Well as you can see, I have just launched a new look website.
The website I was running had before was a WordPress site, but I had used a free template and had been installing lots of plugin’s without spending much time researching or checking them, or keeping on top of updating them…
The long and short of it, I received an alert this morning that there was a problem with one of the plug-ins which were causing some pages to be redirected to a less-than-above-aboard website (we will leave it at that!)
Luckily, with my hosting I have full nightly backups, so nothing was lost and I was able to simply wipe the WordPress site. Install a new WordPress site and template and then just re-import all of the media and posts and pages from the backups.
Installing WordPress is a simple 1-click operation.
Without the monitoring and alerting of the hosting companies server checking for malware and viruses I would have been unaware of what was going on.
So moral of the story.
- Check your plug-ins before you use them.
- Use a good quality hosting company that takes security seriously.
If you need good quality UK based hosting with good back up and support along with it CloudTree Limited does a fine job.
FULL DISCLOSURE TIME…
The hosting company I use, CloudTree Limited, I am the co-founder and director of the business. So, of course, I am going to say they are great. But being on the front line proves that all the hard work and money that has been spent getting good quality UK servers, with full malware and backup solutions has paid dividends when I was on the receiving end of a poorly maintained WordPress plug-in…