Why Hackers Target WordPress

In this week's episode we discuss how the threat from hackers and bad actors has filtered down to smaller companies. What used to be a concern only for the big guys and e-commerce folks has become a real threat to small business and not just e-comm.

Simply put – because it’s easy and WordPress is used everywhere.

 

In this week’s episode we discuss how the threat from hackers and bad actors has filtered down to smaller companies. What used to be a concern only for the big guys and e-commerce folks has become a real threat to small business and not just e-comm.

 

That brochure-ware site you have is at risk. As Christian and I discuss, most of the time attacks and infections of malware go unnoticed.

 

Click here to see an infographic on how to know if you’ve been hacked.

 

In just a single attack, according to WordPress security firm WordFence, 1.6 million domains experienced 13.7 million attacks in just 36 hours.

 

For small companies the dangers might not be very obvious. One thing we are seeing frequently is hackers hijacking a web server and using it for SPAM. This causes your domain to get blacklisted and you disappear from Google.

 

Another thing that is very common is that hackers take over your site and post inappropriate or offensive content instead of your content.

 

Other attacks include ransomware (holding your site hostage unless you pay), DDOS attacks (distributed denial of service) where thousands of bots attack your site and bring it down.

 

Most often, small companies don’t just lose face. They lose the investment they have in the website itself. It’s an expensive lesson we hope this episode helps you avoid.

 

“But wait…” you say. “We backup our website on a regular basis…” That’s a very good idea, however if you are attacked and don’t notice right away (and chances are you won’t) restoring from a backup just restores the malware or virus.

 

WordPress has fairly well known vulnerabilities and some that aren’t well known – except to hackers. We will soon be rolling out a proprietary version of WordPress that is 99.99% more secure than regular WordPress. The good news is, it doesn’t cost extra.

 

We want your investment in your website to last for years. Contact us if you are interested in learning more about TuffSite™ – it’s WordPress – but better.