Protect your WordPress website by keeping usernames and passwords as secure as possible

At Somerset Web Services we install security software on each of our customers websites that allows us to monitor any malicious behaviour, including hacking attempts.

Fig 1 – Usernames used by hackers over a week period on one of our biggest websites

The image above (Fig 1) is taken from one of the largest websites we host, and shows the various usernames that hackers have been trying to use over a two week period.

You can see the list includes generic usernames such as “admin” and “test”. As these generic usernames are some of the first tried by hackers, we strongly recommend not creating accounts with usernames such as these.

Fig 2 -Number of IP addresses blocked from specific countries on a separate website

As well as non-generic usernames it is also important to ensure your password is as secure as possible.

One simple tip is to include at least one symbol such as an exclamation mark or ‘@’ symbol within your password.

If you’re wondering how secure your password is when facing a brute force attack, you can test it using www.howsecureismypassword.net. If you don’t already use a symbol in your password, try adding one into it and seeing how much it affects this test.

You can go further and completely generate a random password using a tool such as Cloudwards Password Generator created by the team at Cloudwards.

If you have any questions regarding the security of your website then please get in contact.