Expert urges WordPress users to consider security

WordPress users should ensure they take some basic steps to safeguard the blog publishing program from hackers, it has been suggested.

Writing in his Guardian technology blog, the newspaper's technology editor Charles Arthur said the content management system is now "widely used", heightening the need for bloggers to consider its security.

He claimed that turning off "user registration" is one of the simplest and most effective ways of "hardening" WordPress hosting - essentially shutting external users to your database.

In addition, Arthur suggested that by using the recently-released WordPress Exploit Scanner plugin, web managers can highlight any suspicious code in their files.

"It will also look through your posts and users to see if there's anything suspicious about them," he added.

Finally, Arthur urged users to install a different WordPress theme and delete the default, as this could potentially be hiding "a stack" of hacker pages.

Earlier this month, Joseph Cefoli of the Fairfield Mirror explained how WordPress hosting helped him successfully redesign the newspaper's website.

Written by Chris Ball