tells a lot of things about you. If someone peeks at your browsing history, that someone could know in a matter of minutes what kind of food do you like, where do you live, your hobbies, music taste, and even what kind of pet do you own at home.
1. Identity Theft
When things such as your birthday, address, full name, and a lot more are exploited, the hacker can use your blog data and make transactions posing as you. That is why it was a big scandal when data breaches such as the Yahoo! 3 billion account and Facebook’s 14 million data breach was big issues when this news came out.
2. Ransomware
This is one of the newest cybercrime trends on the Internet. Ransomware is done when a malicious code was injected into your system and will take charge of your data so that you will lose access to them. To restore access, you will need to pay a certain amount.
Why Your Blog Security Comes Under Attack?
You update your blog regularly, contribute new posts, let guest bloggers write for you and then imagine it suddenly gets hacked? Terrible thing to happen. But this is exactly what blog owners experience when hackers manage to break their security, either for fun or financial benefits.
Hackers usually subject PC systems that are always online because they could have access to your PC for a longer period of time and collect more data from you.
You found an app that will install a paid app for free or will help you gain more gems in your games, etc. Before you install it, a warning was sent by your PC about untrusted sources, but you ignore it and install the app anyway.
One week later, your PC was infected and you don’t know how it happened. A lot of apps from untrusted sources poses as unharmful software, but most of them aren’t, so don’t ever install untrusted apps.
Updates are a pain in the neck, especially if you have a slow computer or you don’t have a good internet connection.
But updates are made because of a reason: to improve the user experience and keep them safe from threats. Most of these updates are security updates, so it is better not to skip them, especially operating system updates.
Public Wi-Fi connections are what you call the hackers’ “honeypot”. Public Wi-Fi connections are easy to hack, and hackers can easily get your information for your phone or your laptop.
The Internet is a dangerous place for people who do not use internet protection. When going online, even Window’s firewall will be enough to defend against a lot of malware. However, if you’re a business entity, you might want to have an added level of protection from a third party.
10 Steps to Make Your Blog Secure Against Attack
There are numerous ways for a blog to get infected. For instance, you can install infected banners from advertising networks, install infected plugins, or you can have code infections. It doesn’t actually matter whether your blog is highly-popular or it’s just starting – you can become a target anyway.
But you can blog more confidently if you know your website is safe and secure. I’ve collected 10 tips how to secure your blog against threat.
1. Generate Strong Passwords
Don’t ever use passwords that have been automatically generated by WordPress or other systems during the installation.
Even though those passwords are strong enough, you need to change them immediately. You can even add a CAPTCHA for your WordPress login. It is equally important to create strong passwords for FTP and cPanel.
Don’t forget that it’s possible to delete your blog database right from the cPanel. Either competitors or other malicious users might be very much interested in doing this. It once again proves that all the entry points need strong passwords.
2. Update Your WordPress
New versions usually go with some security issues fixed and stronger protection, so you’d better update your WordPress from time to time. However, hackers shouldn’t know about that. It would be much easier for them to break into your system if they know which version you are using.
3. Upload Only Trusted Data
When you want to install new script, plugin, or theme on your website, you need to check them carefully. They may have been developed with the purpose to harm your website. It’s not advisable to upload any content from torrents or other file sharing sites. Even some malicious advertising banners can cause harm to your blog too.
4. Backup Your Content
If the hacker manages to get an access to your blog and decides to edit your posts or delete them, you will still be able to restore your website content if you have a recent backup.
It is possible to either create backups manually in your cPanel or schedule them automatically. To feel even safer, you should store your backups on multiple computers and cloud storage services. If you are unsure how to create them, contact your hosting support for help.
5. Create Different User Roles
If you have multiple contributors to your blog and thus need to give an access to your website to several people, don’t use one single login and password for everyone. Create users with different administrative rights to make sure that content managers, either willingly or unwillingly, won’t make any significant changes on the website. If the user is no longer relevant, delete their account.
6. Choose a Credible Web Host
Don’t choose the cheapest hosting option for your blog if you don’t want it to get hacked soon. A proper hosting provider should be willing to help you deal with your security attack as soon as possible. Research about them and about their security precautions. Ask them about the security technologies they use for their services.
7. Use Anti Virus Software
You can take a good care of your blog security but your computer can let you down and eventually open the gates for hackers. They will even find it much easier to access your blog from inside. Install trusted anti-malware software, don’t download and install suspicious files, and secure your web browsing activity.
8. Install Security Plugins
Except for standard security software on your PC, you should also install some security plugins in your CMS. One of the popular plugins is Wordfence – it limits the login attempts on your website. It also scans your plugins, themes, comments, and URLs in your WordPress.
9. Protect Your Content
Sometimes, it’s not necessary to hack your blog to harm you. If someone decides to steal your content, Google Authorship might be handy. Even if the stolen content is added later than the original, it might still cause problems. But if you confirm authorship for your content, it gets fewer chances to rank lower than the same content stolen from you.
10. Disable Copying and Pasting of Your Content
Stealing web content is really simple unless it’s protected against unauthorized copying and use. It is possible to disable content copying on your website. Or there is also a great tool that will add your URL to your content each time someone copies it. It will look like this – content + read more at [website].
Blog Security and Safety Tips : Conclusion
Securing blog content is inevitable if you really want to avoid handling cyber-attacks and dealing with the consequences. Did you know that the virus may spread to all those users who come to your blog?
As a result, it will decrease the number of your readers, not even mentioning your rankings in search engines.
Google is quite strict to infected websites. For this reason, make sure you take all the precautions to protect your blog, no matter how much content and how many readers it has. We hope you like the post – 10 Ways to Make Your Blog Secure. Do you use some other tools and tactics to keep your blog secure?
- 10 Steps to Make Your Blog Secure From Attacks - February 12, 2020