In the last week, 5 of our client sites have been broken by brute-force attacks

Hacking and brute-force attacks have been on the rise.   When your site is the target of a brute-force attack, a bot will attempt every password combination it can generate.   If you have a weak password, it can usually be cracked in under a minute.  Fix your passwords now!   Read the article about passwords, 3 Mistakes That Can Kill Your Business: Passwords, Permissions & Ownership for examples of a secure password.

What happened this week was the brute force didn’t get the passwords, but it overloaded and corrupted the user roles files.   This prevented accessing the WordPress menu or Elementor.    This was a real mess to unravel, and it took some time.  That costs money.

Fixing these sites took between 2 and 4 hours to get back online.  That’s $200 to $400.   It is also the reason that I changing and offering a new web support program in 2023.   Contact me for more details.

What You Can Do.  What You Should Do!

Without any security in place, your web hosting server (ie. website) is just hanging out on the internet.  Exposed to any hacker, bot, or bad actor that finds your site.  The most common link to log in to a WordPress site is either.     www.yoursite.com/wp-lgon
You need security and a firewall!

A firewall stops, inspects and quarantines all traffic BEFORE it gets to your web hosting server.  GoDaddy offers Advanced Security Package from $17.99/mo.   It is a proactive service that stops threats before they get to your site.   In the event, your site is hacked or gets malware, they will fix it, usually within 12 hours.

• Protects one website.
• Firewall prevents hackers.
• SSL certificate included in firewall.
• Malware scanning.
• Unlimited site cleanups.
• DDoS protection, and Content Delivery Network (CDN) speed boost.
• 25 GB of secure backup.

I STRONGLY recommend that all clients have the Advanced Security package set up to protect their websites.     If you what to get this in place, please contact me ASAP.