If you’re here its likely you’re wondering how to secure a WordPress site. And rightly so. WordPress now runs 40.2% of all websites, and 58.8% of every site whose content management system can be identified – which is exactly why it remains the internet’s biggest target for hackers. In just the first quarter of 2026, Wordfence’s firewall network alone blocked 9.1 billion firewall attacks and 16 billion brute-force login attempts, with 474,000 sites showing signs of infection. W3Techswordfence
The good news: most WordPress hacks are preventable. In this guide, we’ll cover how sites actually get hacked in 2026, the 10 essential steps to lock yours down, and what to do if the worst happens.
What Is Website Hacking?
Website hacking is when someone accesses your website, server, or data without permission. The most common techniques haven’t changed much in principle, even as the tools behind them have got sharper:
- Phishing – tricking users or admins into handing over login details.
- Brute force & credential stuffing – bots automatically trying thousands of username/password combinations.
- Malware & malicious code injection – infecting site files with harmful scripts.
- Exploiting known vulnerabilities – targeting unpatched plugins, themes, or WordPress core.
- Unauthorised links & spam injection – hijacking a site’s authority to boost illicit content elsewhere.
How Common Is WordPress Hacking in 2026?
Because WordPress powers such a large slice of the web, it’s a high-value target for automated attacks – most of which aren’t personal; they’re opportunistic bots scanning for known weaknesses. A few numbers put the scale in perspective:
- Wordfence’s network blocked 16 billion brute-force attacks in Q1 2026 alone, a 15.3% jump on the previous quarter — brute-force activity is accelerating, not slowing down.
- Security researcher Patchstack found 11,334 new vulnerabilities across the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, a 42% increase on 2024, with 4,124 of them (36%) posing a genuine, exploitable threat.
- The overwhelming majority of these vulnerabilities sit in third-party plugins and themes rather than WordPress core itself – which is exactly why the software you bolt onto WordPress matters as much as the CMS itself.
How Do Hackers Actually Get Into WordPress Sites?
Vulnerable plugins and themes
With tens of thousands of plugins available, quality and update discipline vary hugely. Abandoned or poorly maintained plugins are the single biggest entry point for attackers, since a flaw in one plugin can expose every site running it.
Weak or reused passwords
Brute-force and credential-stuffing attacks rely on people reusing simple, guessable passwords across multiple accounts – one leaked password elsewhere on the web can become the key to your WordPress admin.
Outdated WordPress core and PHP versions
Every WordPress release patches known vulnerabilities. Sites left on old versions remain exposed to issues that have long since been fixed – this is precisely what happened to Reuters’ WordPress blog, which was compromised while running years-old, unpatched software.
Supply-chain and update-based attacks (an emerging 2026 trend)
Patchstack’s 2026 research flags a notable shift: rather than dropping a standalone malicious file (which scanners catch easily), attackers are increasingly injecting code directly into legitimate core, plugin, and theme files during compromised updates – making traditional “scan and delete” malware removal far less effective than it used to be.
Why WordPress Security Matters More Than Ever
A hack doesn’t just cost you data; it costs you trust, revenue, and rankings.
- Reputation damage – a hacked site serving malware or spam links to visitors damages brand trust quickly.
- Search visibility loss – Google can blacklist or de-index compromised sites, and rebuilding lost rankings can take months.
- Regulatory pressure is rising – under the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act, every commercial WordPress plugin sold to European users will legally require a vulnerability disclosure programme from 2026 onward, putting more scrutiny than ever on the software running your site.
- Downtime and recovery costs – cleaning up a hack, restoring backups, and notifying affected users all take time your business doesn’t get back.
How to Secure a WordPress Site: 10 Steps for 2026
1. Keep WordPress, themes, and plugins fully updated
This remains the single most effective defence, since most exploited vulnerabilities target software that’s already been patched. Updates can affect core, theme, and plugin compatibility simultaneously, so it’s worth having specialists manage them. See our WordPress maintenance service for how we handle this without breaking your site.
2. Choose a secure, WordPress-specific host
Your host is your first line of defence – look for a provider offering firewalls, malware scanning, automatic patching, and secure file transfer as standard. Solve’s green hosting is not only better for the environment, but it also includes a hacking guarantee. If the unlikely happens, we fix it free of charge.
3. Take automated, regularly tested backups
Backups are your insurance policy – if everything else fails, a clean backup is what gets you back online quickly. A solid backup strategy follows the 3-2-1 rule: at least three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with one kept off-site (away from your live server, so a server-level compromise can’t wipe your backups too).
For WordPress specifically, that means backing up both the database (posts, pages, users, settings) and the file system (themes, plugins, uploads) – a database-only backup won’t restore a site that’s had malicious code injected into its files. Daily automated backups, retained for at least 30 days, are the standard for anything beyond a personal blog. As part of Solve’s hosting package, we back up sites daily and store 30 days of history off-server, so a hack costs you hours, not months, of lost content and trading time.
It’s also worth testing your restores occasionally.
4. Run on HTTPS with a valid SSL/TLS certificate
Beyond encrypting data in transit, HTTPS has been a confirmed Google ranking factor since 2014 – running without it costs you both security and search visibility.
5. Install a Web Application Firewall and security plugin
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) filters malicious traffic before it ever reaches WordPress, blocking common exploit patterns, malicious bots, and known attack signatures in real time. Wordfence is the most widely deployed option and runs as a plugin, giving you firewall protection, malware scanning, and login security together.
For an extra layer, a DNS-level firewall (like Cloudflare) sits in front of your entire server, filtering traffic before it hits your hosting environment at all, and adding DDoS mitigation and CDN caching as a bonus. Running both a DNS-level firewall and an application-level (plugin) firewall gives you defence in depth: one blocks broad, server-targeting attacks, the other catches WordPress-specific exploit attempts that get through.
Good hosting should already include firewall protection as standard – it’s one of the things to check for when choosing a WordPress-specific host, rather than something you have to bolt on yourself.
6. Use unique, strong passwords everywhere
Every admin account should have a unique, generated password stored in a password manager – never a variation of your business name or a sequential number string.
7. Restrict user roles and permissions
Not everyone touching your site needs admin access. Assign the minimum role needed for each person’s job and reserve Administrator access for the few who truly need it.
8. Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA)
Even if a password is compromised, 2FA stops attackers from getting further by requiring a second verification step, typically a one-time code sent to a trusted device.
9. Limit login attempts and avoid predictable login URLs
Capping the number of failed login attempts blocks brute-force bots from working through password lists unchecked, and moving your login page off the default /wp-admin path removes an easy automated target.
10. Monitor continuously with malware scanning and vulnerability intelligence
Point-in-time checks aren’t enough anymore – services like Patchstack track newly disclosed plugin and theme vulnerabilities in near real time, so issues like DDOS attacks can be patched before they’re widely exploited.
What Happens If Your WordPress Site Gets Hacked?
A hack can affect your business in several ways at once: malware served to visitors damages trust and can trigger browser warnings; unauthorised links associate your brand with illicit content; and search engines may blacklist or deindex your site entirely, sometimes taking months to fully recover rankings even after the issue is fixed.
How Do You Fix a Hacked WordPress Site?
Cleaning up a hack properly means more than deleting an obvious malicious file. Given the rise in code injected directly into legitimate files, a thorough website audit of core, theme, and plugin files is essential to ensure nothing’s been missed. It’s best left to specialists: Solve’s team investigates the root cause, restores your site from clean backups, and hardens it against repeat attacks.
Get Expert Help Securing Your WordPress Site
Website security is an ongoing discipline. If you’d rather hand it to specialists, Solve’s WordPress maintenance and green hosting packages keep your site updated, backed up, and monitored around the clock – with a hacking guarantee built in. Get in touch to talk it through.
How to Secure a WordPress Site and More FAQs
Is WordPress secure by default?
WordPress core itself is actively maintained and patched quickly when issues are found. The bigger risk sits in the plugins and themes site owners add on top – which is why regular updates and careful plugin selection matter more than the core software itself.
How do I know if my WordPress site has been hacked?
Warning signs include unexpected admin WordPress users, unfamiliar files in your plugin or theme directories, a sudden drop in search rankings, browser security warnings, or your site redirecting visitors elsewhere. A malware scan is the fastest way to confirm.
Do I still need a security plugin if my host offers security features?
Yes – hosting-level security typically covers the server, while a plugin like Wordfence protects the application layer (logins, forms, known plugin vulnerabilities). The two work best together, not as substitutes for each other.
How do you prevent a WordPress site from being hacked?
The most effective prevention combines several layers rather than relying on one fix: keep WordPress core, themes, and plugins fully updated, use strong unique passwords with two-factor authentication, install a firewall (both DNS-level and a WordPress security plugin), take daily automated backups, and choose hosting that includes basic security monitoring as standard. No single step makes a site “unhackable,” but stacking these layers closes off the vast majority of attack paths bots and hackers actually use.
Can I password protect a WordPress site?
Yes – WordPress lets you password-protect individual pages or posts natively (via the visibility setting in the editor), which is useful for staging sites, private client previews, or gated content. For protecting the whole site, most hosts offer directory-level password protection, or you can use a plugin like “Password Protected” to require a login before any page loads. This is different from securing your admin area, though – page-level password protection controls who sees your content, not who can access your WordPress dashboard, so it’s not a substitute for strong login security.
How do you know if your WordPress site has been hacked?
Common warning signs include: an unfamiliar admin user account you didn’t create, unexpected files appearing in your theme or plugin folders, a sudden or unexplained drop in search rankings, browser warnings flagging your site as unsafe, your site redirecting visitors to unfamiliar domains, or a spike in outbound traffic/emails you didn’t send. A malware scan (via a security plugin or your host) is the quickest way to confirm – if you spot any of these signs, it’s worth having a professional audit the site rather than just deleting the obvious symptom, since 2026’s attacks increasingly hide code inside legitimate files rather than adding new ones.
What are the most common security issues in WordPress?
Based on 2026 vulnerability data, the leading issues are: vulnerable or abandoned third-party plugins and themes (the source of the large majority of reported vulnerabilities), weak or reused passwords enabling brute-force and credential-stuffing attacks, outdated WordPress core or PHP versions left unpatched, excessive user permissions (too many accounts with admin-level access), and a growing wave of supply-chain attacks where malicious code is injected into legitimate plugin updates rather than added as a separate file. Plugins remain the single biggest risk factor by volume – which is why update discipline and careful plugin selection matter more than almost anything else on this list.
