The increasing cases of cyberattacks pose a big problem for website owners and online businesses. While most websites face threats in the form of ransomware, viruses, malware, phishing, and DDoS attacks, hacking through brute-forcing passwords remains the main reason for data theft. Verizon’s 2020 data breach investigation revealed that over 80% of data breaches occur through hacking involving brute force or the use of stolen or lost credentials. And since WordPress is the most commonly used content management system, WordPress sites are an attractive target for hackers looking to exploit its vulnerabilities. Here we talk about brute force attacks and the role played by WordPress hosting plans in preventing them.

What are Brute Force Attacks?

These attacks involve continuous forceful attempts to gain entry into private accounts. The method involves the use of different passwords or encryption codes until the right one is found and stealing the data or content from that account. These attacks are generally carried out through the use of a large network of computers called botnets or through the WordPress XML-RPC files. The success of these attacks depends on websites having weak or easy passwords and is often followed by the distribution of malware or phishing attacks. Successful attacks allow the hackers to:

• Place spam ads on popular websites
• Reroute traffic to illegal commissioned ad sites
• Infect a website and its visitors with malware to track activity and then sell the data to advertisers.
• Get access to critical data and misuse it.
• Ruin a company’s reputation

Tips to Protect Your Website from Brute Force Attacks?

To ensure the safety of the personal information and other critical data stored on your website, you need to put in place extensive security measures. Other ways to protect your website include regular malware checks, daily backups, and using a managed hosting service wherein the hosting provider takes full responsibility for securing your site. Some tips to safeguard your website:

• Restrict the number of login attempts that a user can make
• Banning a User’s IP after multiple failed login attempts
• Regular checking of log files to identify suspicious login attempts.
• Allow only a few people to have root access.
• Set up a two-factor or multiple-factor authentication
• Putting up a firewall and installing a VPN gateway to broker all RDP connections from outside the local network
• Encrypting all data being exchanged.

While these security measures are a must for any website to protect its data and content from different types of security threats, many businesses do not have the time and the knowledge to implement them. Such situations require that these websites go for managed hosting services. The managed WordPress hosting plans include special plugins like Jetpack which work to protect your website from brute force attacks. These plugins have a protection feature that helps in preventing unwanted login attempts or attacks that may slow down or shut down your website. Other features like activity logs and continued monitoring for downtime help in the early detection of problems and their quick resolution.