Please indulge me in a little trip down memory lane…
Waaaaay back when, we used to clean sites by hand. Note: I have been self-taught, and I’ve never pretended to have a lot of knowledge of the server side of things(FYI – that’s even more technical than the website side of things – gah!). So, if you can believe this – I would compare each file to the infected file to see if anything was off… (picture a lot of Tylenol and head holding).
More often than not, you could tell with comparing sizes of files, or last modified dates that something was up… but I digress… the aweful good old days.
Then – da da DA! *wedding music* Sucuri walked into my life… sigh. For a simple annual fee, I can send off a site and it magically gets cleaned. Like little cleaning pixies. I ♥ Sucuri.
And being the awesomesauce that Sucuri is, they’ve agreed to give one of YOU my lovely friends, a full year of a Website Firewall – No. More. Worries!
Next, we’ll cover the Website Firewall by Sucuri deets, then today, we’re talking about upgrading. You must upgrade in the meantime. Forget meantime – ALL the time. Its essential. Like air.
I can’t really stress this enough. 99.99% of the time that I have clients (and Sucuri too – who just may have a few more than me) who are infected with malware, it is due to not upgrading old software.
There is a good rationale for this – it makes sense. But I’ll bore a family member with my excitement over technical gibberish.
Back to the awesome Sucuri’s Website Firewall giveaway:
A full year of Sucuri Website Firewall service (WAF)
With this subscription, you’ll get protection from hackers (bad), DDOS attacks (bad), SQL Injections (bad) and Bad Bots(ba…). So… greek? yes? I love these folks – they made me a picture.
Basically you’re safer AND faster.
Want it?
K. First – upgrade!
Second, enter the contest below! 🙂
Essentials of Upgrading WordPress
The biggest scariest thing about upgrading is when all hell breaks loose. The site comes down. Pieces of the site fall out of the sky and nothing is ever the same again. Unfortunately I’m not really exaggerating all that much. Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. It is not pretty when the source of our livelihood goes down and you have no idea how to fix it!
That is exactly why we’re featuring this security week on WordPress Barista. This week is to help prevent huge fails like the above. First, backup.
Now – upgrade. I know it’s scary, and yes sometimes the bad stuff does happen.
But if you delay upgrading, more bad stuff is likely to happen – like sending porn to your grandmother who reads your blog.
- It should be repeated: you backed up, right?
- Upgrade your plugins first. All of them.
- Clear the cache. Click around – everything good?
- Upgrade your framework, if upgrades are available. (If you don’t have a child theme, you may not want to upgrade – see this post on Frameworks & Child Theme FAQs.)
- Clear the cache, click around – look ok?
- Upgrade WordPress. Press the button. I’m right here. You can do it!! (Here’s my toll free number: (844) 972-9997 But I charge double on weekends so… you know… weekends are good. haha)
- Clear the cache.
Not too hairy, right?
For all things good and right, do it. Upgrades are not optional. Unless you enjoy redirecting your readers to performance enhancement products.
The details on the Sucuri Website Firewall Contest:
- The draw is Monday night, March 21, at 11:59pm.
- Winner will be randomly selected among everyone who completes the entry requirements
- See below to enter
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