As the most popular CMS in the digital landscape the WordPress has become the preferred platform for the malicious elements. Using advanced technology and technologies they search for the vulnerabilities and security gaps to hack a website to achieve their vested interests. Beginners and nontechnical users are their prime targets due to obvious reasons. However, web developers can play an important role here by helping such people to stay safe from the attacks. Several beginners and nontechnical clients need to hire WordPress developers for improving the site’s appearance, add additional functionality or seek other technical help. The developers can utilize the opportunity to improve site security in the following ways
Replace default naming structure in database table
The standard naming structure pattern used by WordPress for the creation of backend database tables is quite popular in the public. Many web developers don’t care to change the default naming structure of database tables. That’s why the Site Database is the most preferred “soft target” for any attacker.
As a web developer, the first thing to do is to replace the default names of database tables with some tricky names that are tough to be cracked easily. This quick, easy yet effective process quickly improves the security of your WP site.
Update PHP versions
Using outdated PHP versions for your site/plugins is another major vulnerability that invites attackers to invade your site. It is a surprising fact that nearly 6 out of every 10 WordPress sites use older versions of PHP that don’t get any security updates and thus expose your site to various cyber threats.
As a developer if you are working on any existing WordPress site then the first and foremost thing is to check and upgrade its PHP right away.
Remove unwanted and suspicious plugins
Plugins add loads of functionality to your WordPress site and if you are a developer then you have the privilege to makeover it more efficiently than the nontechnical user to achieve your functional objectives.
Tell your clients to avoid installing the plugins just because they are free or you wish to do more with your site.
Each plug-in you install adds another one more gateway to your site that can be exploited by malicious hackers and attackers to break into your site and create all sorts of chaos. A large number of sites are exploited due to vulnerable or outdated plugins.
Also, many users don’t care to uninstall the plugins that were installed for temporary or time-specific objectives. It is also not uncommon to find multiple plugins that serve the same purpose in different ways. By resolving these issues you can get rid of unhealthy plug-in traffic
Recommend reputed third party security tools
After getting their sites professionally developed by the developers the site owners can independently maintain, manage and secure it with the help of various third-party tools and add-ons. However, the nontechnical site owners may fail to invest required efforts or attention while buying and installing such third-party tools.
Easy availability of numerous tools with no obligation free versions makes the choice even more difficult for the nontechnical site owners.
As a developer you can recommend them to use specific reputed and trusted tools and also warn them about the risks of picking just any third-party tool or service without thorough investigation.
Conclusion
WordPress is the most widely used CMS across the globe and several malicious elements use it to hack the websites, and misuse them to achieve their malicious targets- right from asking the admin for huge amounts to unfreeze the website or stealing and misusing the sensitive customer data like payment card details, social security number, etc. In this blog, we have mentioned various ways in which WordPress developers can help in improving the security of their clients’ sites.