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WordPress sites under brute force hacker attacks

WordPress sites subjected to brute force attacks

Is Login Lockdown installed? — Click to Enlarge

I don’t know if you following any of the online chatter these past few weeks about the “brute force” attacks on WordPress websites, but I wanted to keep you informed on what they are and what you can do about it.

In a “brute force” attack, a hacker uses one of more computers to to attempt to crack your admin username and password. Once they have access, they will attempt to inject code to hijack your website. For instance they may inject code that will redirect all inbound links from Google, Bing, etc. to a page on which they have placed CPC ads or even computer malware to infect even more computers.

One of the best defenses against brute force attacks are plugins that limit the number of attempts a hacker can attempt before being locked out for a pre-determined amount of time. This can slowdown hacking attempts even by multiple computers.

I use a plugin called Login Lockdown to do this for me. Despite the “no recent update” warning, I use it on the latest WordPress version (3.5.1 at this time) with no problems. No sites on which I have Login Lockdown installed has suffered a successful “brute force” attack.

You can install Login Lockdown, by clicking Plugins=>Add New and type “Login Lockdown” into the search box. When it is located click “Install” and once it has installed, click “Activate Plugin.”

To determine if you have Login Lockdown installed already, check your list of Active Plugins, or see if the “Login Form Protected by Login Lockdown” phrase appears in your login box. Click the image to enlarge it.

View video on how to install and configure Login Lockdown

Another good practice would be to get rid of the “admin” user if you have one. Just login to WP-Admin, create a new user with any username other than “admin”. Then, log out, log back in using the new user and delete the “admin” user. When you have an “admin” user, you have done part of the hackers work for them as so many WordPress sites have an “admin” user.

View video on how to delete your “admin” user

I hope you choose to protect your website by making sure that Login Lockdown is installed and the “admin” user is removed. As always, if you need help with this, open a ticket at the Orange Cat Support Center.

Posted in WordPress Security | Tagged admin user, brute force, hacker, Login Lockdown, WordPress | Comments Off

Login Lockdown Can Help Prevent WordPress Hacking Attacks

The Login Lockdown Plugin for WordPress can help you thwart hackers by letting set a maximum number of time that a login can be attempted before the visitors IP number is locked out. You can specify the amount of time of the lockout, and can remove lockouts for legitimate users who were locked out in error on a case-by-case basis.

Posted in WordPress Plugins | Tagged brute force, hacker, Login Lockdown, plugin, WordPress | Comments Off

Delete WordPress Admin User for Security

Delete WordPress Admin User. If you have a user with the username “admin”, half of a hacker’s job is done for them. Make their life a little harder by replacing your “admin” with another user. Try to use a username that can’t be discerned by knowing you or reading your website.

Posted in WordPress Security | Tagged brute force, delete admin user, hacker, WordPress | Comments Off

Add New Slides to TheThe Image Slider

Adding new slides to TheThe Image Slider doesn’t have to be difficult. Just follow the instructions in this video and you’ll have your slider up in no time.

See some implementations of TheThe Image Slider on websites we’ve created recently:

Petersburg, Alaska Properties

AAA Homes Ohio – Manufactured Housing Communities

Posted in Videos, WordPress Plugins | Tagged TheThe Image Slider | Comments Off

Getting the Best Hosting Package from Hostgator

Click here to order the Best Hostgator Hosting Package

Getting the best hosting package from Hostgator

I don’t believe in putting cheap tires on a sports car. I also don’t believe in using a lightweight web hosting solution for my business. You see, I expect to succeed. So I build with the best.

I want you to succeed, too. So I want you to have the best web hosting solution you can afford.

Hostgator offers several levels of premium web hosting. Make sure you are getting the best package for your needs. That’s what this video is about.

Posted in Hostgator Hosting | Tagged best hosting package, cpanel hosting, email hosting, Hostgator, web hosting | Comments Off

Getting the Best WordPress Hosting from WP Engine

Click here to order the Best WordPress Hosting

WP Engine is a hosting company dedicated to WordPress hosting. As such, all of their engineering prowess is aimed at producing faster, more secure hosting for your WordPress-powered websites.

They offer Personal, Business and Professional level hosting packages and a 60 say money back satisfaction guarantee.

“My site loads ridiculously fast, my page views are up, and my business is seeing the results. I rest easy at night with the level of support. My only regret: that I didn’t move to WP Engine sooner.”
- Phil Simon, author of The Age of the Platform

A lot of hosting companies say they have “great support”, but few can claim that a WordPress expert will answer all your questions. At WP Engine, there’s no “first level” of support – their entire staff are WordPress experts, so you never hear “We don’t know how to do that.”

Never configure a caching plugin again. WP Engine’s architecture is hand-tuned to deliver you the fastest WordPress around. And they give you their word that they’ll never take your site offline for having too much traffic.

No more wrestling with (or paying extra for) backups! They include a one-click backup and restore option — at no extra charge. And they install WordPress security updates proactively — so you can sleep easily at night.

Befuddled by the thousands of plugins available? Not sure which theme is the best for you? WP Engine will suggest the best based on their own experiences. They love working with the WordPress community and third party plugin developers to make sure you don’t waste time trying to find that perfect plugin.

They automatically scan for, and fix, many hacking attempts on your site. Their guarantee: “We’ll do everything we can to ensure your site won’t get hacked. And if your site still gets hacked, we’ll fix it…at no additional charge to you.”

Posted in WP Engine Hosting | Tagged WordPress, wordpress hosting, wp engine, wpengine | Comments Off

Install WordPress using cPanel QuickInstall

How to install WordPress using the QuickInstall application in your cPanel

The QuickInstall application in the Hostgator (and I assume other’s) cPanel makes a fast job of installing WordPress and a whole bunch of other useful web apps to your hosting account.

It allows you to choose your admin name (avoiding the security issue that the default username “admin” causes) and creates a secure password automatically.

You can also choose to update WordPress from the QuickInstall application although I prefer to do it directly in the WordPress admin panels.

Have a look at this video and if you like it, give it a rating or a comment on YouTube.

Posted in WordPress Hosting | Tagged Hostgator, install, QuickInstall, WordPress | Comments Off

Install WordPress Using Fantastico on cPanel

Learn how to install WordPress using the Fantastico application available in most hosting services cPanel. For Professional, Dedicated, Fast WordPress Hosting for your business, see http://OrangeCat.net/go/wpe

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged cpanel, fantastico, install, WordPress | Comments Off

Need to update your own website?

What is content management?

A content management system (CMS) makes it easy for you to update your website without having to know anything about code or web development. With just a few clicks you can update articles, upload photos, change the text on your homepage, or add new products to sell on your website. If you’ve ever used web mail (like hotmail or yahoo) you already have the skills necessary to use a content management system.

If you’re interested in making changes to your site all on your own, we can set up a custom CMS for you. Just let us know what areas of your site you would like automated and we can prepare for you a free proposal.

You can use our CMS for updating any area of your site, like…

Product listings
Changing prices
News releases
Announcing events
Press releases and articles
Blog posts

Managing staff bios
Updating your homepage text
Quotes and testimonials
Updating FAQs
Real estate listings
Classifieds (autos, pets, art)

Uploading photos
Uploading PDFs, Word Docs, etc
Or ANY other page on your site.

How does it work?

Just type in your content and click save. In the above example, we’re updating a quote on a website.
When done you click ‘save’.

The content is instantly published to your site. No waiting! Updates can be done in seconds.

It takes seconds to update your site!

You can update your own website in less time than it takes for you to read this page. Your own custom content management system will give you all the tools you need to make changes on your own. If you know how to use web based email (like hotmail or yahoo email), you have what it takes to update your own site.

Make changes to any page on your website.

It doesn’t matter what kind of website you have. Whether you need to add a new article, edit a classified listing (real estate, jobs, cars), sell items on your website, or update your homepage and contact info, with your own CMS you can make all of these changes on your own.

Bold Text, Link to Other Sites, Insert Photos, Upload Videos.

A built in Rich Text Editor makes it easy to make great looking content. Bold text, italicize words, or even upload your own photos and videos.

Queue up content in advance.

Going on vacation and unable to update your site? With your custom CMS it’s no problem, simply prepare your content in advance and your website will be updated at the date you specified.

Easy and intuitive.

Everything is self explanatory. Do you want to create a new article, click on the “articles” tab, making a change to your contact info, click on “contact us” tab. Our content management system’s admin program is designed to be easy to understand, matching the navigation of your own website.

Grows as your website grows.

You never know how your site will grow, you might need to add a new section or two to your website. That’s not a problem, with very little effort we can easily customize our CMS to update new sections of your website.

Keep visitors coming back!

New and fresh content keeps visitors and customers coming back. If your site always has the same old stuff, why would anyone want to return! Using a CMS tailor made for your website you can add new content whenever you want, and visitors will keep coming back to read more.

All the control you’ll ever need. Instant updates, any time of day.

With your own custom content management system you’ll have complete control over your entire website. You can make an unlimited number of updates at any time of day (available 24/7/365), all you need is your computer and a web browser. As easy as sending an email, with your own content management system you can instantly update your website.

Ready? Contact us for a free quote! (859) 755-4115. Ask for Bob.

Posted in Do-it-Yourself Websites | Tagged CMS, Content Management System, update your own website | Comments Off