OK, a very simple measure and it is quite easy in actual fact to work out that you are using WordPress, but there are reasons for this very simple security change.

In short, does your blog very proudly display somewhere, probably in the trailer, ‘Powered by’ (or whatever) WordPress? If so, then straight away hackers know what system you are using and any potential weaknesses that it might include. Worse still is if your theme displays in the comments what version of WordPress you are using!

OK, it is easy for someone to work out that you are using WordPress – they just look for the wp-admin directory! Unfortunately, there is currently little you can do about this (WordPress does not allow you to move the admin directory, which would be a great security measure!).

If it is so easy to work it out, why is displaying the message a problem? Well, quite simply, because attackers can search on the powered by message to find blogs using WordPress that they can attack! If you display the message then they can come across your blog and start to put your defences to the test. If they never discover your blog, then they cannot attack it.

So, how do you remove it? Very simply go to your theme editor, look in your footer and find the code! If you look at the footer and find that it is encoded, then all is not lost. Just open your blog and look at the source code (for example, in Internet Explorer View then Source). Now look at the main index file in your editor and look down to the last few lines of the code. Have a look at these and identify them over in your blog’s source. The code that appears after them is your trailer code. Copy and paste that into your trailer code, remove the powered by line and save it and check your handywork!

You might also like to check your header in case it is displaying the version of WordPress you are using. Not too much of an issue if you are using the current version, but why give attackers any more information than you have to?

Want to know how to do these or other security considerations? Come back again, or follow the blog security tag.

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