SpeedHost.in Blog Hosted on WordPress

Lately we have seen clients complaining about their wordpress blog being hacked. This has nothing to do with a server being hacked but chances are the hacker gained access from your 3rd party wordpresss theme or plugin which you have used on your blog. Below are some simple way to prevent your blog from being hacked.

1) Remove the Footer Credit: Most WordPress templates will come with a link back to WordPress in the footer saying, “Powered by WordPress”. It is used as a marker by hackers who query search engines to compile lists of WordPress sites. Removing this will probably stop you from getting hacked as your site will probably not be found once it is removed.
To remove the footer credit, open up wp-content/{name of the theme you are using}/footer.php and delete the link to WordPress.

2) Remove the Meta Generator Tag – Most WordPress templates will also come with a HTML tag in the head like this:
This has to go too as it gives away what version of WordPress you are using. All a hacker would have to do is look up a hack for your version of WordPress and if you are vulnerable (some vulnerabilities require certain server settings or environments) they will take you down.
To remove the meta generator, open up wp-content/{name of the theme you are using}/header.php and delete the meta generator tag.

3) Stay Updated with the Latest WordPress Version: Last but definitely not the least is to stay updated with the latest version of WordPress because after each version is release, WordPress also releases the bugs and exploits of the previous version which puts your Admin Area in risk if you don’t upgrade.

4) WordPress Firewall Plugin: WordPress Firewall Plugin Detect, intercept, and log suspicious-looking parameters and prevent them compromising WordPress. It also protect most WordPress plugins from the same attacks. You can optionally configure as the first plugin to load for maximum security. It will give you an option to send an email to you with a useful dump of information upon blocking a potential attack and much more.

5) Take regular backups

For advance wordpress protection tips, please check these links

1. http://www.mastermindblogger.com/2011/14-ways-to-prevent-your-wordpress-blog-from-being-hacked/
2. http://semlabs.co.uk/journal/how-to-stop-your-wordpress-blog-getting-hacked
3. http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/11-vital-tips-and-hacks-to-protect-your-wordpress-admin-area/

According to me WordPress is one of the best things to happen to the Internet, it has enabled millions of people to express their thoughts online without having to worry about programming / web design etc but as your WordPress blog grows, you might experience a little slowness or a delay from the server, this is because if you have thousands of people visiting your blog everyday, each time your page is rendered for the visitor, this would slow down your blog and even cause temporary outage if your are on shared hosting.

But since you are working on WordPress and it being the God of all Blog softwares, there are various solutions available to this problem. You can install a Plugin called WP-Cache which will cache your dynamic pages and render from from cache, instead of calling them from the database. This will significantly reduce your server load and speed up your website performance.

If you are on WordPress blog, you would have alreade seen the “WordPress 2.9 is available! Please update now.” sign on the top. This new update has brought in some very cool features.

1. Global undo/”trash” feature.
2. Built-in image editor.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility check.
4. Easier video embeds. And more…

Watch this video to get a sense of it.

A brilliant video by Tom Johnson giving a brief introduction to and instructions for getting started with WampServer for Windows to run WordPress on your own computer. Running WordPress locally allows you to test setups, themes, plugins, and more without the need of an Internet connection or trouble of setting up a dedicated test installation.

One of the best e-commerce plugings out there which can be used with your WordPress blog. You can download the plugin from here… its free! www.instinct.co.nz

The below video will walks you through the process of getting set up with the WP e-Commerce plugin.