According to online reports, hackers have been exploiting security holes in older versions of Wordpress to convert blogs into pages filled with links to various moneymaking schemes, all in an effort to improve the search-engine results of the hackers' websites.
The security holes were traced to simple problems in the basic Wordpress programming, which Wordpress addressed by releasing new versions of the blogging platform.
But hackers have continued to find security holes in succeeding versions, prompting a call from Wordpress for webmasters to download the latest version.
Wordpress has also posted a webpage to assure users that the blog is safe to use.
"Some articles are pointing to out-of-date information claiming that WordPress 1.5 is vulnerable," the post reads. "That is incorrect. WordPress 1.5 or higher is safe."
LiveBucks Project Manager Dr. Guile told XBIZ that when it comes to website security, staying current is the least a webmaster can do.
"There were 7,000-plus vulnerabilities reported last year alone," he said. "It's pretty clear that software has security issues and you need to keep up to date."
Wordpress also has posted a special page dedicated to fielding and addressing security breaches.
Webmasters can also email security concerns to security@wordpress.org.
