We help our WordPress clients be more secure by ensuring they’re using Strong Passwords.
Designing and building great WordPress websites for our clients is what we specialise in, but that isn’t where we stop. We also offer ongoing support and maintenance. One issue we’ve encountered more often than we’d like is where a user has reset their password to be something really unsecure, like “abc123” or using the word “password“. This creates a security risk for the website as user accounts are more likely to get hacked when not using strong passwords.
According to a 2011 study, the average person uses 10 online passwords a day, and most often the passwords they use are something like the name of a pet (12% of people), their date of birth (10%) or their mother’s maiden name (9%). That means around 31% of all internet users have weak passwords, and that’s not counting the various other weak password patterns people tend to use.
As responsible WordPress website designers, we’ve already done a lot of work on ensure the websites we build have good security, and we also try to ensure all potential users are well trained on keeping the site secure, but all it takes is one person to forget and the security risk is back. Because of this, we’ve started to use a WordPress plugin called “Password Policy Manager“.
As the name suggests, this plugin enforces users to set and use a strong password. If a user tries to set a simple and easy-to-guess password like “password123” or “123pass“, the plugin won’t allow it, and will only let them proceed once they’ve created a password that is strong and secure.
It might not be the biggest or most impressive thing you can do to secure your WordPress website, but making sure that your users are using complicated and strong passwords is a necessary step to enhance website security. And it’s one that your client will thank you for when their website remains secure and online.
If you’ve got a WordPress website that you’d like secured, get in touch as we offer a full security review and upgrade of existing WordPress websites. Alternatively you can call either our Bristol office on 01761 690019 or our Taunton office on 01823 765171.