Hackers will use any means possible to gain access to websites and servers for a variety of malicious reasons.  One very recent attempt that we’ve been alerted to is a Phishing email that is delivered seemingly from WordPress to a website Owner.

Phishing is a technique used by hackers attempting to steal online banking login details and other passwords for some years now.

The Phishing email subject line is :

WordPress fatal error – database connection lost

And message body :

Message from WordPress, {date / time}

Fatal error on your wordpress site.

wp-cron.php:
ERROR: Opening connection to database, ADO error: Unspecified error MYSQL Server does not exist or access denied.

To resolve this issue, please, please logged in your Administration panel, using this URL: http://xx.xxx.xxx.xxx/wp-login.php?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fyourdomain.com%2Fwp-admin%2F&reauth=1

 

For obvious reasons we’ve changed the IP address at the start of the URL and the domain.  If the user were to click on this link they’d get a page similar to their wordpress login screen however if they entered their username and password it would be stolen and used maliciously by hackers to either spam from your website or upload dangerous or illegal content.

We recommend to all wordpress administrators that they never enter their username and password unless they are sure they are on the correct login area on their website and never click on links embedded in emails.

Ardnet Online Limited take security very seriously and while we constantly backup our website databases and content we also review security and instigate steps to further prevent any malicious activity.  If you are particularly worried about your site please contact us for further assistance.