Protecting WordPress from Brute Force Attacks

WordPress has long been known as a user-friendly way to create your own website. With the availability of easily installed themes creating a content-ready website can be as simple as a few clicks. As simple as the website creation tool is, it’s not without its vulnerabilities. Among the most prevalent issues WordPress users run in to, brute force attacks have taken center stage. Users may wake up and find they have had thousands of malicious log-in attempts and be fearful that the site they’ve worked so hard to start is no longer secure. In the earliest installments of WordPress, logging into your dashboard was defaulted to the username “admin”. Without changing the username to make it unique your site would be at risk. Today many behind the brute force attacks work assuming that your username is still admin. By inputting the username “admin” and repeatedly attempting different passwords the attack can be successful if the user hasn’t made the effort to secure the log in credentials. Though the threat of a brute force attack can be a scary prospect there are many steps you can take to ensure that even if malicious log-ins are detected, your site is secure. Switch from the Admin Username The most efficient way to change your WordPress username is to create a new user with an updated email and assign the user to the administrator role. Once this is complete you can log in under the new username and delete the old username. Creating a Secure Password When creating a password, it’s important to not use real words or any variation of your website or personal name. Many password generators have become available to the public to create strong passwords using a variety of different characters. Though these are the most basic ways to protect a WordPress site from brute force attacks, advanced users have many other options to fortify their accounts. Limiting IP access to log in pages, using security plug-ins and banning IP addresses are all options to keep attacks at bay and protect