How to improve your Blog’s security

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If you have a blog, you might be earning a reasonable passive income from it. You might even rely on that extra income. So if someone were to hack your blog, plagiarize it, or otherwise change its useful income into something that didn’t bring you any money at all – and landed you in trouble to book – you would be devastated. Even if you have security measures on your blog, you can always improve them. Here are some ways to do just that.

Change Your Login 
With the majority of blogging platforms, and especially WordPress, you’ll find that your default login name is set as ‘admin’. You should change this straight away to something completely different – something that doesn’t relate to you, your name, your address, or any other personal details. It can be a string of random letters and numbers if you prefer (and this is great for security reasons as it takes much longer to hack, and those attempting it may just move onto a site that is easier for them) as long as you can remember it. 
 
Set Automatic Backups 
Regular backups mean that your blog and its contents are relatively secure. Back the blog up to a cloud-based system for even more peace of mind. It means that you can restore the entire site at a click should anything go wrong. 
 
Password Authentication
Keeping hackers away from a successful blog can be hard, which is why your security needs to be set as high as possible. Adding password protection to your admin folder can assist with this. Anyone who wants to log in will need the correct password and username, not just the user login name. It’s an extra level of protection that doesn’t take long to set up, but is worth doing to save your site and your income should the worst happen. 
 
Stop Copy And Paste
If someone wants to steal your web content and pass it off as their own, in most cases, all they will need to do is highlight what they want, and copy it, ready to paste into their own blog template. They will copy even the formatting, so it’s an easy way for someone to create a blog on the back of your hard work! To prevent this from happening, use programs such as Copyscape to avoid this issue of copying and pasting. You can disable the ability for anyone to copy from your site, and it’s unlikely that a plagiarist will be bothered to type everything out for themselves, so your content will be kept as safe as possible. 
 
Don’t Advertise Your Version Of WordPress
WordPress sites often publish a version number, allowing visitors to determine if you are using an outdated, unpatched version of WordPress.
 
Exposing your WordPress site’s version number exposes it to security risks and attacks. While you can remove the WordPress version from your web page, you must make an extra change: go to your WordPress installation directory and remove the readme.html file, which also advertises the version of your WordPress site to the rest of the world.
 
A lot of WordPress themes include login links that provide quick access to a login page. You do not need to expose your login page so that anybody, including hackers, can access it. As a result, if you have a theme that includes a login link, you should delete it. If you can’t get rid of it, think about altering the theme. 
 
Only Install Trusted Plugins 
Hackers might easily get access to your site through the plugins you download. When you install a plugin, you enable it to access core files in your WordPress dashboard. This is why you should exercise caution while installing plugins on your site. If you do run across a problem, someone who can execute a WordPress bug fix may be required. 

The following are four main considerations you should make before installing any plugin:

1. Make sure it’s listed in the WordPress.org plugins directory
If you can’t locate the plugin in this directory, it’s either not authentic, or it’s a paid plugin. Do not be hesitant to download it once it is available in this location.

2. Examine the rating
Examine the plugin’s star rating as well as the breakdown of votes. There may be a security issue if the plugin has more one-star reviews than five-star ratings.

3. The quantity of downloads
Look for a well-known plugin. This can be defined by the amount of downloads for each plugin. Bad plugins seldom generate thousands of downloads since moderators will quickly delete them.

4. Look into third-party reviews
As previously stated, paid plugins are not included in the directory, making it difficult to verify their credibility. So, while contemplating such plugins, read the evaluations of individuals who have used them to learn more.