One Of My WordPress Sites Was Hacked- And I Thought It Would Never Happen To Me

I thought that bloggers who did not use WordPress as their preferred publishing platform due to security risks were a little paranoid, I was wrong. In fact I was proven dead wrong the other day when one of my websites was hacked. As much as I like WordPress, I think the dislike is growing stronger with every passing day.

This is particularly troubling because in my case it was one of those “good hackers”- unfortunately unlike Ray, I am not too interested in updating my WordPress just yet. It all looks way too suspicious to me. I know that I am being paranoid, but I can’t help but suspect “the most important Matt on the web” and his companions to have something to do with it.

I am not sure if this recent hack was related to vulnerability of wp-config.php file, but according to Dane, by default, WordPress becomes very attractive to hackers. Dane also gives a solution of how moving some sensitive info out of your wp-conifg.php file can improve your WordPress security.

I recommended Dane’s blog to my readers on several occasions, he is a true master of “WordPress Troubleshooting”- and his solution for wp-config.php file is quite brilliant. Thanks Dane!

25 thoughts on “One Of My WordPress Sites Was Hacked- And I Thought It Would Never Happen To Me”

  1. Hey Vlad, thanks for linking and helping to call more attention to this whole issue. Mark and Dane make great points about the vulnerabilities of wordpress. I've been thinking about this for a while and I've decided to not use wordpress for any of my other sites. It's just too much work to keep up with updates, security, comment spam, etc. It's much easier to put together websites with a little bit of html or php, etc. WordPress is a great piece of software, but it's often way too much for simple sites.

    Also, there's no question that being a big player does draw more attention from bad guys. Who has time to keep up with being constantly attacked? That's why I prefer to use macs and linux for real security.

  2. Ryan,

    Thanks for stopping by. I envy you guys, or anyone who can write a piece of software. Fro rest of us we have to use what is available for free. But I agree with Dane that WordPress is the best you bang for the buck.

    I think my problem for not updating regularly is due to the fact that I have modified this theme quiet a bit and am using number of plugins. So every time there is an update I wonder if things will be compatible. So I taking Dane route- and will try to become minimalist- less plugins.

  3. Hey Vlad, thanks for linking and helping to call more attention to this whole issue. Mark and Dane make great points about the vulnerabilities of wordpress. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I’ve decided to not use wordpress for any of my other sites. It’s just too much work to keep up with updates, security, comment spam, etc. It’s much easier to put together websites with a little bit of html or php, etc. WordPress is a great piece of software, but it’s often way too much for simple sites.

    Also, there’s no question that being a big player does draw more attention from bad guys. Who has time to keep up with being constantly attacked? That’s why I prefer to use macs and linux for real security.

  4. Ryan,

    Thanks for stopping by. I envy you guys, or anyone who can write a piece of software. Fro rest of us we have to use what is available for free. But I agree with Dane that WordPress is the best you bang for the buck.

    I think my problem for not updating regularly is due to the fact that I have modified this theme quiet a bit and am using number of plugins. So every time there is an update I wonder if things will be compatible. So I taking Dane route- and will try to become minimalist- less plugins.

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