(Entertainment-NewsWire.com, October 05, 2012 ) Baltic,Ohio -- It has been shown that if not updated, Wordpress has a number of vulnerabilities that make the content management system (CMS) a prime target for cyber threats. Wordpress and similar CMS’s are a great resource for businesses and individuals alike, offering user-friendly systems to manage a website, and stylish themes to suit a variety of needs, but according to Simon Ward, creator of the blog Pingable.org, and a unique WordpressInfographic, it’s important that users of Wordpress take caution to protect themselves from cyber threats.
“Wordpress is an amazing CMS,” said Ward. “I’ve dedicated an entire blog to everything Wordpressrelated, but I do feel it’s important to educate people on the dangers and risks associated with using it. There are ways to protect yourself from these threats, and it’s important that users know about these protective measures.”
According to a brand new report on PCMag.com, some premium Wordpress themes have been found to have a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability. According to the PC Mag report, the vulnerabilities can be found in Unite, Salutation, Intersect, and Traject themes from Parallelus, and are most easily found on Themeforest.net.
PC Mag reports that despite its popularity, Wordpress has been the target of a number of attacks in the past year, including an attack on timthumb.php, a file common in premium themes that automatically resizes images to create thumbnails. The timthumb.php file opened up XSS vulnerabilities, and has since been patched, however, if users haven’t updated, they are still at risk.
According to Ward, there are some steps users can take to ensure they have a high level of Wordpress security, including: backing up regularly, keeping your Wordpress version current, keeping themes and plugins updated, using themes that come from trusted sources, and monitoring your server and user stats for suspicious activity.
“We have statistics on our blogof all of the threats that Wordpress users face,” said Ward. “For example, as of recently, there were 30 known Wordpress 3.x core securities vulnerabilities, and according to our reports, only 15 percent of users had upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress at the time of our report. That’s why we feel it’s important to get this message out to the many Wordpress users. We also offer a free Wordpress Security Infographic, which is available for download on our blog, sharing this is a great way to spread this important message to other Wordpress users.”
According to Ward, there are a number of things a hacker can do to cause problems through your Wordpress site, including executing arbitrary codes, redirecting traffic to a hacker’s site, and turning your site into a link network.
“The steps one should take to protect themselves against these threats are actually very simple, and it just means being aware, keeping your site updated and staying on top of the threats that are out there,” said Ward.
About the Company
Pingable.org is a blog dedicated to everything Wordpressrelated. The site was started in 2007 by Simon Ward, with the goal of identifying Wordpress themes, plugins, applications and website resources.
