In case you have not heard, WooThemes released a security patch recently for the framework which drives all their themes. WooThemes provides premium (i.e., paid) themes with some great functionality. They offer some great support and have a bunch of themes that look great!
I have a subscription to their themes and use them on client's websites. I received notification as soon as it was discovered and an update was provided. The upgrade was painless and the support was FANTASTIC.
To make things worse, a their servers had someone snooping inside and doing some nasty things.
Yup - what I am saying is that WooThemes was hacked and their whole server was basically deleted! The hackers were really good - after they deleted the files on the server, then went and deleted the backups of their files. Finally, the hackers deleted any trace of how they got into the server - sounds like a plot of a movie!
The good news is that no credit card information was compromised since that information was NOT on the server that was attacked.
What can be learned from this:
- EVERYONE is vulnerable to being attacked. You, Me, and even the Big Guys!
- EVERYONE needs to take security seriously - it doesn't matter how 'small' you think you are!
- UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE - when an update is made available, make sure you update your theme, your plugin, your whatever!
- As a professional, I dropped what I was doing to tend to the needs of my clients as I felt I had a responsibility to protect them.
- Customer Service is key - address the issue and do what you can in time of crisis. The folks at WooThemes got clobbered by angry folks (they had a right to be angry). I felt they did a great job and even sent them a personal email thanking them for their support.
If you have a presence online, the possibility is always there that you might be hacked. Protect yourself and do what you can to be safe!
The post Update Your WooThemes Framework! appeared first on Digital Maestro.
