Last updated on January 14th, 2025 at 02:39 pm
[This article is a part of the WordPress Security series. This series, I share my experience and advice to keep your site safe from hackers, malware, and other digital threats. Whether it’s securing your login or backing up your site, what and how to maintain your site, and tool recommendations.]
My worst nightmare of running a WordPress business?
Waking up to a notice that a client site has been hacked, the domain redirected to a weird place, nobody can log in, and there’s no backup to restore from.
That would make me want to crawl back into my cave and never return to the website market ever again!
And this could happen to anybody!
To reduce my risks (and yours too), it’s time to be aware of common cyber attacks and learn how to prevent them.
Why learning about cyber attacks and site security matters?
Cyber attacks are a serious threat to our business and customers. They could cause data breaches of private information (users’ login info, contacts, payment information, you name it.), data loss, site ownership theft, damaged reputation, and more.
Besides the obvious damages, they also impact the environment intensively by draining your server resources and energy. Learn more about this here.
Common types of cyber attacks on WordPress sites
#1: Brute Force Attacks:
Attackers use a system to guess your username and password combinations to gain access to your site. Once in, they can take over the site, change the password, block you out, and exploit your site’s information.
#2: DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) Attacks:
Hackers flood your site with a large volume of web traffic, leading to server crashes and preventing real users from accessing the site.
DDoS attackers’ motives could range from disrupting normal business operations to cut revenue and damage reputation, demanding money, making a certain political impact, or silencing voices. Read about famous DDoS attacks.
#3: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS):
Attackers inject malicious scripts into your web pages viewed by other users, attempting to trick them into doing things they aren’t authorized. For example, the script pops up a fake Facebook login window that fools your users to log in. This allows attackers to steal the user’s sensitive information and do what they want later.
#4: Malware Infections:
Attackers inject or install malicious code, scripts, or files onto the website’s server or within its files. They do this through vulnerable themes, plugins, or WordPress core files. The impact of this attack varies depending on malware types. For example, it can cause theft of sensitive information, installation of backdoors for continuous access, and traffic redirection to another malicious site, etc.
#5: SQLi Attacks:
Attackers inject SQL (a computer language used to manage WordPress database) queries into vulnerable user input fields, e.g. a contact form, and use them as a door to attack the site’s database and do unauthorized actions. For example, they can steal users’ private information, edit or delete content in the database, etc.
#6: Phishing Attacks:
Attackers trick users into revealing sensitive information e.g. login credentials using various deceptive tactics. For example, they may send a phishing email to a user containing a fake WordPress login page using language that creates urgency or fear to rush the user to sign in. They may include a phishing link in a site form that users interact with and can fall victim to.
All of these attacks are horrendous! It’s ridiculous how far bad actors are willing to go to steal something that’s not theirs and exploit it. What we can do is stay informed, and alert, and guard our site as hard as possible.
Here are the practices you can do to prevent your site from cyber attacks
#1: Choose a secure web hosting
That offers security measures such as firewalls (a system that protects your site from harmful or suspicious traffic), malware scanning, DDoS Mitigation, SSL/TLS encryption, regular security updates, regular backups, etc.
#2: Install security plugins,
Such as Wordfence or Sucuri Security, which can help detect and prevent common cyber attacks on your sites.
#3: Install monitoring tools
To track website performance metrics, server health, and suspicious activity, and can send you an alert if anything needs your immediate attention. Some security plugins such as WordFence, also offer this service.
#4: Use trusted reputable plugins and themes
They’re mostly well-supported, releasing new updates often, and unlikely to be vulnerable, or abandoned.
#5: Update tools regularly
Updating themes, plugins, and WordPress core files to their latest versions helps patch known security flaws.
#6: Backup Regularly
Regularly backing up your website files and database into your computer and remote storage (e.g. cloud storage) helps ensure you have site backup files at all times in case you can’t access your web host’s backups.
Lastly:
I hope this post gives you a better understanding of how cyber attacks could happen for a WordPress site, their impact, and ways to prevent them.
I know that following these security suggestions takes a lot of work, but remember that keeping up with these practices not only helps secure your website (and your customers, your online assets, and your hard-earned income) but also helps minimize the environmental impact your site creates. It’s a win-win for all.
To make all these practices more practical, I highly recommend following the steps in this video: The Ultimate WordPress Security Guide – Step by Step (2024). It’s created by my go-to WordPress resource, WPBeginner.