We need to give a freelancer abroad access to one of our shared webhosting account’s Cpanel so that he can install and customise a Wordpress website.
To protect our security, is it possible to do this without giving him full access to all our files and databases in Cpanel? How would we do that please?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
I don’t think that this is possible.
Good luck.
He doesn’t need access to CPanel to do that. He just needs an FTP login so that he can upload the files, and perhaps a login to the WP admin area once it’s online. For the most part, he can customize the files on his own PC before uploading them.
Thanks. You make a good point and are spot on when it comes to a new Wordpress site.
I should have explained that this is not a new Wordpress site, but an existing one, that is being migrated from another webhost. So we have a ZIP and SQL file, with the database in it. Therefore I presume they would need access to the Cpanel rather than being able to set things up via FTP or within the WP admin area?
Thanks again for the advice.
Yes, I guess so, unless you import the site yourself. CPanel has some features that are supposed to mek it pretty easy to import a site from elsewhere. I haven’t tried it, though.
Hmm… I’ve never looked much into this, but if you give someone FTP access to your account, in theory they could gain access to all the files under your account via a PHP script.
In other words, have a backup of all your files ready, just in case, and always hire the services of someone you feel you can reasonably trust. Perfect trust doesn’t exist, not even among the closest people. That’s why you always hear of cheating spouses, children killing parents, etc. It’s all unfathomable… before and even after it happens. 
I’d also change all the passwords as soon as he’d finished working - but then, I’m paranoid.