I have had two WordPress blogs hacked into in the past. That was at a time when I was doing very little internet marketing, and until I found time to address the situation (months later), these sites were penalised in the search engines. They were not removed, but the rankings were reduced.
Files can easily get lost if you don't have good protection on your site. A few of those files may be saved on your computer and easily replaceable, but what about the rest of them? If you lose the first time to them where are you going to get them out of again? Especially for sites that have been in business for quite a very long time, fix malware problem is vital. Long-term sites have made a number of documents and have a lot of data. Recreating all that are a nightmare, and not something any business owner wants to do.
The one I recommend, and the stronger approach, is to use one of the password creation and storage plugins available on your browser. I believe after a trial period, you have to pay for it, although RoboForm is liked by people. I use the free version of Lastpass, and I recommend it for those of you who use Firefox or Internet Explorer. That will generate secure passwords for you.
You must create a user with administrator rights before you can delete the default admin account. To do this go to your WordPress Dashboard and click on User -> Create New User. Then enter all of the information you need to enter.
BACK UP your website and keep a copy on your computer and off-site storage. For those who have a website that is very active, back. You spend a lot of time and money on your site, don't skip this! The one solution that does it all is BackupBuddy, no other plug-ins back up plugins, widgets, your documents and database. Need to move your site this will do it!
There are always going to be risks being online (or even just being alive!) And it's easy to get caught up in try this out the panic. We put the breaks on when we get caught up in the fear. This isn't a reaction. Take some common sense precautions forge ahead. It is going to have to be addressed then, if something does happen and of quaking in your boots 23, no amount will have helped. If nothing does, all is good and you haven't made yourself sick.