I'm Mohid Imran, a developer specializing in Shopify, WordPress, Angular, and Python. I share expert insights on e-commerce, automation, and modern web development.
WordPress powers 43% of the web — and it's the most attacked CMS on the planet. This checklist covers every security measure you need to implement today.
WordPress powers 43% of all websites on the internet — which makes it the most targeted CMS by hackers, bots, and automated scanners. Over 90,000 attacks target WordPress sites every minute. The good news: 99% of WordPress hacks are entirely preventable with basic security measures. This checklist covers every security layer you need, from server configuration to application hardening, in priority order.
Updates, strong passwords, 2FA, SSL — these prevent 80% of attacks.
Login protection, firewall, hiding version numbers, file permissions.
Security scans, backup verification, log monitoring, plugin audit.
The single most effective security measure is keeping everything updated: WordPress core, all plugins, all themes — including inactive ones. 60% of WordPress hacks exploit vulnerabilities in outdated plugins. Enable automatic updates for minor WordPress versions and security releases. For plugins, enable auto-updates for trusted plugins with active development. Review and update plugins manually monthly. Delete any plugin or theme you're not actively using — they're attack surfaces even if inactive.
The default "admin" username is tried in literally every brute force attack. Change your admin username immediately if it's still "admin." Use a unique username that's not your display name. Generate a 20+ character random password using a password manager (1Password, Bitwarden). Enable two-factor authentication using the "WP 2FA" plugin or Wordfence's built-in 2FA — this alone blocks 99.9% of automated brute force attempts even if your password is compromised.
The default WordPress login URL (yoursite.com/wp-admin and /wp-login.php) is where all brute force attempts target. Implement: rate limiting (maximum 5 attempts before lockout — Wordfence or Limit Login Attempts Reloaded), CAPTCHA on the login form, IP-based blocking for known malicious ranges, and consider moving the login URL with a plugin like WPS Hide Login. These measures cut automated attack attempts by 95%+.
Install Wordfence or Sucuri firewall — they block millions of attacks daily Set file permissions: directories 755, files 644, wp-config.php 600 Disable XML-RPC if you don't use remote publishing or Jetpack Hide WordPress version number from page source and RSS feeds Add security headers: X-Frame-Options, X-XSS-Protection, Content-Security-PolicyEven with perfect security, backups are your ultimate recovery option. Implement automated daily backups stored off-site (not just on your hosting server). Use UpdraftPlus or Jetpack Backup to automatically sync to Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3. Test your backups quarterly by actually restoring to a staging environment — a backup you've never tested is a backup you can't trust. Keep 30 days of daily backups minimum.
All WordPress sites I build include comprehensive security hardening, Wordfence setup, SSL configuration, and backup automation as standard. If your existing WordPress site needs a security audit, contact me for a complete vulnerability assessment.
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