Blog Security

For my first post I thought it would be appropriate to discus the various security flaws that can be found on blogging websites, and what preventative measures need to be taken to protect blogs from malicious attacks. Since the invention of blogging, users have become victims of several different types of cyber attacks. Most of the issues come from HTML or SQL injection, which inserts new, and destructive, code into the bloggers source code. This causes visitors of the blog to be redirected to the attackers site, which often contains malware, spyware, and other phishing sites.

Blogger.com, the site that I am currently using, is no stranger to these attacks. In 2008, an article on CNET described Blogspot.com (now Blogger.com) as the number 1 host of malware. Link

One reason that Blogger.com saw so many of these cases is due to its high number of users. Because Blogger is free for anyone to use, and can be set up in a matter of minutes, it has become a clear target for attackers. Google, who owns Blogger, has taken many steps since 2008 to protect against these known attacks. (The only reason my blog is being posted on the site.) Although Google has helped protect against these SQL attacks, there are still other preventative measures that must be taken to protect your blog.

Now that most of the popular blogging websites have found a way to block SQL-injections, attackers have turned to posting malicious links in the blog’s comment section. These sites are currently working on comment spam filters, however it is eventually up to the blog owner to ensure no malicious links are posted. Although this can be harder to do for large blogs, the easiest way protect against these posts is by constantly monitoring your blog comments, and deleting and suspicious links. If you need to be certain, you might even consider disabling links in your comment section.

Along with these preventative measures, it is also a good idea to back up all of your blogs content as much ass possible. Even if your site is not the victim of a malicious attack, it is still possible for you to lose all your information. This is not only a huge annoyance, but also extremely damaging to anyone using their blog for business purposes. Most blog sites offer a method of saving your content, and I recommend taking full advantage of these methods.

For Blogger.com, the steps are as follows:

1. Log in to Draft.Blogger.Com

2. Click on Settings

3. Click on Export Blog

4. Click Download Blog