3 Tips to Hack Proof and Hijack Proof your Blog

My friend Reg’s blog got hacked — fortunately he didn’t lose any data, although he lost a lot of sleep and probably hair I’ll guess.

Did you know there is more money in cybercrime than the illegal drug trade? And many cybercriminals would love to hack any established blog or Website?

Here are three things you NEED to do to protect your blog!

1) Choose a good password and CHANGE it regularly.

What’s a good password? No dictionary words, certainly no words or phrases remotely connected to you like your favorite sports team, your daughter’s name, or your blog’s name either!

Ideally, I suggest a combination of letters, numbers, and at least one non alpha-numeric character. Preferably something you can remember easily but that no one can guess easily. Be creative! For example, Ba!dP0pe was something I used once that I could remember easily (note it contains not just letters and numbers and non-alpha numerics, but capitals and lowercase too — a good thing).

Despite what most “security gurus” tell you, you CAN write down your password if needed as long as you keep it safe and treat it like a credit card. For example keep it in your wallet or purse, and if it gets lost change it immediately.

2) Back up your content regularly.

Just in case! Backing up your ’stuff’ is critical, because you never know what may happen.

One entire blog network disappeared because they didn’t have good backups . . .

Check out your blog platform’s help for backing up your content — most have pretty simple steps documented.

3) Update your Blogging Software regularly.

if you have your own Web server with blog software installed on it, for example WordPress.com, MoveableType or ExpressionEngine, update it regularly.

Updates typically fix bugs and known security flaws the bad guys know about. Note that If you are using a hosted solution like TypePad (recommended), Blogger (OK), or WordPress.com (good), they update the software themselves.

Will this actually hack proof your blog? No, but it will make it much less likely that you’ll get hacked, just like if you’re a safe driver it’s much less likely you’ll have an accident.

I could go on almost forever since I’m a security guy, but these three tips will make you MUCH less likely to get hacked and extremely inconvenienced or worse!

About the Author

And for over 100 tips on successful blogging, I invite you to grab your free copy of my ebook “Secrets of Successful Blogging” at http://www.secretsofsuccessfulblogging.com

By Ted Demopoulos, author of “Blogging for Business” and “What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting”