Today on the podcast I'm asking, "is your blogging software up to date?" Just click the "There's More" link below to read the show notes. [-MORE-]
Show Notes:
Is your blog safe? Find out out right after this
Welcome to Blog Oklahoma
Is your blogging software up to date?
If you're hosting your own blog, that's a question you should ask yourself regularly.
It seems every so often there is a new round of security fixes in one form or another for WordPress, Drupal or any other package software you may have used.
If you are a hosted service like Blogger or WordPress.com, you may feel you don't need to worry about security updates. Well you should. Take WordPress.com for example. If they find a security bug in WordPress code, you want to make sure they've update their hosting software.
If you don't keep an eye out for updates you're at risk of getting hacked. You risk for loss of data, vandalism, or at the very lest Spam.
I myself am not immune from this. I am shamed to say my own blog ProgramWitch.com was hacked. I had what is called an SQL Injection Hack. Its a flaw in both ASP, SQL and my own damn fault in lazy coding. The hacker in question attacked through a page I had put up over 2 years ago and forgot about.
Luckily it was a minor nuisance and have since recover my data, and patch the hole.
And just so you know, I've taken what I've learned from this and made fixes to all my other web sites, including Blog Oklahoma.
I had never heard of an SQL Injection Hack until it happened to me. Since then, I've tried to stay on top of security news, and learn what I can to prevent it from happening again. Sometimes I fail as to what to my own web site, but I take what I learn, fix it, and go on.
So how do you stay on top of things?
1.
Subscribe and read regularly the blogs by your software provider. They will often tell you about the latest updates, news, patches or the latest security warnings.
2.
Subscribe to at least one tech news service. Even if you could care less about tech, at least keep an eye on the news. CNET is a good example.
3.
Listen to security podcasts. One podcast I can highly recommend is the Security Now podcast by Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte. You will learn more about security than you would ever need or use. But they have covered everything from personal computer firewall to, yes, even SQL Injection hacks.
4.
If you modified existing software or wrote your own blogging software. Take the time to go back over your own code. Trust me I've learned the hard way, go review your code and lock that sucker down.
AND 5.
and probably the most important. Backup, Backup, Backup, and Backup your data regularly.
Now it may sound all doom and gloom from this podcast. But don't fret.
If you are using a hosted service like Blogger, LiveJournal, Tumblr, or WordPress.com. You will rarely to almost never ever be hacked.
And to those of you hosting your own blog. You may be never ever hacked either.
Just some of us are the unlucky ones to have some piece of scum with nothing better to do visit our web sites.
Just keep an eye out. Keep informed. And don't make it easy.
If you have any questions about this, just ask. There are several ways contact me. Just visit BlogOklahoma.com and you'll find them.
If you would like to share your own security tips, please go to BlogOklahoma.com find the post for this podcast and leave a comment.
The whole reason for Blog Oklahoma is to connect with your fellow Oklahoma Bloggers.
So please share these little bits of wisdom with each other. Even if you had to learn the hard way like I did.
This has been Kevin Latham your Blog Oklahoma web ring manager.
Remember, Just Blog Oklahoma!
