I was skimming through my Google FeedReader the other day and read an excellent article by Jeff Starr of Perishable Press which showed us how to create a very simple plugin to help protect our WordPress sites from malicious WordPress crackers.

He found this code in the pastebin repository, a site where people who write computer code can come together and help one another.

A dead giveaway that someone is trying to hack into your blog is when you see terms like the following being used:

• base64()
• eval()

The plugin shown below will attempt to block such requests. So with that, let’s get on to the tutorial.

The How-To Video

Remember you can click the “full view” button to see it a little better.

Step-by-Step

Step1: Head over to Perishable Press and copy the code Jeff shows us by clicking here (link opens in a new window).

Step 2: Open a text editor and paste the code in. Be sure to save the file as a .php file (for example, block-bad-requests.php).

Step 3: Zip up the file you just created using a zip program like WinZip or the zip utility that comes with Windows.

Step4: Upload, install, and activate the plugin.

Quick, simple, and effective.

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Keeping a recent backup of your blog is a mandatory step for bloggers. Set this plugin up to email you a copy of your database at least once a week. It’s good practice to keep database backups for at least 1 year.

Related posts:

1. How To Backup Your WordPress Database Using phpMyAdmin
2. How To Set Up Multiple Installs of WordPress To Share One Database
3. How to Fully Backup Your WordPress Blog at WP Blog Host