Blogging Can Give Your Business A Boost – Until You Get Hacked

We have often proclaimed the benefits of blogging on our humble blog. We have also written numerous posts on keeping your blog software up-to-date. If you are running a WordPress blog, these last couple of days have made this all the more important.

There is what I have seen described as a ‘worm’ wandering through the blogosphere looking for WordPress blogs that are out of date and showing security vulnerabilities. This particular threat creates an Administrator level account of its own that is hidden from view. You cannot see it. The worm then modifies the URLs of your content.

The Admin level account is the real worry. In theory, the worm owner can access your WordPress control center, delete all your user access, then proceed to publish whatever content they want. It hasn’t happened yet, but the potential is there. What is crazy about these sorts of attacks is that it isn’t against ‘you’ as such – your blog is just a means to an end.

There is a very good post by Lorelle on her blog titled “Old WordPress Versions Under Attack” – it is well worth the read and there are plenty of references that will enable a follow through on what to do if you have been attacked, and what to do to prevent any future attacks.

It should be noted that all versions of WordPress up to 2.8.3 are vulnerable. Version 2.8.3 was released to deal with these attacks and it appears to be safe – for now. Ensure your blog software is always up-to-date and while you are at it, make sure you regularly change your password. See it as being a part of your reputation management program.

Blogging is great for your business, however, if your blog is hacked, it could be used to create a completely negative image for your business. Stay up to date and protect your business.