There's a lot of new WA members over the past couple of days (including me!) and a lot seem to not know much about Wordpress or websites in general. Overtime I'm going to post some hints and tips as and when I come across them/remember them!

Wordpress is a very popular blogging and now CMS (Content Management System) platform, but  popularity brings a darker side of life and hackers do like trying to get into Wordpress blogs.

2 simple ways to help combat this are:

Update often!

Whilst updates to wordpress and the plugins can sometimes break a theme, they bring with them much needed upgrades and security fixes. Look for the little circleswith numbers in on the left hand navigation bar in the Dashboard. Don't forget to back up your files before updates!

Dont be an Admin.

When you first set up a wordpress blog your username is usually Admin and this is what hackers (especialy the 12yr old variety) tend to look for first. By creating a new user and giving it admininstration rights and then reducing the original Admin users rights to 'subscriber' or 'no role for this site', you will effectively mess with a potential hackers head. They hack your admin user but have no power to DO anything!

Little things like this can help protect your site.

Please note! I have only used self hosted Wordpress setups, not the WA version and their version may differ in respect to users. If you're using WA and are unsure, it's best to ask the admins here.