WordPress Simple Security — Replace the “admin” account

(Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes)

It’s easy. Here’s how…

WP comes with a default user account named “admin” which has full administrator privileges.

Remove the “admin” account to help prevent malicious hackers from ruining your website.

NOTE: AS USUAL BACK UP EVERYTHING BEFORE PROCEEDING! (Only takes a couple of minutes!)

Here’s how.

1. Login as “Admin” user.
2. Pull down the “Users” menu in administration page.
3. Click on “Add New”
4. Add a new user, set your permissions to “Administrator”
5. Save the changes, and log out.
6. Log back in as the new user.
7. Go to “Users > Authors & Users”
8. Select “Admin” user.
9. Use the pulldown menu for Bulk Actions to select “Delete.”
10. Click on “Apply”
11. You will be taken to a page that allows you to either delete all of that users posts, comments, etc, or assign them to another user. In this case, you want to assign all your existing posts from the “Admin” user to your new user, which you can do by selecting that choice, then selecting the appropriate user.
12. Press “Confirm Deletion” and you’re done.

Now, automated hacker scripts have to figure out a user name before they can even get started on cracking your password!

This procedure takes only a few minutes, and you should do it as your first security action after installing WordPress.

Tagged as: Admin user, Security