(Hollywood) The Current State of WordPress Security

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According to Sucuri there are currently more than 1 Billion websites on the internet. WordPress accounts for almost 20% of all self-hosted websites (https://sucuri.net/website-security/website-hacked-report). Because WordPress has such a large footprint on the internet, it also makes it a large target. Scareware, spyware, ransomware, viruses and email scams are code. They all can be served from a hijacked WordPress website. Or...someone might just want to prove they can get into a site and deface it with their own messages to the outside world, or someone may login and harvest whatever data they want from your database. Whatever form the breach takes, the security of yours and your customer's websites should be on the front of your mind, not an afterthought. At our next Meetup we are going to be talking about some of the myths about securing a WordPress site. We are also thrilled to be hosting a panel discussion centered around answering our members questions about this exceptionally timely topic.

The first half of the evening will be a presentation by Gregory Madore (http://www.tech90.com) about common WordPress security myths. Greg has worked as an independent IT Consultant in Southern California for over a decade serving the IT and web development needs of residents and small businesses around the world. He is currently the owner of TECH90 and has been actively involved as the co-organizer of the Los Angeles WP meetup for more than 4 years. He is a certified IT Security professional and during this presentation he will be discussing several WordPress security "myths" and then discussing the pros and cons of each one individually. Finally he will talk about some go to methods he uses to troubleshoot, resolve and lock down his and his client's sites.

The second half of the evening will be an open panel discussion with Brandon Yanofsky. Brandon is the President of the Yanofsky Group, LLC and the founder of a WordPress support and maintenance company called WP Radius. He is also a member of myWPExpert.com and a regular contributor to WP Engine’s weekly online publications. Through these efforts Brandon has developed a wealth of knowledge dealing with all sorts of WP security issues and we are exceptionally thankful that Brandon is going to be able to join us for what is sure to be a great conversation.

We look forward to seeing all of you again and please come with tons of questions as this is a tremendous opportunity to get them answered by two (possibly three?) industry pros.