Harden Your Defenses Against Computer Viruses

Ouch, guess what happened to a friend’s website last week? That’s right, a malware attack. After frantic phone calls, emails, consulting, hosting complaints, and 12 hours of rolling up the sleeves and digging in, we managed to eradicate the javascript virus off the host server, then harden the website against future attacks.

What a time wasting, emotionally agonizing, hair pulling frustrating, and money zapping costly nuisance. Something I wouldn’t want to wish on any of my enemies. Yet, that is what some deviants love to do, to earn a buck and exercise power over others. Like a B Movie nightmare, spaghetti space western, they play as cyberspace bandits preying on Google god fearing, “domain settlers” seeing what chaos they can rustle, “just for fun”.

More insidious than an infected computer, able to leap tall firewalls in a single bound, malware on a host server, not only affects your website, but it can potentially harm many, many computer users and their machines. Not to mention lost traffic to your site because; you’re either blocked, or simply down.

How do I protect my website from a malware attack?

Here are a few rules of thumb, as it pertains to WordPress:

• Delete most, if not all, unnecessary themes not used off your site.
• Make sure all of your Plugins & Widgets come from trusted sources.
• Ensure you use the most up to date versions of WordPress, and plugins.
• Turn off “allow comments” on pages and posts you don’t require user feedback on.
• Use Askimet & Captcha to battle against spam bots.
• Employ Bullet Proof Security, or other security plug-ins to harden against unwanted file modifications.
• Access your sites, only on machines you know are regularly scanned and protected from viruses.

If I missed an approach or strategy, please comment back to let me and our audience know.

Unsure if you’re computer or website is adequately protected? Contact me via phone:  919-523-4185  or, email:  bob@seoforhighranking dot com.