Category: Tutorial

Categories
KLOW News Tutorial

WordPress Security Center

The folks behind the Wordfence plugin have created a new security center for WordPress that might be relevant to your interests! The site, at https://www.wordfence.com/learn/, is free to use and covers several different topics, including:

  • Security threats specific to WordPress
  • Phishing and other social engineering type of threats
  • How to tell your site is hacked
  • How to clean a hacked site

and many more. Enjoy the free videos and do let me know (rhastings@nekls.org, as always) if you have questions!

Categories
Library News Tutorial

Malware and Security Plugins

Malware Infection

Recently, some websites on the KLOW server reported virus alert messages appearing to website visitors when they visited their website with the Internet Explorer Browser.  This was a result of some malware that was able to infect websites using a Trojan Horse virus, found in a WordPress theme.

The virus has been removed and the code the malware injected into websites has been cleared off of the server.  Not all websites on KLOW were infected, but if you are experiencing any issues with your website or if you get any reports this week of virus alert messages appearing to those visiting your websites, please let the NEKLS Tech Team know via this Email: tech@nekls.org

Actions Taken

In an attempt to protect KLOW websites against future attacks I have installed a few plugins on the websites that were infected and will continue to install them on more KLOW websites in the future.

They are as follows:
1. All In One WP Security – This gives your sites a security score and provides ways to easily improve that score.
2. Wordfence Security – This plugin quickly searches your sites for malicious code and informs you of it.
3. Anti-Malware by ELI – This plugin does a full (long) scan of your website and gives you an option to remove any malicious code if it finds any.  (I recommend running Wordfence to scan the website and then if it finds anything, run this plugin).

A picture of how the plugins appear on the side panel are found below, so if you see these on your website don’t worry.  They are helpful plugins.

securityplugins

What You Can Do

Anyone who reads this may be wondering what actions you can take to ensure your website isn’t infected in the future.  If you are thinking like that – great!  I have a few steps you can take to protect your website.

Step 1.  Remove any unused plugins or themes.  Unused Plugins and Themes can be a perfect exploit used by hackers or viruses to get malicious code onto your website so if you’re not using it, lose it!

Step 2. Update your plugins and themes.  Oftentimes the way viruses get onto your website in the first place is by finding some code in a plugin or theme that isn’t secured properly, and exploiting that problem with the code to give them unauthorized access to the site.  One way to combat this is to update your plugins and themes whenever there are updates available.  Doing this increases the chance that any problems with the code contained on your website will be patched (fixed), and your website will be more secure as a result.

Step 3. Update WordPress.  When there is a new WordPress update available it is best practice to update to the newest version.  These updates often include security updates that make your site harder for viruses and hackers to attack.  If you are worried about updating, check out this website first.  We’ll try to use www.mykansaslibrary.org to post any problems with updates when they are released.  If we don’t post anything then there likely aren’t any known issues we have discovered with using the new version!

Following those steps should help protect your website from the evils of the Internet and provide you with some security on your KLOW website.  If you have any questions or concerns please send us an Email at: tech@nekls.org

Have a great day!

Categories
Tutorial

WordPress 3.4.1 has landed — Update now!

WordPress 3.4.1 is out!

Please update your sites

Here’s how (yes, these shots still say 3.0.4, it’s ok, the process is the same):

First, log into your website. Then:

1. Notice the yellow banner at the top of the page  and click the “Please update now” link.

2.  Click the Update Automatically button.

3. Wait while your site is updated and… that’s it!

As always if you have trouble please either send me email, file a help request at our website (http://mykansaslibrary.org), or contact your system KLOW trainer.

For more information about what is in this update, here’s a post with a great run down of what’s new.

Thanks for your prompt attention to this matter!

Categories
Tutorial

Web Search Engines

After you have spent time creating, updating, and improving your Library Web site to “Full on Fabulous,” maybe you want people to find and use it…

As a test, go to Google or Bing or Your Favorite Search Engine and look for your site.  Look for it as “Anytown Public Library” and “Anytown Library” and “Anytown Library Kansas” and any other combination of terms that a library seeker may use.  What do you find?  Are there other Anytown Public Library’s out there, say in another state, competing with your site?  Does your site appear on your City’s site, or some other referring site?

The easiest way to improve your results in Google and Yahoo! search engines is to register.  If you have changed or purchased a domain name for your site, you may want to register the new name.  Each search engine has an online form for submitting your Web site to their index:

Google:
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

Yahoo:
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

Also, if you found in your initial testing that there is community or City site that refers to your site, make sure it is up-to-date.  Call, email, whatever it takes – your library Web site is an Amazing tool for promoting the library and you want to make sure people have the right address.

As librarians, we catalog and classify things.  How do we catalog and classify our Web site?  With metadata!  Depending on the WordPress Theme you use for your site, you may not have an easy way to add your own site description and keywords.  Luckily, there’s a plugin for that!

You can do a search for “metadata” from the Plugins section of your site’s dashboard or from the WordPress site.  That’s how I found and installed this:  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/add-meta-tags/.  Using this plugin, I added a site description and keywords to a KLOW site.

Out of curiosity, I did a simple search for ‘improve search engine results’ and came up with a few dated, but easy-to-read articles on the subject that might be of interest to you:

Again, out of further curiosity, I did a search for “library web site promotion” and found this interesting web-based, self-paced module on Library Marketing from the Ohio Library Council: Introduction to Marketing the Library :: Libraries on the Web Section

Let us know if you have found any interesting or unique ways to promote your library Web site!

Categories
Tutorial

Getting Started with KLOW

I am working on a series of Introductory screencast videos for folks new to KLOW and WordPress.  This post will be updated as new videos are ready for publication.  If you have questions or have feedback, please share in the comments!  Think of me as the Old Spice Guy – ask for a topic to be covered, and I will deliver a screencast video!

Outline for covering WordPress Basics for new libraries:

  • First Steps – Update password and information for “librarian” user | Managing additional users | Updating default Settings for the site
  • Basic Content – Overviews of Categories, link categories, tags, posts and pages
  • Customizing the Site – Overview of themes | Finding and installing new themes | Widgets and Sidebars
  • All about Images – Overview of Media Library | Web image tips and tricks | Creative Commons | Inserting images | Themes using ‘featured images’
  • Intermediate WordPress – Upgrading | Overview of plugins | Finding and installing plugins | Creative posts and pages using the Kitchen Sink, ordered and unordered lists, blockquotes, indents, justification | Embedding videos and slideshows from 3rd party sites (Flickr, Slideshare, etc.)
  • Web site Policies – Do you archive or delete old posts? Do you allow online registration? Do you have a photo release form? Do you post Board minutes and agendas? Do you post all of your policies on the site? Who is allowed to add, edit and delete content?

Quick and Dirty Videos (made with Jing! or Screencast-o-matic):

This just in from Liz’s blog reader: 10 WordPress Tutorial Sites to Brush Up Your Blogging Skills

Useful Instructions from the WordPress Codex: