The thing I hate most…

There are many things that are unpleasant about the world we live in, and I’ll admit, I can ignore a great deal of them…but one thing I absolutely loathe is what I call “web evil.”

Not the Droids You Want to Be Looking For

Hackers create “bots” (not the friendly R2D2 variety). These are the tiny automated programs designed for nefarious purposes: bringing websites down, hacking and gaining access to sites, embedding commands into sites, malware, to name a few. They replicate like a virus and wage war in large numbers to bring a site to its knees.

As a developer, I spend a LARGE amount of time dealing with this issue every year…and, it SUCKS.

Protection You Must Have

Fortunately, there are groups of programmers out there who, like Jedis, use their powers for good. One such company is WordFence. It’s a security plugin for WordPress sites that affords a great deal of protection against my aforementioned website maladies. It employs many of the same techniques the hackers use to create a virtual “shield” against them. If your site is hit by one of these bots trying to gain access, it locks them out and alerts the “network”, so other sites block the same bot.

Wordfence also allows us to block countries known for their hacker-havens to be blocked from even seeing a site–a really effective technique–they won’t damage what they can’t see.

Most mornings, I start my work-day with the various alerts I get via email showing me that WordFence is quietly doing it’s job…kind of like a friendly R2 unit, protecting your site(s) from harm.

While no plugin does it all, the WordFence plugin has become a staple in my arsenal, in fact, I no longer just suggest it–I now require it. It’s very cheap “so I can sleep at night” insurance.

The internet is a full of great potential and power, but sometimes the darker side takes hold, and we employ methods on behalf of our clients to fight the forces of evil.

Want to know more? Give us a shout!