WordPress has been in the news recently for experiencing an assault of cyber attacks. A botnet system has been brute force attacking the login pages. Although, we are on unsure of who is behind the attacks and what the bigger goal of the attacks are, we have managed to collect some data on the issue.
WordPress has been experiencing an explosion in popularity, making it a target for brute force attacks. The photo below is a chart from Google Trends showing the rise in popularity.
An article titled Brute Force Attacks and Their Consequences provides some background information on the recent attacks, tying it into a massive botnet system
So what is a botnet? Here is the wikipedia definition of a botnet:
A botnet is a collection of internet-connected programs communicating with other similar programs in order to perform tasks. This can be as mundane as keeping control of an IRC channel, or it could be used to send spam email or participate in DDoS attacks. The word botnet stems from the two words robot and network.
More Resources:
WordPress Infographic: Analysis of the world’s most popular websites
Web Server Popularity Research
