WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system, but with that popularity comes significant risk. If you’re running a WordPress site, you’re more exposed to attacks than you might think.
A shocking 72% of WordPress sites run by respondents of the Melapress 2024 security survey results have experienced at least one security breach. These numbers are a wake-up call, and they show that protecting your site isn’t optional—it’s essential.
In this article, I’ll discuss some of the findings from the security survey and recommend the simple steps you can take to safeguard your website from becoming another statistic.
The numbers don’t lie – it’s time to act.
Over 72% of WordPress Sites Have Been Breached
If your site hasn’t been attacked yet, consider yourself lucky—but don’t get complacent.
Hackers use automated tools to scan for vulnerabilities on WordPress sites, meaning you could be a target without even realizing it. Weak passwords, outdated plugins, or an unpatched WordPress version are like open doors for cybercriminals.
To avoid becoming part of this worrying statistic, make sure your site is protected. Regularly updating your WordPress version and plugins is a good first step, but remember, that’s just one layer.
Are Your Security Concerns Aligned with Your Actions?
You might already be aware of the security risks that come with managing a WordPress site—weak passwords, outdated plugins, or missing 2FA—but knowing isn’t enough.
We’ve always seen a gap between concerns and the actual implementation of best practices. It’s easy to acknowledge the risks, yet many site owners don’t take action until it’s too late. We’ve been guilty of this ourselves in the past and it’s not a fun experience.
Just check out Melapress’ findings from their survey:
It’s clear that a large chunk of us are aware of the security risks and know what we need to do to protect ourselves, yet we don’t always do what we need to do.
Don’t wait for things to go wrong before you take action. Here’s a quote from Robert Abela, Melapress’ founder, with his thoughts on the survey’s findings.
The results of this year’s WordPress security survey highlight both encouraging trends and areas where more attention is needed. It’s clear that many administrators are adopting strong security measures, like two-factor authentication. However, there is still work to be done in training teams and implementing comprehensive recovery plans. I trust these insights guide us and many others in developing solutions that address these challenges.
Robert Abela, Melapress Founder
Practical Recommendations for Securing Your WordPress Site
We’ve written about WordPress security a few times at WP Mayor and we’ve had security experts, including Robert himself, share their opinions and tips. Here are our practical recommendations to protect your WordPress site.
Install a WordPress Security Plugin
You may now feel that you know enough about security to implement measures yourself, but outsourcing this vital part of running a WordPress site to your host or some other third-party isn’t always the best idea.
It’s good that you spend some time familiarizing yourself with the basics and implementing a few security measures. To take it just one step further, we’d recommend putting together a recovery plan for when something does go wrong, because let’s face it, the odds are that it will.
Check out our recommendations on the essential WordPress security plugins as well as our security plugin comparisons to get started.
Implement Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
Adding an extra layer of security to your WordPress login experience is essential. With 2FA, which stands for two-factor authentication, even if a password is compromised, a second factor (such as a phone app like Google Authenticator or a code sent by SMS) will block unauthorized access.
Melapress themselves offer a plugin called WP 2FA which helps you do exactly this for free. There are a few other 2FA security plugins available for free too if you want to look around.
Whatever plugin you choose, this is one of the simplest and most critical measures to start securing your WordPress site.
Strengthen Your Password Policies
Weak passwords are a common entry point for hackers and it still astounds me that so many site owners use default or basic passwords. Gone are the days of using names or dates of birth as your password. You need to make it a bit more difficult for the hackers.
Establishing strong password guidelines for all your website’s users, including length, complexity, and expiration policies, is essential to keeping your site secure.
WordPress itself provides a list of best practices for passwords, and we’ve taken it a step further with some other password security guidelines that you’ll want to take note of.
And if you’re wondering how you’ll remember a password like the one shown above, you don’t. Use a password manager like 1Password to store all your logins and you’ll only need to remember a single password.
Use CAPTCHA to Prevent Spam
CAPTCHAs are highly effective for blocking spambots from flooding your forms or attacking your site. By adding CAPTCHA to your login or comment sections, you can significantly reduce unwanted traffic.
CAPTCHA 4WP is one plugin that offers a wealth of functionality to do this. Even better, you have a bunch of out-of-the-box integrations with WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, and much more. Check out our complete guide on implementing CAPTCHA for your WordPress site.
Secure Your Forms
Forms are a common vulnerability on many WordPress sites. Ensuring proper input validation, using the CAPTCHA I mentioned above, and limiting form submission rates can all help protect against brute force and spam attacks.
We put together the ultimate guide to WordPress form security that explains how hackers use web forms to gain entry into your site and show you how to secure your WordPress forms to keep your site’s data safe and secure.
Password Protect Pages
Password-protecting WordPress pages might be a lesser-known solution and in truth, not everyone will need it.
If you have sensitive content on your site, such as pages that should only be visible to certain people, ensure it’s only accessible to those who need it by setting up password protection.
Keep Track of User Behavior
Implementing security measures is your first job. Once that’s done, it’s time to track how your users (and the potential hackers) are behaving on your site. This is where activity logs come into play.
We’ve got a three-part series on activity logs that you should take a look at:
- How WordPress Audit Logs Improve User Accountability
- Using WordPress Activity Logs To Troubleshoot Technical Site Problems
- The Vital Role Of Logs In WordPress Security
Don’t Wait for a Breach
The data from Melapress’s survey is a wake-up call for anyone managing a WordPress site. Whether it’s updating plugins, securing login forms, or using 2FA, taking action today is the best way to protect your site from becoming another statistic.
We’ve relied on the Melapress team for security advice for many years and for good reason. You can check out our interview with Melapress founder Robert Abela from 2019 to learn all about their background and why you can trust their advice on security.
Last but not least, if you think your site is compromised, here are five things you need to do once your site is hacked.
