“We Are Under Attack!!!”

That is what the orcs will shout (in their very unique husky and grunty voice) when the enemies attack their orc base in Warcraft 3.

That is also my topic of this post:

“WAUA!!!”

No I’m now screaming about the attack on my blog. I have this good mindset about threats and attacks: I don’t panic. I am also not feeling kawawa or wawa (poor victim in loose filipino translation) in this situation. I think I survived the onslaught of the attack and to spread some good vibes why not share some useful tips here at menardconnect.com 🙂  OK enough of the intro. Let’s get it on:

Late last month, this blog experienced some form of attack from malicious actors who-must-not-be-named. We all know I’m using WordPress, and some dudes out there are trying to login to this blog’s WordPress administration panel and do some brute force attack on  guessing my password. Simply put, this means some bad guys (I will collectively call it hax0r) are trying to pretend to be me (me, the website blog admin) and try to get into the wordpress admin console so that they can control the website and blog. More basic info on brute force attacks here.
I will not delve into the technical details of the attack , but in tradition of my good old free six video and free six series, here are six easy to-do tips and tricks that users/admins can do to prevent or better prepare themselves (blog owners) against these WordPress WP-ADMIN Bruteforce attacks.

1. Update your WordPress core files as soon as possible
Just like any software, WordPress have its own security flaws and it needs to get updated from time to time. Admins are advised that they should always update WordPress to the latest version, for more info on this go here. When a new version of WordPress is available admins will receive an update message in your WordPress Admin consoles.

2. Update your WordPress plugins too
Just like the wordpress core files, plugins needs to get updated too. If your blog relies on many plugins, do not worry because when a new version of WordPress plugins are available you will also receive message in the WordPress Admin console that its time to update. There are also automated update settings if you want to try it out.

3. Do not use Admin as the username of the administrator account.

Yes the hax0rs are trying to login via the “admin” username, but as a basic security practice, I disabled it every time create a wordpress blog. I suggest the you be creative. Use NIMDA instead!

4. Do not use your name as the blog admin username account
This piece is quite a revealing one, the hax0rs are trying to get in via the username menard. My name is public info in this blog, so they are clever and they tried it too. But luckily I did not use that name so I avoided that loophole in this admin account issue.

5. Discard unused wordpress themes and plugins
If you are not using the wordpress themes and plugins, do not keep it.  Delete it asap. This one caused me some issues several years ago, but my advise here is if you are not using any theme or plugin that theme or plugin should be deleted ASAP because these are like low hanging fruits for attackers.

6. Have good WordPress security plugins installed
Just like security softwares (antivirus, antimalware, anti-threat) for your PC, Macs, iPads, smartphones and other devices, wordpress blogs needs some security tools too. There are some good free wordpress security plugins that works well but I will try to share two: Login Lockdown and Sucuri .

Login lockdown locks the admin console after several failed attempts, a good old trusted plugin. A recent good addition to my security plugin arsenal is Sucuri Security- Auditing, Malware Scanner and Hardening, a free plugin and it has helped me detect this attack. How? See this…

 

So I’m giving the good folks at Sucuri some love link here in my blog. Kindly go visit them at Sucuri

That’s all for now, i will try to share other tips in the future. Hope you liked my free six tips and tricks to combat WordPress Admin Brute-force Attack