We are knee deep in WordPress 5.5 but people are still having plenty of issues. I’ve seen this kind of b/c (backwards compatibility) scenario play out in Joomla numerous times, and heck Drupal has long been built on pretty much no backwards compatibility (though that’s changing). With that in mind let’s tackle the security side. Remember, always back up!
Updating the Updates
This may be a topic that gets repeated a bit in the near future, the automatic updates which I wrote of last week, are just not as family friendly as we would all like. The depth and breadth of the post by Matt Barry for Wordfence is an absolute must read, WordPress Auto-Updates: What do you have to lose? Well actually a lot but depends on who you are: “Unattended auto-updating of any code base is not without possible problems, and WordPress themes and plugins are not unique in this respect. Even attended updates can present difficulties. When the health and safety of your site is at stake, making an informed decision is critical.” This is exactly why companies like WP Engine acquire, integrate, or build visual regression testing solutions (WP Engine acquires Perfect Dashboard) like Diffy.
Man the Fort
FortressDB has been in the works for a while and has officially launched with a Forminator (made by my favorite alphabet soup WordPress company, WPMUDEV) integration. Back to Fortress, this is a secure DBaaS (database as a service) product, has it’s own plugin, and is planning on additional integrations.
I Saw the Sign
In Warning Signs That Your WordPress Website Is Being Hacked, Thomas Glare gives us nine warning signs that you have been hacked: “Does your site display the wrong title or meta-description?” Now I don’t feel so weird for Googling my site.
Fight the Fatigue
Webinars for tomorrow starting with WordPress VIP: Product innovation at Rolling Stone with XWP followed by Post Status’ Building Your First WordPress Plugin with Brad Williams. Both will be worth just signing up for to get the video.