At IM NewsWatch we can really use WP 1-Click Login. Here’s the background: About 30 times every day a hacker tries to login to our admin panel using the user name “admin” or one of the names they see as an author of a post. So we have locked the login process tightly. If you enter the wrong password twice in a row, your PC is locked out for 60 days. That keeps hackers out (so far, at least). The problem is that we aren’t great typists. Even though we are legitimate users, we have gotten locked out ourselves multiple times. What a pain! And how much time is wasted trying... [...]

Marshal protects your site from threats like hacking, data theft, and ever-evolving legal and privacy requirements. It can make your websites virtually impenetrable while ensuring 100% legal compliance. You don’t have to be a tech genius to use it; it’s simple for anyone to use. With Marshal, you can ➤ FORTIFY your websites against all forms of hacking, defacing, and data theft to safeguard your online assets and reputation. ➤ ACHIEVE full legal compliance with global laws like ADA, GDPR, and more, eliminating the risk of costly legal issues and lawsuits. ➤ BOOST your search engine... [...]

WP Secure. was launched earlier this week. It protects your site from people trying to hack in. That’s important because 170,000 WordPress sites were hacked last year, and many hackers got inside the site and took over control. 🚫 41% were hacked via their hosting provider’s flaws 🚫 29% were hacked via a vulnerability in the WordPress theme they were using 🚫 22% were hacked via a vulnerability in a plugin that was installed on WordPress 🚫 8% were hacked because they used a weak password for administrative userids. (“Admin” is the default WP administrative userid... [...]

Being careless about your security can cause your downfall. Unfortunately, according to the Ponemon Institute, 73%+ of website owners are doing the same to their business, with little or no security in place. The door is wide open to hackers. Is your site one of them? The sad truth is that you’re never too small to get hacked. But there are answers to the hacking epidemic. Since 2012, Matt Garrett has been developing and refining his BlogDefender software that protects WordPress blogs from hacks and malware. Each year or so, he presents a refined version with new sophistication and adaptations... [...]

We just noticed (a little late) that effective October, 2017 Google has taken action to build a more secure web by using their 50% share of the browser market to warn their Chrome customers whenever they visit a site that doesn’t have an SSL certificate. Fortunately, it didn’t impact us because we have had an SSL certificate for tears, but you might not be so lucky. Most people get worried when their browser warns them about a site they are visiting. They may choose to go elsewhere for their purchases. The warning only is shown on pages where the visitor can enter information, so squeeze... [...]

In the last day or two, there has been an announcement by security boffins that the implementation of Wi-Fi security protections in many devices has been not quite as secure as it needs to be. As one reviewer puts it, it has been discovered that there is ” a fundamental flaw in the way Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) operates.” In the online article Everything With Wi-Fi Has a Newly Discovered Security Flaw. Here’s How to Protect Yourself, Time magazine describes the problem, “In some cases, a hacker could exploit KRACK to inject malware such as ransomware into websites,... [...]

All sites have some risk of hacking, but WordPress sites are especially prone to hacking because they are all, by default, organized the same way so crooks can write software to explore the site, mine its data and plant malicious code. That’s a problem because, right now, your site may be at risk. But you can make your site an exception, making it hard to hack by not using the default behaviors, instead changing your site in ways hackers aren’t prepared for. WP Total Audit not only shows you how to harden your site, it also includes a WordPress plugin you can install to automate most... [...]

Google wants you to be ‘HTTPS’, a secure site. Secure sites are critical to visitor safety, and Google wants to only send traffic to safe sites. If you want to continue getting traffic from Google you need to make sure you can show people (and Google) an HTTPS URL. If Google says your site’s not secure, how will your visitors react? Naturally, you will see lost visitors and lower conversions. This is an urgent problem because beginning in January 2017, Google Chrome starts adding warning labels for any websites asking for passwords and/or credit card information without having... [...]

WordPress is a popular platform for blogs and other websites. That’s because it’s so easy to use. People have flocked to this quick way to build and maintain a site, but this popularity has it’s dark side, too. So many people, all using the same online software, form a big target for hackers. When they find a vulnerability in WordPress, they have a million websites where they can exploit that vulnerability. So WordPress site owners need to be especially vigilant to avoid having their site taken over by hackers. Even sites owned by governments, sites that we might rightly consider... [...]

These are scary and they are real threats to your site: • Hackers • Botnets • Malware • Code Injections • SQL or XSS attacks. Technology experts are warning us about the risks to our site integrity and even survival if the bad guys get into our site’s back office. And unfortunately, WordPress (and the many plugins and themes we add to it) are particularly at risk. If you have a WordPress site, you need to be aware of the potential for hackers to use inherent weaknesses in poorly written add-ins and in WordPress, itself, to infiltrate your site. You need to take explicit... [...]