Make your password UGLY and check your security.
How was your week?
Mine was scary!
What this graphic tells you is that a bunch of sites that I look after were under attack. The blue line indicates my normal activity and the red indicates the reality.
Essentially all I could do is watch…and hope that the bots that were attacking my sites didn’t gain entry.
As I posted about last week, this kind of attack is called a brute force attack and the bad guys use computer programs or bots to rapidly try a variety of usernames and passwords to try to gain entry into a site.
This isn’t really targeted – your site isn’t more special than others. The bots are just looking for a point of weakness to take advantage of.
As the sign says…PLEASE go to your site and make your password ugly RIGHT NOW!
While you are there, make sure that all your plugins are up to date, your theme is up to date, and you have taken advantage of the latest WordPress update. Everywhere there is a number in a circle pay attention to it.
When WordPress does ‘sudden’ updates like happened a week ago, there is a reason for it – please pay attention.
The other thing that you can do is make sure that your hosting company has your back. I’ve recently moved a collection of sites to SiteGround. Although their reviews are very good, I must say that my expectations have been exceeded. They are very hands on. Their chat functionality for technical help is prompt and efficient. And honestly, the true test was the past two weeks with all the hacking attempts. I felt like they were behind me helping me protect the sites.
Although there are many good hosting companies and I have sites with several, SiteGround got a virtual hug from me this week! I also have sites on InMotionHosting and they are equally good if you are looking for some hosting recommendation.
I’ve been working on some new YouTube videos. More news on that next week!
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Thank you for this serious warning. I have been changing my passwords, in ugly mode, every few months, but now will make them even more ugly, possibly monthly.