29 Jun 2023
- Protecting Your WordPress Admin from Bots
- Why Do We Secure WordPress Admin Against Bots?
- Why It’s Easy for Bots to Launch Attacks on Your Admin
- How Can I Secure the WordPress Admin Panel Against Bots?
- Help! I Receive Daily Email Notifications That My Admin Is Under Attack?!
- Want to Ensure Your Admin Is Secured
Protecting Your WordPress Admin from Bots
Your WordPress admin area needs to be protected against bots. Many people are unaware that even the website of a hairdresser or a baker receives between 100 and 3000 bots per day.
Each bot may vary in sophistication, but you want to deny access to all of them. Block them.
The admin area, usually located at /wp-admin or /admin, is the backdoor to your website that is intended only for you as the administrator!
Why Do We Secure WordPress Admin Against Bots?
- Bots Install Backdoors
Bots are often clever enough to activate a file upload plugin and thereby place backdoors on your server, or they can simply inject them through the theme/plugin editor. - Bots Insert Unwanted Advertisements
It takes a bot just 1 minute to add links to shady webshops on every page of your website.
This can harm your Google reputation. - Bots Insert JavaScripts
With a simple line of code, your pages can suddenly redirect to shady webshops or other websites that you usually want nothing to do with. - Bots Create Administrators
Bots usually create an administrator account and remove the others, preventing you from accessing your website to remove the unwanted advertisements from your pages.
Bots are pre-programmed to perform as many tasks as possible and to continue using your website as long as possible through hidden techniques.
Bots, or viruses when they spread to other sites through your website, are harmful to your website. They are harmful to your visitors and your revenue. It costs money to clean your website from bots.
In short, you must keep bots out of your admin panel at all times.
Why It’s Easy for Bots to Launch Attacks on Your Admin
Every admin panel worldwide is located at the website address /admin, wp-admin, or wp-login.php.
Furthermore, many admin panels are not secure. Bots can launch thousands of attacks unnoticed without brute-force protection.
Okay, okay, we understand that securing the admin against bots is crucial!
How Can I Secure the WordPress Admin Panel Against Bots?
Use a Configured Security Plugin
Use one security plugin, not three! More is not better in this case because they all store IP addresses and other information in the database. Multiply that by 100-3000 IP addresses (from bots) and then multiply it by three security plugins.
So, use one security plugin and configure it properly.
Limit Login Attempts?
Secure the WordPress admin with Limit Login Attempts.
It’s a good idea, just review the settings so you won’t be overwhelmed with notifications.
iThemes, WordFence?
You can use them too, as they provide many additional security options that can be overwhelming.
Free versus Premium?
In most cases, the free versions of the mentioned security plugins are sufficient.
Is premium better?
In certain cases, premium plugins can block bots BEFORE they launch attacks based on firewall rules. This is better if you have a large website, a corporate website, or an online store.
Help! I Receive Daily Email Notifications That My Admin Is Under Attack?!
If you are sure that you have properly configured the security plugins, you can often disable those notifications. Otherwise, you’ll receive emails about brute-force attacks, bots being blocked, etc. all year round.
Want to Ensure Your Admin Is Secured
Against Bots?
Then please contact us. We secure and maintain WordPress websites on a daily basis.
