I am writing this post with a concern to security of WordPress blog and site. WordPress is a choice of everyone now a days for online blog and CMS. Small and Big site owners love WordPress. But Hackers and Crackers around the world are too in love with it 
They can clearly see the growing fame of the WordPress. They are seeing their future with wordpress and they are working very hard for it. It’s time to get ready for the war and make our home safe. Yes, Its very serious indeed, lots of hackers are trying to crack the WordPress. They are constantly thinking and writing scripts to hack WordPress sites and blog. So, if you are a blog owner, managing one or two WordPress site, developing, selling or doing anything with WordPress. Please keep reading it, this is very important.
We build approx 4-5 WordPress blogs and sites every month at MULTIDOTS. It is very important for us to make sure those sites are secure. Hence we have put this in a practice to pass a WordPress project from the following steps before it goes live. I thought I should share this check off list to protect a WordPress Blog or Site.
1. Latest Version Upgrade
Always keep your WordPress copy upgraded with latest version. There is lot development and fixes happening on WordPress development stream. It’s always advisable to keep your WordPress copy upgraded and latest. Please be careful while upgrading and always make a back of database before you upgrade. In some cases it may break your site due to a wrong upgrade. Always read the instructions carefully before you upgrade.
Upgrade Free : Upgrade your WordPress Blog or Site FREE at MULTIDOTS. Yes! Our WordPress Expert team will upgrade your Blog or Site with ZERO cost. We will also take care of all the necessary backups and consideration for seamless upgrades. Keep reading hear – FREE WordPress Upgrade at MULTIDOTS.
2. Do Security Scan – Plugin
This very easy to use plugin will sort out some of the basic security issues with WordPress – it’ll scan your WordPress installation and will suggest the required changes that may be harmful for security reason.
3. Protect your plugin’s directories and files
Plugins are an easy way for a hacker to get access to your blog if they’ve got flaws in them. They can find the plugins you’re using by visiting /wp-content/plugins/, and they’ll find all the plugins that you’re using. The solution? Put a blank index.html file in the wp-content/plugins/ folder.
4. Pick a good password
Common sense. Use a good password. Don’t use the same password that you use on every site, create something that is easily memorable, with a mix of UPPER and lower case and some numbers in there too. Change your password regularly too.
5. Change the admin user name
By default, the WordPress user name is admin. Lot’s of people don’t change it. Why should you change it? If a hacker has your username, he’s halfway there to getting into your site, he just has to guess your password. If the hacker has to guess your username as well, then that’s twice as much work to do. It’s super easy to migrate posts from one user to another, just create your new user and then delete the admin user. You’ll be given the option to migrate posts to another user.
6. Protect your WP-Config.php file
Your WP-Config.php contains your database name, database username and database password. It’s something to protect.
Just add the following code to your .htaccess file:
# protect wpconfig.php
order allow,deny from all7. Use Secret Keys in your WP-Config File
In WordPress, the wp-config.php file is the file that stores the database information that WordPress needs to connect its circuit, so-to-speak. This file contains the name, address and password of the MySQL database that stores all of your user info, blog posts and other important content.
Using a secret key, you can make it even more difficult for someone to gain access to your account.
Go to https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/ and copy the results into this section of your wp-config.php file if you haven’t already set up a secret key.
8. Hide your WordPress version
First off, go into your header.php file and remove the meta data. It will be look like this.
remove_action('wp_header', 'wp_generator');
9. Limit the number of times user can enter their password (wrongly)
The Login LockDown plugin will lock out users if they enter their password wrong too many times. You can choose how many times users can enter their password and also how long they’re locked out for via a neat options page.
Source – WP Plugin Directory
10. Limit WP-Admin access by IP
This isn’t something that I do personally, as I blog on a fair number of different computers, but if you’re just on the one, with a fixed IP, then this is a great hack for you: you can restrict access to the wp-admin directory with a spluginimple .htaccess hack:
order deny, allow allow from a.b.c.d. #your static ip deny from all11. Know Your File Permissions
Often, hackers are able to gain access to your site because you’ve left files or folders with permissions that are simply too liberal.
Depending on how you have installed WordPress, or the default practices from your webhost, the permissions for files and folders on your WordPress install may not be appropriate.
The WordPress Codex has an outline of what permissions are acceptable. File and directory permissions can be changed either via an FTP client or within the administrative page from your web host.
This page details more about how file permissions work and how to change them using a number of different systems.
12. Login via SSL
If your host has an SSL certificate then you can use this great little plugin to login via SSL. The Admin SSL plugin “secures login page, admin area, posts, pages – whatever you want – using Private or Shared SSL.”
If you are a WordPress Developer or know any more tips to security please share them here.
