Passwords, Attacks, and Security oh my!

Michele Butcher-Jones 
CantSpeakGeek.com
Passwords, Attacks, and
Security oh my!
http://mlb.pw/wcchi16 @michele_butcher

Michele Butcher-Jones
• Support Rocketeer at WP
Rocket
• Director of Awesomeness at
13Core
• Writer of all the things at
CantSpeakGeek.com
• Beginners and Intermediate
WordPress Instructor
http://mlb.pw/montreal17 @michele_butcher

Why is security important?

Many do not think security is
important until it is too late.
Every single day hackers ﬁnd new ways to get your information.
Todays features are tomorrow’s vulnerabilities.
Stop them before they stop you

Why do hackers hack?
• Make bank
• build a zombie
army
• Share their nasty
code with the world
• Get your
information
• They are bored
• They want to see if
they can do it

But…Why are they hacking
me?
There is rarely ever a targeted hacking attack.
Typically all sites are considered targets. The
big and the small.

And how do they get in?
• They guess your login information
• Denial of Service Attack (DDoS)
• Through a ﬁle in a theme, plugin, or anything on your
server where they found an exploit
• Through your FTP and/or cPanel conﬁguration

Here is the only scary thing I
will say in this talk

You are NEVER
100% secure

A test site or a site that might get
5 visitors a day can be hacked.
It happened to me and it can happen to you.

Don’t Let
Security Make
you like this guy!

There are some simple steps
to keep the hackers out

WordPress Security Basics
101

Never ever never use “admin” as a
username or “password” as
password. NEVER!!!!
Any questions?
Adm1n and Pa55w0rd do not count either!

Always use SFTP
“S” is for safe!!!

Only give users the access
they need
Just because they want to be an admin does not mean they should.
Guest bloggers should rarely every be anything more than a contributor.

If it is a temporary login, delete
the user when the job is done
If they do have posts, you can convert them to different users or make them a
subscriber with limited access.

Set up ﬁle detection
Many security plugins like iThemes Security and WordFence will alert you when
ﬁles have been changed

Only keep the theme you are using
and one backup theme on your
site.
The more themes that are on a site, the more open chances you have to a
vulnerability

Only keep the plugins you
have active on your site.
An uninstalled plugin is not a potential vulnerability.
Use the plugins repo favorites option to keep a list
of your favorite plugins

Security Plugins
• iThemes Security (Free and Pro version)
• Sucuri Firewall
• WordFence Security
• Jetpack with Brute Protect and Vault Press
• SecuPress

Always make backups!
• Backup Buddy, UpDraftPlus, BackWPUp
• Always save to someplace OTHER than your server
• Save them to Dropbox, AWS, email, or your local
machine
• Have them scheduled to be made daily or at least
weekly

Malware Scanning? Do I
need it?
• Google Webmaster Tools 
• Sucuri Scanner 
• VirusTotal
If you feel your site could be infected, ﬁrst do
a malware scan

What else can I do to protect
my site?

Update!
Update!
Update!
Update core. Update themes update plugins!
The biggest reasons of updates is typically security or feature related.
The biggest source of nearly all hacks is due to lack of updating.

If you use Envato products (ThemeForest
and CodeCanyon) always check the box in
the downloads to be notiﬁed of updates.
That is the only way you will know if any of their
products need to be updated.
This is why the RevSlider infection was so widespread.
Many did not even know the plugin was built into their
theme.

Don't ever let your site get
too lonely.
That is when the zombies come.  
Nobody wants the zombies to come

If the unthinkable happens and you
do get hacked, it is not the end of
the world.
It can and will be ﬁxed.

Who can clean my hacked
website?
Sucuri 
SiteLock 
Hack Repair 
Wp Security Lock

Great! Are there any other
ways I can be secure?

Always use complex
passwords

Never email passwords

Never use the same
password twice

Use a Password Keeper
• Last Pass
• One Password
• KeePass

If a login has a Two-Factor
Authentication, USE IT!

Anti-virus!
Use it on all the things.
Yes, even a Mac!

Be conscious when using
public WiFi

Use a VPN if you use Public
WiFi
• Torguard
• Cloak (Mac only)
• Site Social
• Hide My Ass

Update!
Update!
Update!

Back everything up and back
it up often!
No one wants to lose their information
stored on their computer.
• Bitcasa
• Caronbinte
• External Harddrives

Questions?

Thank you!!!
Michele Butcher-Jones
@michele_butcher
Slides can be found at http://mlb.pw/montreal17

Passwords, Attacks, and Security oh my!

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