Introduction to Security: Beginner's Edition

This is the beginner's security talk at WordCamp St. Louis 2015

Transcript

1. INTRO TO SECURITY (BEGINNERS EDITION) Michele Butcher CantSpeakGeek.com WPSecurityLock.com @Michele_Butcher Slides can be found at http://mlb.pw/wcstl2015
2. MICHELE BUTCHER • WordPress Specialist, Site Cleaner, and Trainer for 
 WP Security Lock • WordPress Specialist for Megabytes Inc • One Woman Wonder at 
 Can’t Speak Geek @michele_butcher
3. WHY IS SECURITY IMPORTANT? @michele_butcher
4. EVERY DAY HACKERS TRY TO FIND WAYS TO GET YOUR INFORMATION. @michele_butcher
5. WHY DO HACKERS HACK? • Make bank • Build a zombie site army • Share their nasty malware with the world • Get your information • They are bored • They want to see if they can do it @michele_butcher
6. WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE ATTACKING ME? Anymore, it is not people but bots attacking your site. Hackers have programs that do the work for them. Rarely is it people doing the hacking unless it is targeted. Strong opinion sites are a good example. @michele_butcher
7. HOW DO THEY GET IN? • Guess your login. If you know it so can someone else. (Brute force attack or man in the middle) • Denial of Service attack (DDoS) flood your site with more traffic than it can handle • Through a theme, file or plugin • Through your FTP or CPanel. (Files set to read, write,execute. Brute force, anonymous login, shared hosting infection) @michele_butcher
8. AND NOW FOR THE ONLY THING SCARY THAT I AM GOING TO SAY. @michele_butcher
9. YOU ARE NEVER 100% SECURE @michele_butcher
10. EVEN A TEST SITE OR A KNITTING SITE WITH ONLY 2 VISITORS CAN BE HACKED. IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOUR SITE. @michele_butcher It has happened to me, it can happen to you.
11. DON’T LET SECURITY MAKE YOU LIKE THIS GUY. @michele_butcher
12. NEVER FEAR… THERE ARE WAYS TO KEEP THE HACKER ATTACKERS OUT! @michele_butcher I promise it is not all that painful!
13. WORDPRESS SECURITY BASICS @michele_butcher
14. NEVER EVER EVER USE ADMIN AS USER NAME OR PASSWORD AS PASSWORD. NEVER! @michele_butcher Got it?
15. ALWAYS CHANGE YOUR PREFIX NAME FROM WP_ LET IT BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN WP_ FDHSFJKHS_ IS ALWAYS GOOD I typically do not even look at what I am typing anymore when I make the WP prefix. The random the better. @michele_butcher
16. WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE TEMPORARY PEOPLE IN YOUR DASHBOARD @michele_butcher
17. ALWAYS USE SFTP Regular FTP is not secure. Do not use it unless the server is only set up for FTP.
18. Only give them access to what they NEED not what they want. Just because they want to be an admin does not automatically make them one. Guest bloggers should not be anymore than a contributor.
19. If it is only a temporary login, delete their login when they have completed their job. If they have posts on your site, you can knock them down to subscribers so they can not change anything on your site. If they are only doing work, delete them when their job is done.
20. Set up a file change detection notification to know what they are changing in your site. iThemes Security and other security plugins give you the option to see what all users are doing when logged into the dashboard.
21. WHAT ABOUT SECURITY PLUGINS? @michele_butcher
22. ITHEMES SECURITY PRO Great all encompassing best practices WordPress security plugin. Two versions a free and a premium. http://ithemes.com/security @michele_butcher
23. BRUTE PROTECT If you are mainly worried about DDoS attacks, Brute Protect has you covered. http://bruteprotect.com @michele_butcher
24. WHO CAN SCAN MY SITE FOR MALWARE? Google Webmaster Tools http://google.com/webmaster VirusTotal https://virustotal.com iThemes Security Pro htttp://ithemes.com/security @michele_butcher
25. NEED AN EXTRA EYE ON YOUR SITE? CloudFlare has a free and premium version. http://cloudflare.com @michele_butcher
26. THINGS YOU CAN DO TO 
 PROTECT YOUR WEBSITE
27. UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE! Update core, update plugins, update themes, update content, update everything and update often! The biggest source of nearly all hacks as once something is patched, it is trivial to get into the old stuff. @michele_butcher
28. IF YOU USE THEMES OR PLUGINS AT ANY OF THE ENVATO (THEMEFOREST, CODE CANYON) ALWAYS CHECK THE BOX TO BE NOTIFIED OF UPDATES. THEY WILL NOT TELL YOU OTHERWISE This is why the RevSlider SoakSoak infection was so widespread. Many didn't know the plugin was built within the theme.
29. HAVE A MINIMALIST APPROACH TO PLUGINS AND THEMES. • Only have the plugins you are using at that time on your site. You can always upload them again later. • Only have your theme you are using on your site. • If something is not active, delete it. @michele_butcher
30. BACK UP YOUR SITE! SOMEWHERE, ANYWHERE, JUST HAVE A BACKUP COPY. BackupBuddy from iThemes is a great choice. iThemes Security will do a database backup for you. http://ithemes.com/backupbuddy @michele_butcher
31. ALWAYS BACK UP TO SOMEPLACE OTHER THAN YOUR SERVER. IF THE SERVER GETS HACKED, SO DOES YOUR BACKUP. EVEN BACKING A COPY TO DROPBOX OR YOUR COMPUTER IS A BETTER OPTION. @michele_butcher
32. DON’T LET YOUR SITE GET LONELY. Lonely sites can turn into zombie sites and nobody wants a zombie @michele_butcher
33. IF YOUR WEBSITE GET HACKED IT IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. IT CAN AND WILL BE FIXED. @michele_butcher
34. WHO CLEANS HACKED WEBSITES? Well I do over at WP Security Lock ~Smile~ http://wpsecuritylock.com I apologize… had to do one shameful plug. @michele_butcher
35. WHAT ARE OTHER WAYS I CAN BE MORE SECURE? @michele_butcher
36. ALWAYS USE COMPLEX PASSWORDS. ALWAYS! FOR EVERYTHING! “PASSWORD” IS NEVER A GOOD PASSWORD! @michele_butcher
37. NEVER EMAIL PASSWORDS TO ANYONE. INCLUDING YOURSELF. @michele_butcher
38. USE A DIFFERENT PASSWORD FOR EACH AND EVERY THING YOU LOG INTO.
39. USE SOMETHING LIKE LASTPASS OR ONE PASSWORD TO SAVE YOUR PASSWORDS AND TO SHARE PASSWORDS WITH OTHERS.
40. IF THE LOGIN HAS A TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION, USE IT! @michele_butcher
41. ANTI-VIRUS PROTECT YOUR UNIT! Yes I even have an anti-virus on my Mac! AVG and Avast have free versions as well as paid. Kaspersky is great with Windows and Macs. @michele_butcher
42. BE CONSCIOUS WHEN USING PUBLIC WIFI. @michele_butcher
43. USE A VPN WHEN CONNECTING OUT IN THE WILD. torguard.com @michele_butcher
44. UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE! Let me say this again
45. BACK UP EVERYTHING AND BACK IT UP OFTEN. IF YOU FEAR YOU MIGHT LOSE INFORMATION, SAVE IT IN MORE THAN ONE SPOT. BITCASA, CARBONITE, AND EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES ARE GREAT OPTIONS OF BACKING UP DATA. @michele_butcher
46. QUESTIONS? @michele_butcher
47. THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING! Slides can be found at http://mlb.pw/wcstl2015 Michele Butcher @michele_butcher http://wpsecuritylock.com http://cantspeakgeek.com