Hackers Target WordPress Sites: Change Your Passwords Now
Although it’s always a good idea to regularly change your passwords, it’s an especially smart idea in light of news that WordPress is under a significant attack. The brute-force dictionary-based attack is an attempt to find passwords for the “admin” accounts that WordPress creates by default, according to TechCrunch.
HostGator, which, along with CloudFlare, first broke news of the attack, believes that about 90,000 IP addresses are currently involved.
“As for the scope of the attack, [CloudFlare CEO Matthew] Prince says that CloudFlare saw attacks on virtually every WordPress site on its network.”
How To Protect Your WordPress Site From Attack
There are several things you can do to help protect your WordPress site from the attack—and we recommend doing them immediately.
Change Your Password
Even if you’ve recently changed your password, change it again—and, please, make it difficult. Use random letters, numbers and symbols to create a combination that’s hard to guess or hack.
Change Your User Name
This attack is specifically targeting accounts with the “admin” user name, so if you haven’t changed this default setting, do it now. Change it to your name, your company’s name—anything other than admin will add an extra layer of protection to your site.
Install A Plugin
Want to add an additional layer of security to your site or blog? Consider installing a WordPress plugin that limits the number of login attempts from the same IP address or network. This isn’t a foolproof method—as TechCrunch points out, many hackers have a large number of IP addresses and/or networks at their disposal. Still, when it comes to security, you can never have too much—and if a plugin gives you some additional peace of mind, we say go for it.
We recommend taking these steps as soon as you can. This initial attack may be stopped at any time, but a scary prediction from the CloudFlare team indicates that this may only be a precursor to a larger event.
“One of the concerns of an attack like this is that the attacker is using a relatively weak botnet of home PCs in order to build a much larger botnet of beefy servers in preparation for a future attack. These larger machines can cause much more damage in DDoS attacks because the servers have large network connections and are capable of generating significant amounts of traffic.”
We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the attack. In the meantime, go change your password and user name…now!
Filed under Featured Articles, Tactics and Tips, Technology news · Tagged with change wordpress user name, change your wordpress passwords, cloudflare, hostgator, limit login wordpress plugins, online security tips, protect wordpress sites, security plugins for wordpress, tech news, wordpress attack, wordpress dictionary-based attack, wordpress news, wordpress safety tips, wordpress security
Tags: change wordpress user name, change your wordpress passwords, cloudflare, DogDaz, hostgator, limit login wordpress plugins, lorian lipton, online security tips, postaday, protect wordpress sites, security plugins for wordpress, tech news, wordpress attack, wordpress dictionary-based attack, wordpress news, wordpress safety tips, wordpress security
“Come on Sofie, let’s play hide and seek!”
“This looks like a good place to hide, Louise will never find me here”
“I wonder where Sofie got to?”
“Come out! Come out! Wherever you are! Mom wants another photo op!”
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This is a blog hop. I hopped it from Snoopy’s DogBlog. Check them out for more mischief.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤ 
Tags: Animal, animals, blog hop, dog, DogBlog, DogDaz, Dogs, funny dogs, lorian lipton, Mischief Monday, Pet, pets, postaday
Tags: Animal, animal awareness, animals, Bird, birds, Blog, DogDaz, lorian lipton, nature, postaday, puffin
This is part of the Black and White Sunday Blog Hop. Thanks to My Life in Dog Years for hosting. Click here to get to know other wonderful animals and their parents and to see how you can take part in this fabulous blog hop!
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animals, Black and White Sunday, blog hop, Cat, cats, DogBlog, DogDaz, Dogs, kittens, lorian lipton, Pet, pets, postaday
Tags: Animal, animals, cute dogs, Dog People, DogBlog, DogDaz, Dogs, funny dogs, lorian lipton, Pet, pet blog, postaday
OK all you exercise fans, this is the Noel catisthenics class.
Catisthenics are a form of exercise consisting of a variety of simple, often rhythmical, movements, generally without using equipment or apparatus done by a cat. (sorry Wikipedia)
First we S T R E T C H…..
Then we stretch some more….
you get the idea.
Class dismissed!
I can not imagine a life without cats.
Just another CATDogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animal awareness, Cat, cat bed, Cat People, cats, caturday, DogDaz, lorian lipton, Pet, pet blog, pets, postaday
Go Home, Lil’ Baby
Spring/Summer hit the Mid-Atlantic big time this week. So the girls and I were down by the water a lot. The week started out with all this very terrible squirrel activity, and my little murderers monsters sweet doggies were not aware of the havoc they reeked for their tired sensitive animal loving Mom. I find it interesting that we brought squirrel baby #2 to the park to find a safer nest and ever since then Sofie has refused to walk to the park with me. Maybe she does not want to bump into the baby she almost killed. (I am only just now thinking of that).
I haven’t been blogging about Sofie’s difficulties this week, but I have posted them on Facebook. Do you follow DOGDAZCATS2 on Facebook? It is nice to also have that avenue to actually have conversations with other pet lovers outside of just the comments in a daily blog post. Please do come visit our page and LIKE us so that we know who you are and we can LIKE you back. A ‘Like’ in Facebook, is a ‘FOLLOW’ in WordPress.
Sofie has refused to walk down the block to the park. She started this on Monday. She gets half way down the block and sits down (little stubborn Sheltie thing that she is) and wants to go home. It has gotten hotter and hotter each day, but I don’t think that is it because if it was that bad outside, I would not have gone for a walk. We even walked with Mojo (her buddy). But no go!
The interesting thing is she will take the similar distance walk in the other direction, to the river. Go figure? Is it the baby squirrel sending psychic messages to turn back?
I started her on 50 mg of Benadryl (antihistimine) just in case it is allergies (1 mg for every pound of dog the vet says).
Thank you Readers for liking the games we play down by the water, especially when we found Lucy, our neighbor’s Jack Russell Terrier at the dock hiding in a boat.
I am sorry to report that my stupid state of Maryland was not able to agree on the bill that would have saved many Bully Breed and Bully-Mix owners from having to possibly give up their pets because of Breed Discrimination in the state. It was all because of one sentence that the Senate and House differed on. I am just appalled and ashamed at the things that lawmakers sometimes do.
Dean Russo Art
My step-daughter lost her best friend’s 18-year-old brother on Wednesday in a car crash with 3 other boys. The cause – excessive speeding. Please remember that nothing is worth driving that fast for. Speed kills so many people, animals, and ruins lives forever. Talk to your kids, today! And talk to yourself too!
That’s it for the week. Thanks for playing along with us.
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Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog.Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animals, Award, Benadryl, blog hop, Bully-Breeds, cats, cute dogs, dean russo, dog, Dog People, DogDaz, Dogs, Facebook, Follow Up Friday, Friday, Jack Russell Terrier, Maryland, Pet, pets, Pitt Bulls, postaday, Wordpress
Tags: Animal, animals, DogBlog, DogDaz, lorian lipton, mice, mouse, Pet, pet blog, pets, postaday, Rodents
Thank you ‘Oh Great Powers That Be’ for the flowers. Mom says she would like a few days of spring weather, if you could arrange it, instead of straight into summer temperatures, but we are thankful for what we can get.
This is part of the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop from PepiSmartDog.com
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animal awareness, animals, cute dogs, dog, dog rescue, DogBlog, DogDaz, Dogs, Gratitude, happiness, lorian lipton, PepiSmartDog.com, Pet, pet blog, pets, postaday, Thankful Thursday Blog Hop
Although it’s always a good idea to regularly change your passwords, it’s an especially smart idea in light of news that WordPress is under a significant attack. The brute-force dictionary-based attack is an attempt to find passwords for the “admin” accounts that WordPress creates by default, according to TechCrunch.
DogDaz Zoo 