6 Ways to Protect Your Blog From Being Hacked
May 2, 2011
Topics: Blog, Blogging Tips
Hackers, we don’t like them – they are like the paparazzi of the tech world. The more well-known you become the more susceptible you become to having your ‘privacy’ and other entities invaded.
Let’s take the highly recognized Chris Brogan for example, at one point he had his site hacked every single day. Unfortunately it seems to be the price we pay for becoming known, famous, revered, etc and being exposed to the blogosphere.
However, you don´t have to have a huge amount of traffic to be hacked because most hacks are not personal attacks. Sometimes your site can be susceptible to phishing attacks that were carried through an outdated plugin, for example.
Hackers will not cease to exist but at least we can do a few things on our end to prevent them from hacking our sites and ripping it to shreds or at least make it harder for them to try.
- Stay Up-to-date. One of the ways to keep your blog safe is to stay up to date with the latest version of your blogging platform. The importance of having the latest version is to remain up to date with any bugs that need to be fixed. The update usually takes a few minutes
- Create a unique password. A solid password should contain capital letters, numbers and characters such as #, %,$ or # and should be kept under lock and key. Oh and be sure that it is different from your other accounts
- Delete the admin user. Although it many seem like a basic tip, many use the default admin username. Using the default Admin username only makes a hackers job easier. So, it is best to create a different username along with a strong password and delete the default user admin or give it only author privileges.
- Download backups. It is very important to backup your work with plugins such as WordPress Database Backup Plugin and (for self-hosted sites) your FTP clients. So if anything were to happen you can restore your site. It is very important to backup as often as possible
- Have a good Web host. The security of your site depends a lot on the web host you are using. Hosting companies such as Host Gator and Blue Host are two very reliable names in the game. They take care of their customers very well
- Choose your plugins wisely. Be careful with the types of plugins you install – not all of them are secure. Do your homework and take the extra steps necessary to ensure they are safe to use, including updating them often.
Has your site ever been hacked? If so, what are you doing to prevent it from happening again? We´d love to learn!
Jessie Nuez a native New Yorker covering stories that focus on mobile and personal technologies. When You can find Jessie writing for her site Hecho Para Mama. Follow her on Twitter @JessieNuez.
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Chantilly Patiño
Really great post Jessie! Thank you for writing this! I’m glad to take care of some of these issues before it becomes a problem. One thing though…if you do end up being hacked, what should you do? How do you get your site back to working order?
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Ana Flores
That’s a tough question to answer, Chantilly. There are clear steps to take, but at that point I recommend you hire a professional to take care of it. Not only do you need to get your site back on, but you need to clean up anything the hackers may have placed (a backdoor) or damaged.
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Vida
Wow, I never think about my blog being hacked or how I would deal. Do you know if you’re using wordpress.com if back-up is done automatically? Thanks for this post!
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Jessie Nuez
Hi Vida.
Sorry for the delay in responding to you. I have been looking for an easy way to back up wordpress.com blogs.
I was able to find this link http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/12/19/backing-up-your-wordpresscom-blog/
Hope it helps.
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Karina
Hackers estan a la orden del dia. My YouTube channel was hacked a few months ago. I was not able to recover any of my videos and had to start all over. I am now following some of the steps you mentioned for my new channel and will implement them All once I have my blog. I never thought this could be possible. Like they say in my country “ponen candado después que le robán.”
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