Think Like a Hacker with Wordfence

Latest Episodes:

Episode 46: Zero Day Vulnerability in Rich Reviews Plugin Exploited In The Wild Sep 25, 2019

Show notes

We chat with Mikey Veenstra to talk about the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team's work tracking a series of active attacks on an unpatched vulnerability in the Rich Reviews plugin for WordPress. With an estimated 16,000 installations, attackers are targeting unauthenticated plugin option updates, which can be used to deliver stored cross-site scripting (XSS) payloads. Mikey explains how this works and what users of Rich Reviews can do to protect themselves. Podcast recorded September 24, 2019.

Episode 45: Securing and Scaling eCommerce with Zach Stepek Sep 20, 2019

Show notes

This week, our lead customer service engineer Tim Cantrell interviews Zach Stepek, CEO of MindSize, a digital agency focused on helping customers scale and succeed with eCommerce. Zach talks about how he got started with WordPress and WooCommerce, new features in JetPack that add functionality to WooCommerce, and how critical security is to site owners no matter what platform they use to sell goods and services online.

Episode 44: Unpacking the WordPress 5.2.3 Security Release Sep 10, 2019

Show notes

WordPress core version 5.2.3 was released on September 4. This was a security release patching eight key vulnerabilities in WordPress core, most of which were cross site scripting vulnerabilities. In this episode of Think Like a Hacker, we walk through each of the patched elements of WordPress core and how these vulnerabilities could have been exploited. We also look at the SIM port attack on Jack Dorsey's Twitter account, and the lessons for all of us in using our cellphones and mobile devices for securing our online accounts.

Episode 43: Wordfence Research on Malvertising Campaign Makes the News Sep 05, 2019

Show notes

This week, we chat about the plan for WordPress 5.3 and some of the new features we will see added to WordPress in November, including many improvements to the editor. We will also see a switch from robots.txt files to meta tags for better control over search engine indexing. We also cover the latest developments with our threat intelligence team's research into an ongoing malvertising campaign targeting WordPress plugin vulnerabilities. This story received quite a bit of news coverage, and that coverage caused closed-source content management platform Wix to Tweet a cheeky dig at WordPress that fell flat.

Episode 42: Building WordPress Websites that Convert with Bill Rice Aug 29, 2019

Show notes

Bill Rice is the CEO of Kaleidico, a digital agency in Michigan. We chatted at WordCamp Minneapolis about WordPress and the community, and his work creating websites that convert. Bill spoke at WordCamp Minneapolis about trends in WordPress website design that allow businesses to deeply engage with site visitors. Mobile browsing has changed the way users interact with the web on all devices, including desktop. In this episode, Bill tells us how this shift creates new opportunities to design compelling digital experiences.

Episode 41: KidsCamp and the Next Generation of WordPress Users with Sandy Edwards Aug 22, 2019

Show notes

As of WordCamp Boston 2019, Sandy Edwards has organized 26 KidsCamps across the US. We talk about what kids do at a WordPress KidsCamp, the success these kids have had publishing with WordPress, and how Sandy teaches basic internet safety and security to the next generation of WordPress users. Sandy is an organizer at WordCamp Orlando as well as a homeschooling mom, and runs a digital agency helping small businesses benefit from data-driven marketing.

Episode 40: WordPress Considers Ditching Signed Core Updates Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

A recent discussion among WordPress core developers about removing support for code signing in core caught our attention. Code signing support was included with the WordPress 5.2 release. The discussion centers around removing code signing and implementing SSL verification and hashes to verify code integrity. In this week's episode we chat about the history behind the vulnerability found by Wordfence's Matt Barry, which is what motivated the addition of code signing to WordPress core. We review several high profile supply chain attacks and discuss how SSL and hashes would not protect against a sophisticated attack on WordPress core servers.

Episode 39: Headless eCommerce, Scaling for eCommerce Growth with Topher DeRosia Aug 16, 2019

Show notes

Topher DeRosia is the developer evangelist for BigCommerce and a frequent WordCamp speaker. He's worked with WordPress for a long time and is the man behind HeroPress, telling the stories of people whose lives have been transformed by WordPress. HeroPress is now syndicated on WordPress.org/news, bringing these inspirational stories to an even wider audience. At WordCamp Boston, Topher and Kathy talked about everything WordPress, from security to eCommerce, HeroPress, headless WordPress, headless eCommerce as well as how these new methods of distributing content and commerce will change publishing.

Episode 38: Automattic Buys Tumblr from Verizon Aug 13, 2019

Show notes

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, August 12, 2019 that Verizon is selling social media and blogging platform Tumblr to Automattic for an undisclosed sum, though rumors state that it may be as low as $3 million dollars. After the announcement, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg discussed the news on PostStatus, stating that they plan to migrate infrastructure off of Verizon, move Tumblr's backend to WordPress, and support the same APIs on both WP.com and Tumblr. Mullenweg noted on PostStatus that this acquisition is "by far the largest investment or acquisition Automattic has ever made." In this episode, we discuss the implications for Tumblr, WordPress, and Automattic.

Episode 37: Vito Peleg Talks Breaking the Agency Glass Ceiling and Building a Product with Your Customers Aug 08, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Mark chats with Vito Peleg, the founder of WP Feedback, a plugin that helps WordPress-focused agencies streamline approval and support for their customers. Vito talks about the glass ceiling in agencies where managing people and projects begins to inhibit growth and profitability.He also shares some interesting thoughts on where pain points lie and how to move past them, as well as how to effectively leverage your own customers to inform product design.

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