WordPress security company Wordfence has issued a tip recommending vigilance for increased hacking activity after the Russian attack on Ukraine and offering advice to help prevent falling victim to state-sponsored cyberattacks.
Additionally, the United States government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has just updated its Shield’s Up webpage adding more information about potential cyberattacks from Russia.
Site security protects search visibility
Many in the SEO community don’t consider website security an SEO issue. However, cyber attacks can have a devastating effect on search visibility and the ability to view web pages to site visitors.
Website security should ideally be an important part of SEO because search visibility can be damaged through hacking and other security events.
Wordfence advises extra vigilance
State-sponsored cyberattacks are common, particularly towards government websites and related infrastructure.
But at this particular time, the threat could expand to commercial websites. Wordfence advises all site publishers to be extra vigilant.
While Wordfence acknowledges that it has not seen an increase in state-sponsored piracy incidents at this early stage, it advises publishers to be more vigilant over the coming hours and days.
The founder of Wordfence advised:
“If you are running a business, I would advise you to enter a state of higher alertness.”
The Wordfence alert provided these steps to follow to help protect against cyberattacks:
- Learn about social engineering and phishing attacks.
- Enable multi-factor authentication
- WordPress plugin developers need to be very vigilant of being hacked and working as a way to spread exploits to all client sites.
- Monitor your logs to detect suspicious activities from hackers
- Keep an eye out for new (and malicious) files appearing on your site
Cyber security tips
CISA has also released tips and a list of resources and tools that can help prepare organizations against cyber breaches and other attacks.
CISA offered several preventative measures to take:
Fix known software vulnerabilities.
Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Replace expired software products that no longer receive software updates
Replace any system or products that rely on known/default/unchangeable passwords
Enroll in CISA’s Cyber Hygiene Vulnerability Scanning Program (vulnerability @ cisa.dhs.gov)
Get Your Objects From Search (SOS)
Free cyber security tools
The CISA website has provided a comprehensive list of free tools that can help prevent or mitigate cyberattacks.
Among the free tools and services, here’s a partial list:
- Cisco Immunet Antivirus for Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Defender Application Guard
- Free Cloudflare distributed unrestricted denial-of-service protection
- Free Cloudflare Global SSL Certificate
- Quad9 for Android – Prevents malware and virus infested
- Quad 9 – Protects computers and devices from accessing websites infected with malware and viruses
- Project shield -“Project Shield is a free service that defends news, human rights, and election monitoring websites from DDoS attacks“
- Feather 2 Free security scanner for WordPress
Consider increasing your security
Almost all websites are exposed to a variety of attacks at any time of the day or night.
However, recent developments in Ukraine have raised the possibility of increased state-sponsored hacking attempts from Russia.
WordPress publishers should consider using a WordPress security plugin like Worddefense Plus increase your security with the above tips and free tools.
quotes
Read the Wordfence guidelines
Entering a higher state of alert – Ukraine is under attack
Read the US government’s cybersecurity guidelines
Free security tools recommended by the US government
