I’ve recently just experienced something which has inundated my experience as a person who runs websites that are online. Security is a big thing and as soon as you let your guard down, there are people out there who will go out of their way to find ways to exploit websites which haven’t been updated. i.e. Easy targets
Since I’ve been working full-time, my main website armour.ws faced a few attacks from people trying to upload .html files which contained phishing websites, mainly or only to do with banks.
I first noticed this when my web host informed me and when Google also informed me. I’m not surprised at-all if they’ve penalised my website. But all that matters is that I’ve secured my website.
I’ve totally re-installed WordPress on that site, backed up everything again, looked at the MySQL database for any anomalies and I’ve started anew with the design to ensure that it wasn’t the theme/design causing any cracks in terms of security. I’ve also installed a few firewall scripts for WordPress, essentially a tool which will scan all my files for any anomalies.
I just let my guard down, stopped updating my website and suddenly I find myself being attacked. Now things should be okay, but I’ll say something, it would have been a lot easier to keep my site updated from the start. I spent most of the day making modifications, backing up, optimizing the MySQL database and changing a few aspects and fixing a few things on the website itself.
I will also stress, as would other experienced webmasters, MAKE BACKUPS constantly. You never know when you’ll need a backup to help you out of a disastrous situation.
