Deb Fisher, candidate for the Senate seat Ben Nelson will soon vacate, has made national new — at least Tech. news — because her new campaign website was hacked. While her site still looked fine, a Google search results revealed a long list of hits for cheap Canadian prescription drugs.
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2135625/How-State-Senator-Deb-Fischer-Should-Fix-Hacked-Website
WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and other content management sites (CMS), are more vulnerable to this kind of abuse than simple html web sites. Despite this problem, database driven sites are desirable for so many reasons, I usually recommend them to people considering a new site.
There are ways to defend your space online, but clients and web developers must take the threats seriously. First and formost, users must appreciate the value of strong passwords. If the site has more than one contributor, the site needs a security oriented policy regarding permissions and use. Sites like Strong Password Generator can help users make safe password choices.
Update the site (especially WordPress sites) when WordPress or plugin updates become available.
Site owners can find documentation, forum discussions, and a host of plugins at each of the major CMS sites that can help users reduce the risk of mischief. Cleaning up afterwards often requires a great deal of time and effort.
