Brute Force (1947 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wordpress Users Under Attack

Recently, Wordpress, an extremely popular blogging site, has undergone a major spike in brute force attacks that threaten to either penetrate the site or bring it down. At the very least, these brute force attacks have caused access issues for Wordpress users.

Brute force attacks are a simple but effective hacker onslaught against weak user names and passwords. Accounts most vulnerable to these last attacks were the ones using "admin" as a user name and those with the simplest passwords, such as "12345."  The brute force attack employs software that floods the login with various combinations until it hits on a correct one. 

These attacks allow the hackers to gain access to specific accounts and also, by the sheer number of login tries, lock up or bring down the site. 90,000 Wordpress blogs were hacked and then used as part of a "botnet," a collection of accounts that are used to further attack the main site

Wordpress bloggers who want to keep their accounts safe need to generate user names that are difficult to guess and that have nothing to do with their own names or the names of their blogs.  Also, the passwords need to be just as complex and also have nothing obvious about them. This extra effort pays off in safeguarding their blogs and in protecting the entire Wordpress network.

Brute force attacks are not sophisticated, but they are effective.  They will remain a problem until users make their accounts more secure.  Wordpress users, in particular, need to take care at this time.

Securing Your WordPress Site by Preventing Brute Force Login Attacks