Hacking and data breaches have been in the news for a long time. At this point, things keep getting worse. Breaches are getting worse, and more and more people are finding out that their personal and financial information has been stolen. Safe passwords are essential to keeping yourself safe, but what does that mean?
Website owners discover that their data has been stolen or changed. WordPress websites can be hacked, and they can also be attacked in other ways. Using the correct username and password security measures can make your site much less vulnerable to these attacks.
Why Are Secure Passwords So Crucial?
Hollywood might try to make it seem like there are several ways to get into a company’s data (and website), but in reality, most attacks succeed because a username and password have been stolen.
Attackers only have a few ways to get their hands on this information. One is to fall for a phishing attack, in which you give the attacker your data without realizing it.
The other is to use weak login information that hackers or hacking software can figure out. So, protecting your credentials is an essential part of keeping WordPress safe.
Usernames and What You Need to Know
First and most importantly, make sure you change all default usernames to something else. Never use the word “Admin.” Come up with something more robust because attackers can’t resist this one.
In newer versions of WordPress, “admin” isn’t the default account name, but some people still change their account names to “admin.” Don’t do that.
Also, it makes sense to have two separate accounts: one for all the administrative tasks you need to do and another for anything you need to publish.
Your username will be shown when you post something. It’s terrible news for admins who want to keep their login information secret.
So, what should a good username include? Almost anything besides “administrator” will work here, but the harder it is to guess, the better. Don’t use a name that could be connected to you in the real world, to your family, or anything else that a hacker could figure out by just putting the pieces together.
The Right Password
Now that we’ve discussed about your username, it’s time to talk about your password, which is (arguably) even more important.
If an attacker figures out your username, which is pretty easy, even if it’s not “admin,” they still have to figure out your password.
Too many people use simple passwords that are easy to figure out. In recent years, the following have become popular (or should I say overused) passwords:
- 123456
- Password
- 123456789
- 12345678
- 12345
- 11111
- Sunshine
- Qwerty
- Admin
- Iloveyou
Obviously, you can’t use these. But what should you pick?
Tips for having a secure password
Password Length
Your password’s length should be one of your top priorities. The longer, the better. All the passwords above are pretty short, and most experts today say that passwords should have at least 15 characters.
Using Special Characters in your password
Speaking of characters, don’t use just numbers or letters. Mix it up. Create stronger passwords by mixing uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters like & and *. But don’t use characters like l33t and other so-called “leetspeak” words.
Multiple Words in your password
Many people use one word as their password, like monkey or king. But these are also pretty easy to figure out. Instead, combine words with numbers and other symbols to make them stronger.
The goal is to prevent accounts from being compromised by so-called dictionary attacks, in which hackers or hacking software run lists of regularly used passwords and single words.
Create a Sentence for your password
The most secure passwords are complete sentences that are transformed into passwords by the process of abbreviation.
For example, you used the old saying, “The rain in Spain falls on the plain.” That would be turned into ThRaInSpFaMaOnThPl. Now, put those things together with numbers, and you have something that will be hard to hack.
Change Your Password Regularly
A good password is great, but you can only use it once. Have you been using this password (or a combination of passwords) for a long time? Most likely, it’s been a few months or even a year. Some people keep using the same password(s) for years. You should change your password often, maybe once every three months.
Don’t Use the Same Password in Other Places
Please don’t make the mistake of logging into WordPress with the same password you use everywhere else. Actually, you should never use the same password twice.
Make a different password for each site. You should also make sure they aren’t the same as any other passwords. For example, you couldn’t use password1 on one website and password2 on another. If hackers get your login information for one site, they can guess too easily.
Get a Password Manager
Because good password hygiene and making strong passwords are so complicated. It can be hard to remember them. In addition, it goes without saying that you should never, ever, ever write down a password.
So what should you do? A decent password manager can be helpful. Even the keyword tool and Chrome’s ability to remember passwords may be enough.
The point is that you need an easy way to store and use complicated passwords, change often, and are hard to remember.
You can’t do it well if you try to keep track of your passwords by writing them down in a text file. Check out our tips on how to keep your passwords safe by managing them well.
In Conclusion
In the end, protecting your WordPress site starts with protecting your login information. Having a strong, frequently-changed password and a unique, difficult-to-guess username is best way to protect yourself from hackers and other security threats. Of course, that’s not all you should do to keep your computer safe, but it’s a good start.
