In the following post you will get the gist of reasons why people hack websites and especially why WordPress sites get targeted the most. Hacking revolves around with the process of gaining some unauthorised access to some data, websites, softwares, applications, online-platforms, etc… of systems or say computers. All these together make it the process of finding flaws in a system and exploiting them to bypass the security-platforms or controls. Players giving birth to hacking are up as ‘Black-hat’, ‘White-hat’, & ‘Grey-hat’. The black-hat hackers are those who hack for malicious intent i.e. he/she uses his/her skills for activities like stealing money or data, knocking a computer system offline, etc… Then comes the white-hat hackers who are known as ‘Ethical-hackers’, these players usually hack for companies or organisations for defensive purposes and are given special permissions with limits on what hacker can and can’t do on their customer’s computer or network. At the end comes the grey-hackers. These players basically work as a combination of both black and white hackers i.e. as and when required they can change their role in the play of hacking. There are many different reasons why hackers target WordPress sites. One of the major reasons is the level of popularity the platform has & the chunk of companies relying on it or say huge community as a whole. For this it’s a fact that nearly 35% of all the websites on the Internet is built with WordPress at its base.
Why do people hack websites?
In today's high-tech world, thousands of websites get hacked every day. A lot of people think that their own platforms are safe from such attacks as they don’t contain any important/valuable or sensitive business information (but are wrong with the assumptions). With this there are many other reasons for the same:
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Hackers just love to take something down i.e. disrupting services makes them feel good in one way or the other. It is known as DoS(Denial Of Service) attack and can put a company’s website out of service for a while.
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The money factor i.e. hackers hack not only big businesses’ platforms & ask for ransom but also hack regular accounts and try to take monetary advantage from activities like online-banking, online-retail,etc…
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Driven by the purpose like Hacktivism, Idealism, & Political motives. Along with which Black-hat Search Engine Optimisation(SEO) too plays as a major reason.
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Many hackers perform it just for practice or for fun or say just for the sake of proving their capabilities/knowledge in the growing tech-world.
The point here is, no website is 100% secure, once it is online. It can be attacked at any point of time. So it relies on us, how we take up the challenges and hold tightly against such attacks with proper preparations/plans.
Core-reasons why WordPress websites get targeted
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Many WordPress sites lack a basic level of security:
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There are many different ways available for securing your websites from different attacks & the fact is all these aren’t that hard/troublesome for setting these up or say implementing as you would imagine.
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For instance, if you have taken Two-factors Authentication(2FA, using a WordPress plugin), it will definitely reduce the chances of attackers gaining access to your website, though they have stolen your credentials. But if you haven’t, then this will turn the tables completely.
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Another criteria is using weak passwords, which makes it more feasible for hackers to get those passwords right using different permutations & combinations or by using some basic hacking-tools.
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‘No records & no logs’, is the other major aspect, the users don’t barge on. This particular mistake makes you practically unaware about everything that happens on your website, from unsuccessful logins to changes in your site, etc…
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Immense level of popularity of WordPress:
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As stated in the introductory description WordPress has about 35% coverage of number of sites on the Internet. As of January,2019, there were nearly 1.95 billion websites on the Internet (so imagine the level of popularity the platform has).
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The above stated are really good from the developmental/sustaining aspect for WordPress but also it’s a jackpot for the hackers.
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For instance, just imagine that someone found a vulnerability in a very popular WordPress plugin! Such situations could easily exploit millions of websites at a time.
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Using outdated WordPress core, plugins & other softwares:
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It’s quite common that the outdated softwares have more vulnerabilities. So whenever the users use outdated core, plugins, softwares, themes, etc… they just expose their sites to the hackers to let it be with ready-to-be-exploited mode.
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Attackers are always on ready-steady-attack mode & are always equipped with all the above left-out ropes. In fact they have a huge bunch of scanning platforms/tools & scripts to mass identity & exploit such vulnerable WordPress websites (which all always work as an open ground for hackers).
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Negligence in file permissions:
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File permissions work like a set of rules & regulations for your website. These permissions basically help to control the access of different files/data on your site.
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Many of the administrators provide intact file permissions, which at the end which give hackers access to write & change these files as per their own needs.
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Usage of nullified themes & plugins:
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Many different websites on the Internet distribute paid WordPress plugins & themes for free. This sometimes makes it easy to get tempted and use these nulled plugins & themes on one’s own website.
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Downloading these plugins or themes i.e. downloading these from unreliable sources, can compromise the security of your website and can also be used for stealing sensitive information.
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So always make sure you go with reliable resources for using these themes & plugins or go with the alternatives available for those products. This will definitely help to secure your site from many different angles of attacks.
How to tackle these problems?
Giving hype to the phrase which says “precaution is always better than the cure.” & In order to prevent all the above problems here are some tips:
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Use ‘WordPress Website Firewall’ - which is a security plugin.
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Always keep a mark on your logs i.e. always be aware about what all changes take place on your website, who tried to log-in, etc… and all these on a regular basis for a sustainable development or say security aspect.
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Install a plugin for ensuring strong passwords - enforce strong password policies.
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Always be aware about the ‘file-permissions’ aspect in order to hold a grip over who all can access the files you upload, make changes, etc… - WordPress file integrity monitor .
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Always keep a backup of your WordPress websites - backup your WordPress website .
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Stop the usage of outdated WordPress core, plugins or even outdated themes along with the non-usage of nullified criterions(non-reliable sources) for the same.
There you go with the problems as well as the solutions for the same for your WordPress website. But as we(AddWeb’s Family) always say, investments in different companies or say different platforms for all your tech-cravings are always subjected to market risks, choose wisely & live happy. Cheers!
Concluding Essence:
At AddWeb Solution, we ‘add’ value to the ‘web’ world with our experience and expertise over WordPress Web Development solution and an extensive range of other such web solutions. Explore more about our WordPress Development services and Get in touch today!! https://www.addwebsolution.com/hire-developer/wordpress
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