Preventing possible security issues by redirecting your "Author" name to your "About" page.
During my time in WA several people have suggested that I remove all traces of the "Admin" account from my website, or at the very least to strip that account of any real powers (i.e. give it only subscriber powers). This is to make it harder for people to hack into your account. Since they already know that "Admin" is the username, all they need now is to come up with the password for that account.
I tend to agree with this line of thinking and have created a new account name for my website, then created a new password, and finally created a nickname which is the only thing people can see when viewing my site.
OK, so far so good.
BUT, I recently noticed that when I clicked on my author name for any articles I've written at my site, it took me to an "author" page. This page lists all of the articles written by this author (me).
I had two issues with this.
Issue #1 ... I'm the sole author at my site. Why do I need people to be directed to a page of articles that I've written when the menu at the top of the page does the same thing?
I don't.
Issue #2 ... and this is the biggy. I noticed that when clicking on my author name, at the top of the page in the address bar, it read:
www(my site name).com/author/(username)
It showed my new username!
Now if you remember the beginning of this article, we don't want that showing for fear of hackers.
So after a little poking around with our friend Google I came up with a good answer, and the way I think it should be straight out of the box with WordPress to begin with .. (but that's just my opinion).
When someone clicks on your author name, they should be directed to your "About" page.
To accomplish this simply go to WordPress > Appearance > Editor > Theme Functions.php.
and add in this small piece of code.
add_filter( 'author_link', 'my_author_link' );
function my_author_link() {
return home_url( 'about' );
}
If you do this please make a backup of your .php file first, just in case you make a mistake!
I hope this helps anyone else not aware of this issue.
Recent Comments
2
Hey there,
Thank you for letting us know as I had not seen that but now I will make a point if checking it out.
What I do is at the bottom of each article, I sign my name and always link it back to my About Me page.
I will definately apply your suggestion. :-)
Hello Annick :)
Then you're probably fine. What I was referring to and perhaps not being clear enough was after I make a new post, just above it it gives the date published, author's name and "leave a comment". That is the author name that I had issue with.
It's possible that it's theme specific but I kind of doubt it.
Thanks for your comment and good luck with your site. :)