WordPress is considered to be one of the finest open-source CMS in the world and it holds more than a 30% share of websites on the internet.

Millions of people and businesses use it, as it fulfils its aim for good usability and aesthetics.

However, with so many users, there are bound to be security issues from time to time, and you should be aware of the most common ones, and how to solve them.

Strong Passwords To Prevent Brute Force Attacks

One expert in matters relating to the security of WordPress sites, Dre Armeda, believes that ‘People are and will continue to be the biggest security issue with WordPress’.

Much of the problem is because of weak passwords, which will make your website vulnerable to a brute force attack. This is where hackers try various combinations of usernames and passwords over and over again until they get into your site. All your passwords should be strong and changed frequently.

You should also encourage users to do the same, and a good idea is to use an extra level of security when they are logging in such as CAPTCHA or Invisible reCAPTCHA. This latest version only activates when it suspects the visitor is not human, and it will make your site a lot less susceptible to brute force attacks.

You should also limit the number of login attempts by installing a limit login attempt plugin, as these are another way of preventing these types of attacks.

Scheduled Backups

You may think that backups are not a WordPress issue, but any cyber security authority will tell you how vital they are. If anything goes wrong you need to have an on-premises backup solution, which will enable you to get back online quickly. WordPress backups can be done in two different ways. You can do offsite backups or/and backups via your hosting provider.

Offsite WordPress backups are easy thanks to a plugin known as UpdraftPlus. This will back up a WordPress site to off-site storage such as Dropbox, Google Drive or Amazon S3. Backups via your hosting provider you will need to arrange with them.

Not having backups of your site can be disastrous if anything bad happens, and you should schedule them to happen often.

Keep Users Updated

Employees come and go all the time, and you need to make sure that you delete anyone that has left. People still having access to your WordPress site after they are no longer employed leaves you very vulnerable to just about anything bad.

Just think for a moment if a member of staff left after an upset. They could do so many awful things to your site if they still have access that it does not bear thinking about.

You should also keep an eye on the levels of access that various employees have, and never give them more than they need to complete the task they are undertaking.

Just these three things prove the statement made by Dre Armeda, that the biggest threat to a WordPress site is the users themselves.