Terri recently sent me an email and wanted to know some precautionary steps as well as advice on how to keep WordPress safe from being hacked. Terri also wanted to know the differences in security between a self hosted version of WordPress versus the security risks of using WordPress.com

I have been doing a lot of research about the pros/cons of different blogging platforms and CMS. At the same time, I have come across a lot of information related to WordPress sites being hacked and other security issues. When I read about the pros/cons of self-hosted vs hosted solutions for blogs, it is interesting that I don't read too much about security vulnerabilities being a huge disadvantage to using a self-hosted solution. How concerned should bloggers be about being hacked? Is the threat big enough for someone not to choose WP as a blogging platform or CMS? Besides backing up your database (which could be infected also) and upgrading WP to the most recent version, what other precautions should you take to keep a WP blog safe? Also, I heard that the upgrades that WP makes makes it more open to attacks. Your thoughts?

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