The recent “Panama Papers” hacking that resulted in the leak of private documents stored by a Panamanian Law Firm that protected the assets of the rich and powerful by setting up shell companies seems to have been aided by lack of WordPress updates.
This leak has resulted in the resignation of the Icelandic Prime Minister, and have caused controversy to surround others including Russian President Putin and British prime minister Cameron.
For those interested in the Panaman Papers there is more information at this link
WordPress sites are being hacked daily through security holes in outdated plugins but this is the first high profile hacking that has become worldwide news and shone a spotlight on the tax-avoiding efforts by the world’s elite.
The evidence seems to be pointing to the fact that hackers found their way into the law firm’s system through unpatched versions of the common WordPress and Drupal CMSes. The main website’s WordPress installation was three months out of date and WordFence has gone into an extensive rundown showing that an unpatched version of the Revolution Slider plugin was the entry point.
Here is a video on how easy it is to exploit the Revolution Slider Plugin
This is how WordFence summarized the needs for updates:
“To protect your WordPress installation it is critically important that you update your plugins, themes and core when an update becomes available. You should also monitor updates for security fixes and give those the highest priority. You can find out if a WordPress plugin includes a security update by viewing the changes in the “Changelog”.”
So this is another good reason as to why you need to keep your WordPress website up to date.
Of course if you need help with your updates then this is something I can help with using my Website Care Package for WordPress Websites.
