Common Attacks on WordPress Websites

We have come a long way since the beginning of the internet in the late 1900’s and it has been progressing rapidly. But this journey of development has had its ups and downs which still persist in the form of common attacks on various domains and websites.
WordPress Websites are not new to the dangers such as a SQL injection attack, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks and many other similar malicious programs about which we are going to discuss in the latter part of this article.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an online, open-source website creation tool written in PHP. Well! In a non-geek language; it is probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (CMS) in existence which gives you an admin panel that is an all in one place to manage different kinds of aspects of WordPress websites.

What are the common WordPress Attacks?

SQL Injection:

SQL stands for Structured Query Language which is a special programming language used to manage databases. A SQL injection is an attack that makes it possible to enforce malicious SQL statements which are capable of controlling a database server behind a web application.
It might be used to gain unauthorized access to your sensitive data: customer information, personal data, trade secrets and much more. Furthermore, it can be used for authentication and authorization of a web page and can also be used to add, modify, and delete records in the database.

Cross-site scripting (XSS):

It is similar to SQL injection except it targets the Java Script elements which have access to all the objects that the rest of the web page has access to, like cookies through which access to user information can be gained. Even a legitimate web page or web application like eBay can be targeted through XSS attacks.

Command Injection:

With a command injection attack, a hacker will enter malicious information in a text field or URL, which is similar to a SQL injection. The only difference is that the code will contain a command that only operating systems will recognize, such as the “ls” command. If executed, this will display a list of all files and directories on the host server. Certain internet-connected cameras have found to be especially vulnerable to command injection attacks.
But thanks to the all-new security plugins that provide a few easy ways to tighten your WordPress security.
You know what they say “With the colossal sense of (online) writing opportunities, comes the obvious fear of attackers”, which could put your content on the verge of exploitation. But if there are attackers, there exist defenders too in the form of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) that monitors network traffic for suspicious activities and issues alerts when such activity is discovered.
And that’s where we talk about Hide My WP security plugin for these kinds of vulnerabilities. It provides a Secure Host and a Firewall platform that can either be run from a local server or managed through a cloud hosting environment & also hides your WordPress from attackers, spammers and theme detectors.

It offers SSL encryption and other forms of security protection along with keeping themes and plugins Updated. Besides this Hide my WP is also a lockdown against Brute Force Attack which is basically searching for thousands of different password combinations and until it stumbles across the right one to make it worthwhile.

After all, it is your reputation lined against all vulnerabilities. And Hide My WP is definitely an effective method to start with, that can yield impressive returns by leaving hackers thwarted.