It is frustrating to find out that your WordPress site has been hacked, recently one of our customers asked us why do hackers target WordPress?
The answer is usually, in part at least, due to the very reason that WordPress is such a popular content management system for websites, its active developer community and the volume of free plugins and free themes available to customise your site without the need for a web developer or professional web designer.
Some WordPress users are afraid of updating their WordPress sites. They fear that doing so would break their website, with a professionally built website using stable plugins this should never happen.
Each new version of WordPress fixes bugs and security vulnerabilities. If you’re not updating WordPress, then you are intentionally leaving the front door open to hackers and making your site vulnerable.
If you are afraid that an update will break your website, then you can create a complete WordPress backup before running an update. This way, if something doesn’t work, then you can easily revert back to previous version.
Just like the core WordPress software, updating your theme and plugins is equally important. Using an outdated plugin or theme can make your site vulnerable.
Security flaws and bugs are often discovered in WordPress plugins and themes, as they are in any software – those Windows and Mac updates, and even the updates you receive to your iPhone or Android device – they usually contain fixes for security problems and bugs. Usually, theme and plugin authors are quick to fix them up. However, if a user does not update their theme or plugin, then there is nothing they can do about it.
If you only take one thing from this article then make that that one thing that you should always keep your WordPress theme and plugins up to date. And if you can’t, we can help you with that with our WordPress maintenance services.