2nd Plug-in to Install - WP Security Scan

I stumbled upon a nice list of security plugins for WordPress. The second plugin I’m going to install comes from this list by Speckyboy.

WP Security Scan

I typed just “WP Security Scan” into the Easy Plugin Installation field and it worked great.

Now that it is loaded, there is a “Security” next to the “Comments” on the top links.

Clicking it I find that I should NOT have used wp_ as my table prefix. I can see how changing this would make it harder for hackers to identify WordPress table entries.

I clicked the “Click Here” to change it. I’m told to make a backup of my database but since this is my sandbox, I’ll just go as it is. I typed in my change then hit “Start Renaming.”

Ouch, it kicked it out saying “Your User which is used to access your Wordpress Tables/Database, hasn’t enough rights( is missing ALTER-right) to alter your Tablestructure. Please visit the plugin documentation for more information. If you believe you have alter rights, please contact the plugin author for assistance.”

I think I will do it from my database control panel. Humm, not so easy to do. I’ve read the documentation but for the color blogs, it might be just a quick to re-install them where I change the prefix from the beginning.

He also suggests getting rid of the admin so brute force attacks can’t use that username. I had already moved away from admin but did not think to delete the admin.

It is also telling me that I don’t have a .htaccess file in the wp-admin. I have now read that having this is like another layer of firewall to keep bots from attacking your blog. I found the plugin AskApache Password Protect and I’m going to install this to see if it will create this extra layer of protection.

Thanks to WP Security Scan I will be reloading WordPress for my top color blogs and will be renaming the prefix!

EDIT: NEW INFO

I crashed the Sandbox!!! Good thing I had it! I activated everything in the WP Security Scan and it did NOT like it. Something caused the database to deny me access. I’m re-installing the WordPress setup and will see if I can at least get some of it to work.

I can’t get things working again. I’m going to have to go to my ISP with my tail between my legs and have them reset a few things.