Virally growing attacks on unpatched WordPress sites affects ~2m pages

Enlarge (credit: Wordfence ) Attacks on websites running an outdated version of WordPress are increasing at a viral rate. Almost 2 million pages have been defaced since a serious vulnerability in the content management system came to light nine days ago. The figure represents a 26 percent spike in the past 24 hours. A rogues’ gallery of sites have been hit by the defacements. They include conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s glennbeck.com, Linux distributor Suse’s news.opensuse.org, the US Department of Energy-supported jcesr.org, the Utah Office of Tourism’s travel.utah.gov, and many more. At least 19 separate campaigns are participating and, in many cases, competing against each other in the defacements. Virtually all of the vandalism is being carried out by exploiting a severe vulnerability WordPress fixed in WordPress version 4.7.2, which was released on January 26. In an attempt to curb attacks before automatic updates installed the patch, the severity of the bug—which resides in a programming interface known as REST—wasn’t disclosed until February 1. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Virally growing attacks on unpatched WordPress sites affects ~2m pages

Startup resolves customer service issues for free

Add / Remove Most people hate contacting customer services to make complaints, so it is no surprise that we have seen a number of businesses — such as Green Claim — offering to do people’s grumbling for them. While the aforementioned focuses on sorting out discrepancies between customers and airlines, a new company called Service will help users resolve complaints with any business for free. To begin, clients contact Service with their complaint via their website. They send a detailed description of the problem and any supporting documentation. Then Service will liaise with the company in question on behalf of the client and attempt to resolve the issue, gaining refunds or compensation for wronged customers. The service is currently available for free while the startup build a positive reputation, but it will eventually be monetized. What other customer interactions could be outsourced in this way? Website: www.getservice.com Contact: www.getservice.com/contact The post Startup resolves customer service issues for free appeared first on Springwise .

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Startup resolves customer service issues for free

Here’s How You Move a 400-Ton, 404-Year-Old Japanese Castle

400: That’s about how many years old Japan’s Hirosaki Castle is. It’s also how many tons it weighs. And yet it was successfully lifted two feet in the air and 230 feet down the road. Read more…

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Here’s How You Move a 400-Ton, 404-Year-Old Japanese Castle

Galapagos Island Volcano Erupts After 33 Years, Threatening Fragile Ecosystem

An anonymous reader writes: Wolf volcano in the Galapagos islands has erupted for the first time in more than 30 years, sending lava flowing down its slopes and potentially threatening the world’s only colony of pink iguanas. The Galapagos National Park says that currently there is no risk to tourism operations, but the Environment Ministry is notifying tourist operators to take precautions. A tourist boat passing by took an amazing picture of the eruption. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Galapagos Island Volcano Erupts After 33 Years, Threatening Fragile Ecosystem

Watch a Virgin Galactic Test Flight from Onboard the Engine

This is what a Virgin Galactic supersonic flight with the SpaceShipTwo looks like, up close and personal. It’s not quite space, but it’s still damn gorgeous to watch. Read more…        

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Watch a Virgin Galactic Test Flight from Onboard the Engine