Lock WordPress With Your Phone

In case you haven’t heard, there has been a brute force attack on a plethora of WordPress websites.  If you’re a business owner who uses WordPress to build a fantastic looking website, you owe it to yourself to stay protected against mass attacks such as the current one.  You, or a member of your staff, has probably spent countless hours perfecting the way it operates and enabling the ability to be paid on the fly.  Let’s take a very quick look at how your smartphone can protect you and your business from being vulnerable to a global WordPress attack.

Installation

Google Authenticator generates 2-step verification codes on your phone. Enable 2-step verification to protect your account from hijacking by adding another layer of security. With 2-step verification signing in will require a code generated by the Google Authenticator app.

– Google

The first thing you need to do is pick up your smartphone and download the Google Authenticator app.  It is available for both iOS in the App Store and Android’s Play Store.

Unfortunately the official app is not available for Windows Phone, but thankfully an Authenticator app has been developed and can be found in the Windows Phone Store.

Set Up

The Authenticator App serves as an added security measure to keep your important data protected.

After downloading the application, you need to install the Google Authenticator plugin for WordPress, which currently has a 5 star rating.  Open up the application on your smartphone, open up the options menu and select set up account.  The WordPress installation should provide you with a QR code to scan that will instantly add the account to your phone.

That’s it!  Your WordPress login should appear like the screen below.  The authentication prevents anyone from logging into your website since your phone is needed to enter the second password, which changes every 60 seconds.