FBI Alert: ISIL Attacks on Blogs

In an FBI alert, it reports that there is a:

Continuous Web site defacements are being perpetrated by individuals sympathetic to the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL) a.k.a. Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS). The defacements have affected Web site operations and the communication platforms of news organizations, commercial entities, religious institutions, federal/state/local governments, foreign governments, and a variety of other domestic and international Web sites. Although the defacements demonstrate low-level hacking sophistication, they are disruptive and often costly in terms of lost business revenue and expenditures on technical services to repair infected computer systems.

It seems that WordPress and its CMS [Content Management System] has been attacked by malicious hackers taking control of an affected system. For those of you with WordPress blogs I suggest you take the following FBI suggested actions:

• Review and follow WordPress guidelines:
  http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress

• Identify WordPress vulnerabilities using free available tools such as
  http://www.securityfocus.com/bid,
  http://cve.mitre.org/index.html,
  https://www.us-cert.gov/

• Update WordPress by patching vulnerable plugins:
  https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/patch

• Run all software as a non-privileged user, without administrative privileges, to diminish the effects of a successful attack

• Confirm that the operating system and all applications are running the most updated versions