Think of a blogging software option among most circles of discussion and the name that may likely pop up is, WordPress. But recent security defects in that favorite blogging software has created a safe haven for hackers, resulting in the distortion of tens of thousands of sites.
An estimated 1.5 million pages on WordPress blogs have been altered in some way.
The security company that spotted the flaw claimed some hackers were now trying to take advantage of the defect and gain full control of the sites rather than just corrupt the pages.
WordPress has advised site owners to update software to boost their immunity to such attacks.
The vulnerability is found in an add-on for the WordPress blogging software introduced in versions and released during the latter part of last year.
Software security company, Sucuri found the "severe" bug and informed WordPress about it on 20th January.
Reacting to the discovery, WordPress claimed it had delayed going public about the flaw so it could prompt hosting firms to update their software to a fixed version.
Although an updated version of WordPress was launched on the 26th of January with many sites and blogs automatically applying the update, many bloggers are yet to comply with the blogging software giant’s request leaving them vulnerable to defacement attacks.
However, while WordPress may be the victim of this particular attack, the need for businesses, institutions and governments to continually commit necessary resources to cyber security can and will never be overemphasized: at least not a tech - driven 21st century.