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Think Like a Hacker
Episode 71: Hackers Targeting COVID-19 Fears
With many of us under either lockdown or shelter-in-place orders due to the COVID-19/Corona virus, fear and stress are rampant. This additional stress lowers our critical thinking capabilities and increases our vulnerability. Hackers targeting these human vulnerabilities are using the global pandemic to attempt exploitation through numerous scams and phishing campaigns. We also cover plugin…
March 25, 2020
Episode 70: Customer Education and Agency Resiliency with Jon Bius
We chat with Jon Bius, a web developer at Biz Tools One, an agency in Fayetteville, NC, about how they use customer education to build relationships and differentiate their business. Jon has been helping customers build websites for over two decades, and he talks about how WordPress helps him empower his customers. In the news,…
March 14, 2020
Episode 69: The Meteoric Growth of Elementor with Kfir Bitton
On February 26, WordPress page building platform Elementor announced that they had received $15 million in venture funding. After topping 4 million installations of their plugin in January, it appears that Elementor is on a path to do some big things with WordPress. This week, we chat with Elementor CRO Kfir Bitton from his office…
March 6, 2020
Episode 68: More Plugin Vulnerabilities and Active Attack Campaigns
This week, we review numerous plugin vulnerabilities in popular WordPress plugins and the attacks that are targeting them. We also review the Duplicator vulnerability affecting over 1 million sites, and Chloe Chamberland’s discovery of multiple vulnerabilities in the Pricing Table by Supsystic plugin. Some WordPress-focused companies, Elementor and Strattic, receive venture funding. We also ask…
February 29, 2020
Episode 67: Avoiding Common Vulnerabilities When Developing WordPress Plugins
Almost every week, a new vulnerability is discovered in a popular WordPress plugin or theme, leaving developers scrambling to fix it before it’s widely exploited. Surprisingly, almost all critical vulnerabilities boil down to a few common mistakes. In this talk from WordCamp Phoenix, Ramuel Gall reviews these common errors and provides advice on creating secure…
February 28, 2020
Episode 66: New Plugin Vulnerabilities & Succeeding as a Digital Nomad with Chloe at WCPHX
It has been a busy week in WordPress security with active attacks on a number of plugins including ThemeRex Addons and Theme Grill Demo Importer plugins. In this week’s Think Like a Hacker, we look at what’s happening, review what a zero-day vulnerability is, and give you some advice on keeping WordPress installations clean and…
February 21, 2020
Episode 65: WordCamp Asia Cancellation Prompts Community Support
WordCamp Asia was cancelled this week due to concerns of COVID-19/coronavirus in the region. This week, Wordfence CEO Mark Maunder talks about the decision to offer the WordCamp Asia Cancellation Fee Assistance Package to attendees, volunteers, organizers, and speakers that had planned to travel to this inaugural regional WordCamp. We also cover a number of…
February 14, 2020
Podcast Episode 64: Backdoors, Webshells, and the Growing Risks of Leaks & Breaches
We take a look at the annual hacked site report from GoDaddy’s Sucuri Security and the types of malware they found in various CMS and shopping cart applications. Microsoft reports they’re finding 77k webshells daily, and WP Scan’s roundup lists a number of popular plugins and themes with recent vulnerabilities. A report from students at…
February 8, 2020
Episode 63: Succeeding as a Remote Working Nomad with Chloe Chamberland
Chloe Chamberland never wanted to get into security, and yet in the last three years, she has emerged as one of our most effective and prolific threat researchers. Not only does she find vulnerabilities in numerous popular plugins, she also travels the world while doing so. Chloe talked to me from a cabin in a…
January 31, 2020
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Episode 61: Improving Website Performance and User Experiences with Dave Ryan
With Google Chrome experimenting with a badge of shame for websites that load slowly in Chrome, there is a new urgency for high performance interfaces for web users. Gatsby, Gridsome and other static site interfaces are hot in the development community right now, especially when talking about headless WordPress. At WordCamp US, Mark chats with…
December 18, 2019
Episode 60: Top WordPress Influencer Lists & Chrome Password Security Improvements
A small furor erupted over a top influencers in WordPress list that neglected to show the diverse nature of the WordPress community. We talk about the impossibility of making an accurate list that reflects the true nature of WordPress influence or contribution, and the diversity we saw during our work on Open, our film project…
December 12, 2019
Episode 59: Mailpoet’s Kim Gjerstad on Beating Spammers and Improving Net Promoter Scores
Kim Gjerstad, one of the founders of Mailpoet, visited with Mark at the Wordfence booth at WordCamp US. Kim and Mark talked about the origins of Mailpoet, the plugin that gives users a full email management system within the WordPress administrative dashboard. They talk about email deliverability as well as the challenges of fighting email…
December 10, 2019
Episode 58: Leadership and the Business of WordPress Plugins: Lessons from the Yoast Black Friday Ad
Yoast, the SEO plugin installed on 9 million WordPress sites, ran a Black Friday sale, experimenting with an ad in the WordPress admin dashboard. The internet furor was dramatic, and Yoast’s CEO Marieke van de Rakt took ownership, showing exceptional leadership. We discuss the ad and the response from both users and competitors and the…
December 6, 2019
Episode 57: SEO Content Strategy and Lock Picking with Maddy Osman at WordCamp US
Maddy Osman is a SEO content strategist that has worked with a number of familiar brands in both WordPress and SaaS spaces. She spoke at WordCamp US and took some time to chat with us at the Wordfence sponsor booth. Maddy talks about how she got started in SEO content strategy after doing web design…
November 22, 2019
Episode 56: WordCamp US, WordPress 5.3 and Chrome Blocking Mixed Content
In Episode 56, we review the premiere of Open, The Community Code, a film about the WordPress community that world premiered at Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word Keynote at WordCamp US. Mark and Kathy talk about what it was like watching friends in the community see the film for the first time. We also…
November 20, 2019
Episode 55: Yoast’s Marieke van de Rakt & Michiel Heijmans at WordCamp US
At WordCamp US in Saint Louis, Mark sat down with Yoast CEO Marieke van de Rakt and COO Michiel Heijmans in the Wordfence booth to talk about not only how Yoast began, but also how they’ve grown to over 9 million active installations and the challenges of managing such a large user base. Marieke and…
November 14, 2019
Episode 54: The Hacker Mindset at WordCamp US
Kathy Zant gave a presentation about The Hacker Mindset at WordCamp US 2019 in St. Louis. Learning to think like a hacker in the security realm is a big part of keeping your assets safe, and there are additional benefits. Kathy illustrates how the hacker mindset is much more than protecting your site. Thinking like…
November 8, 2019
Episode 53: WordCamp US 2019 Preview from St. Louis
Mark and Kathy connect in person on Halloween in St. Louis to talk about what’s happening at WordCamp US. We review what’s new at WCUS, some of the more interesting sessions, and all of the fun activities Wordfence is bringing to North America’s largest WordCamp. Kathy and Mark also tear down the 4th wall to…
October 31, 2019