meiLBOX was recently hacked but is back online!

The image above is a screenshot of my site’s temporary header in the old host. Again, I would like to thank biinclover and mpsaz.org for the use of their images in this temporary header.

Hello meiLBOX readers! This is just a quick post to let you all know that meiLBOX was recently hacked. Many or most of my images (embedded in the blog posts) had been stolen by the hacker. While I had placed watermarks in all of them, I am not too sure if they can be easily erased or manipulated. Therefore, I encourage you all to be more vigilant in purchasing or using photo works online. They might have been stolen from this site or elsewhere. 🙂

I have slowly rebuilt the site with the help of my previous server–I decided to transfer to a new web host–so I hope you will enjoy visiting meiLBOX again!

I would just like to share some important lessons I learned as I was rebuilding my site, with the hope that they will also help WordPress bloggers in protecting their sites:

1. WordPress had become very attractive to hackers because of the weak features such as the log-in page (the URL that you use in order to log-in to your site). You can change  this “first door” to your site by using plug-ins such as Rename wp-login by avryl.

2. The next weak spot is the automatic assignment of the name “admin” as your log-in name. WordPress should really look into this. In the meantime, you can have the option to change this generic “admin” name by using plug-ins such as Admin renamer extended by Ramon Fincken. (I learned from my Google research that hackers really like sites with “admin” as their user /login names.)

3. You can add additional security features such as BruteProtect by Parka, LLC and WP User Access Notification by SiteGuarding.com). I especially like the latter plug-in because it sends email notifications every time I log-in or someone (a possible hacker) attempts to log-in.

Please note that I am not in any way connected to the owners and developers of the plug-ins I had cited here nor am I endorsing them so please do your own diligent work as well.  Nevertheless,  I would like to take this chance to thank the developers cited above for the great service they are giving to WordPress users for free.

Thank you and God bless you all!

[Note:  I would like to thank Jeffre of Pinoywebsite for the assistance in the migration of meiLBOX from their site to my new host, Zoom.ph]

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This is not a paid blog.