This is a new type of post here at Genesis Blogging…. a Cross Blog 
Conversation with my friend Kelly McCausey. I am one of the speakers at Kelly’s Hot Seminar Series, where I will be speaking about WordPress Security on June 30, 2010.
Okay – so to start off this cross blog conversation, Kelly asked me this question on her blog:
Traci, if there’s one thing I’ve come to know it’s that you are passionate about blogging. You love to blog yourself, both personally and professionally and you love to teach others about getting started as a blogger.
WordPress opened so many great doors for us as web publishers and I know we both love that it makes it easy for others to get started with websites. I spend a lot of time singing the praises of WordPress as do you.
But since you’re going to be talking about WordPress Security at the Hot Seminar Series, it’s pretty obvious that using WordPress has some important issues attached to it that most casual users aren’t aware of.
Would you mind sharing a little glimpse into your upcoming seminar?
What is it about security that you really want us to think about?
Thanks, can’t wait to read your response!
Hi Kelly -WordPress is definitely amazing software. I believe it’s revolutionized how we use the web – not just as web site owners, with ease in updating our site content, but also for site visitors now being able to comment on our content. Love that web 2.0 communication!
What I would like everyone to think about regarding WordPress security is: need.
Do you really need that new plugin or do you really need to install another WordPress theme? Quite often security loopholes are found within the things we add to WordPress, not just WordPress itself.
Don’t get me wrong, I love plugins and themes – but when selecting anything to enhance WordPress, there one main criteria to check:
Is the developer still around and updating the plugin/theme to make it compatible with the latest versions of WordPress. If not – pass on that plugin or theme. This is critical!
So Kelly, my question to you is;
Have you ever had one of your blogs, or one of your client’s blogs or the blog of anyone you know ever been hacked? If so, did you learn how or where the hacker got in?
Can’t wait to read your response!
To YOUR Success,
Traci
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I’ve never had one of my blogs hacked, but I do know of a couple of bloggers who have (of course that was 3 updates ago). I think whenever a platform is as popular as WordPress, you are going to have some security risk, but that is true of most any software — even Apple’s OS isn’t quite as safe as the media-driven hype would have us believe. Still, pound for pound, WordPress is the best CMS out there right now. No other platform can compete with its pricetag (free), the number of plugins, features, etc., and its out-of-the-box functionality.
Very true John. Any site or system could get hacked – so always best to take security measures to try and stop that.