Tag - WebsiteSecurity

Uptime Robot - Know When Your Website Goes Down

Uptime Robot – Know When Your Website Goes Down

Web servers are not perfect and they crash. I use InMotion Hosting for my web servers and they guarantee a 99.9% uptime... it's not 100%. Yesterday InMotion was having some data center issues and I knew about it within a minute of the servers going down because of a great tool from Uptime Robot. Their free plan will ping your website every 5 minutes and you can add up to 50 websites. If you need more monitors or want them to ping your website more often, they offer very competitive pricing.

If you have a website you should use Uptime Robot. Knowing there's a problem is step one to fixing it. If you need website, graphic design or marketing services, please contact me today.

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What to do if your email server gets BLOCKED

What to do if your email server gets BLOCKED

Let's say you have an employee that wants to send out a promotional email to thousands of customers using their company email address. They send it out and a day or two later you start noticing that you're sending emails but they're not being delivered. Perhaps you're receiving bounce emails saying your server is blocked or clients are saying they're not receiving your emails. The reason... SPAM. If you have to send an email to a large group of people I recommend using a service like MailChimp. Anytime you send a promotional email you are REQUIRED to have an unsubscribe link so customers can remove themselves from your mailing list. If you don't include that a customer can report your email as spam and start a chain reaction that's tough to stop.

Spam is a big problem. We all get it and it's really annoying. When you're the one sending the spam the internet has many tools to make sure you never send an email again. If someone marks an email from you as spam in Gmail that doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up on a block list, but if multiple people in a short period of time mark your email as spam you can be in big trouble.

The Internet has numerous Domain Block Lists (DBL's) that keep track of spammers IP addresses and domains. Block Lists are lists of IP addresses that have been reported and listed as “known” sources of spam. There are public and private blacklists. Public blacklists are published and made available to the public—many times as a free service, sometimes for a fee. There are hundreds of well-known public blacklists.

To get off a block list, or more typically multiple block lists you have to use some tools to find out who is blocking you and why. Below are some of my favorite tools to scan your domain name/IP address to see if it's being blocked.

Depending on which block list you're on the removal process varies. It's best to first figure out who is blocking you and follow their instructions to remove you from the list. In addition to intentional spam you may end up on these lists if your server is improperly configured or even hacked. I use RBLmon to regularly check my email servers and my clients' servers to ensure I stay ahead of the issue should it ever arise.

Is your email server getting blocked? I've been through this process before and I've helped many clients get off these block lists. Contact me today and I'd be happy to help you get your email server off these block lists and keep it off.

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Keeping WordPress Secure

Keeping WordPress Secure

Occasionally I'll get a question from a client asking if WordPress is secure. If properly maintained and monitored, WordPress is one of the most secure CMS (Content Management System) platforms available. With that being said, if not properly maintained and monitored WordPress is currently the most popular target for hackers. WordPress powers over 30% of the ENTIRE internet and 60% of CMS powered websites use WordPress. For hackers it's simply a game of numbers.

WordPress MUST be Updated on a Regular Basis

If you don't update your WordPress website on a regular basis, or monitor its security, there's a good chance it will get hacked. I update my clients WordPress plugins on a daily basis. A little tool called MainWP makes that an easy task for me since I manage a lot of WordPress websites. I'm able to login to one place, scan my managed websites and update everything with the click of a button. Plugins are a source of many security vulnerabilities within WordPress installations. WordPress plugin updates often contain security-related fixes. When a plugin developer discovers a security flaw and pushes an update to fix it, the hackers take note. Hackers use scripts that are constantly scanning the internet for known vulnerabilities.

WordPress Security Monitoring

My favorite tool for monitoring the security of my WordPress websites is Wordfence. Wordfence is a great firewall with a ton of options and also has a malware scanner. I always like to show my clients their "Live Traffic" feature that shows every single IP address that tries to access your website, what they were trying to access and where their IP address is located. In the past 24 hours, I had IP addresses from the Philipines, Hong Kong, Russia, France, Turkey and India try to probe my website for various vulnerabilities. This happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The WordPress Login Page is the Most Popular Target

The WordPress login page located at /wp-login.php is the most popular target for hackers. There are numerous ways to combat this. Wordfence allows you to limit the number of login attempts before blocking an IP address. I set that number to 2. They also allow you to immediately block any login attempt with an invalid username. It's important to create a username that can't be easily guessed (and NEVER use admin). Once a hacker has your username they will use a brute force attack that will keep trying to login to WordPress with different passwords. In addition to using Wordfence, I limit access to the /wp-login.php page by IP address. If your IP address doesn't belong to me or my client, it will get blocked. This can cause some issues when trying to login from a new place, but I've found that minor inconvenience is overshadowed by the high level of security it provides.

Is Your WordPress Website Secure?

Is your head spinning yet? I just touched on the basics of WordPress security. If your website is not being properly managed or maintained contact me today and I can get you back on the right track.

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