Blogging Tip: Is Your Blog Secure?

One of the problems that some blogs face, particularly if they are popular or in a very competitive niche, is that of security. This blogging tip looks at what you can do to tighten up your security.

Most security issues revolve around two areas. The first is the software itself, for most bloggers that is WordPress. Over the years WordPress has had numerous security issues which have resulted in regular updates to the software.

The second area of concern is at the server level and these blogging tips will address several of those. I know from experience that one of the regular areas to be attacked is are your data files.

Hacker’s exploit your database as the WordPress default table prefix is wp_ .You can change this to a more secure prefix in a number of ways. The most secure is probably by doing it manually. This is time consuming, but then losing your database is probaby more time consuming.

There is very good six step guide to changing your table prefix at t-dot blog – simply follow the instructions carefully and you will safeguard your database tables. There is also a plugin available, however from what I can tell, it seems to have issues for some users.

The WordPress plugin site has a plugin that may be worth looking at. It provides a broader range of security issues including removal of version numbers and file permissions. WP Security Scan  does a good job of securing your blog, however, I cannot stress enough the need to read the instructions carefully before installing and using.

Blog security is a big issue and needs careful actions. The last thing you need is to compromise your blog while trying to protect it. However, if you don’t put in place some security issues, the loss of your blog’s data can cause even bigger headaches. My biggest tip: backup regularly – daily if possible. If your security is compromised, you can at least restore from your back up.