Key Tasks Performed:

• Support team – Dedicated server support
• Infra support – Responsible for server management, security & hardening, vulnerability assessment and solutions

Key Technologies / Products used:

• Hypervisor – VMware
• Storage – Dell
• Network – Cisco switches/routers and ASA firewall
• Backups – R1soft and Veeam
• Application – Cpanel, plesk, solusvm, mailchannel

About our client

Our client is one of the largest publicly listed companies in the U.S., and moreover, they serve small businesses and financial institutions. In addition, their core expertise lies in development and web hosting services. Over the past 20 years, they have expanded significantly; in fact, this growth has been driven by the acquisition of companies specializing in digital marketing, website hosting, email marketing, financial services, and small business solutions. As a result, today they operate more than 25 facilities across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

 

Challenge

Managing website and WordPress security across a large number of servers is an increasingly complex challenge. In recent years, WordPress has become a primary target for hackers. Although most of the latest updates focus on fixing WordPress security issues, much more still needs to be done to strengthen overall protection.

Often, hacking attempts can be traced back to human error, misconfigurations, or outdated software versions. Furthermore, hackers have continuously found new ways to inject malicious scripts despite the automation of many security processes. According to recent research from the WordPress vulnerability database, 55% of vulnerabilities are linked to plugins, 15% to themes, and 35% to the WordPress core itself. Notably, most hacking attempts occur through code injections. Surprisingly, even commercial plugins and branded themes are vulnerable, which means security loopholes are being discovered every day.

While we recommend updating versions regularly and maintaining proper configurations, these measures alone do not fully safeguard customer websites. Instead, more attention must be directed at the server level. In fact, customers often end up raising concerns about server security rather than site-level protection. Consequently, actsupport was required to develop a comprehensive solution to clean and secure thousands of WordPress sites effectively.

 

How we helped

When our client approached us with the WordPress vulnerability issues, we found that very little work was done to prevent the hacking attempts. This was the scenario that existed before actsupport services were initiated:

 

• Customers were asked to delete their hacked websites and restore the good ones from the backup
• Customers were asked to follow up 20 point WordPress configuration policies to security their data. It included setting up right permissions for files / folders, removing unwanted scripts , update themes and plugins , update their version to the latest etc..
• Customers kept complaining about database hacks and other plugins / themes vulnerability.
• Few customers were not aware of the software and they left with old versions and needed someone to assist.

 

actsupport has been a trusted provider of Level 3 support and server maintenance services for over a decade in the web hosting industry. Throughout this journey, we have consistently accepted challenges with the same dedication and energy. In this particular case, the actsupport team quickly took action and successfully delivered a permanent solution for the client.

 

• The team firstly collected all the server based vulnerability issues and prioritized the tasks.
• The web, database and kernel security were hardened to fix the general security issues with the servers
• WordPress sites information was collected and the upgrade / security fixes were implemented in a phased manner in 100 plus servers.
• A bash / python script was developed to upgrade the WordPress sites along with database with proper backups. The same script was further extended to fix the WP configuration issues.
• A customized firewall / malware – bot search script was used to search for the vulnerable scripts in the sites and they were mitigated / removed instantly.
• A server wide patching software was installed in all the servers to continue monitor the lower version/ vulnerable WordPress files and update it to the latest stable versions.
• Customized Antimalware scripts were deployed in each server to report on any hack attempts / code injections in the WP sites.

Results

Previously, frequent WordPress and website hacks had caused the client to lose customers, leading to increased cancellations and a significant decline in profit margins. However, after actsupport implemented server patches and security enhancements, the number of customer complaints dropped to single digits, ticket volumes decreased substantially, and overall business performance improved noticeably.

• 100+vulnerable servers
• 25000+ WordPress sites hacked
• 75000+ unknown vulnerabilities detected
• 100000+unresolved vulnerabilities
• 25000+unresolved malware threats
• 40000+known malware threats

actsupport patching helped the customers now bring down the above count to 100 plus now and over the years we have become an important work partner by providing proactive WordPress support and maintenance.