WordPress Security and How I’m Going to Take All Your Money


So, it’s happened again. Another vulnerability discovered in WordPress that is now becoming the raging topic around the blogosphere. Is WordPress insecure? Should people move to another platform? If we stomp our feet loud and enough and whine enough, then we can make WordPress look like a ridiculous piece of software that only amateurs should use.

I call bullshit. Here’s why.

The current security paranoia is around an exploit that has already been fixed! That’s right, it was known and fixed two releases ago. The problem is, the people complaining about WordPress’ security are running old software. They didn’t bother to do the responsible thing and keep their blog up to date!

See, WordPress has two different types of releases. Major releases (2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, etc) provide new features. These releases keep the software innovative, bringing new functionality to bloggers every 4-6 months. Security releases (2.8.1, 2.8.2, 2.8.3, 2.8.4, etc) are arguably more important than major releases because they keep you safe!

Bloggers who ignore these security releases do so at their own risk.

And because of that, when you are hacked, I will charge you an assload of money to fix you up! Believe it.

There is nothing more I want to do on a holiday weekend that also happens to be my birthday weekend, than to fix peoples blogs who didn’t bother to take care of themselves. It’s personal responsibility. Oh, I’ll do it. You won’t like the bill, though.

If you’re using WordPress 2.7+, as said loudmouth blogger was, it’s so simple to keep things up to date with the auto-upgrade button. WordPress even informs you when your version is out of date and provides a direct link to the upgrade page. If you ignore that, it’s not my fault… it’s yours.

For clients hosted on my servers, you are up to date. Why? Because I make sure of it. For the rest of you, do your part, so I don’t have to. Because my part will be making your blog secure, but it will also be sending you a sizable invoice.

Cheers, and happy Labor Day!