How off-line is Joomla!'s off-line mode?

How off-line is Joomla!'s off-line mode?

Joomla!’s temporary off-line mode is a very handy option to temporarily take your site down while performing maintenance —e.g. updating the Joomla! core or an extension— and is even suggested by the official documentation for the unfortunate time that your site has been compromised. However, is this really off-line, or are there any pitfalls you should be aware of?

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777: The number of the beast

777: The number of the beast
I promise you, this article doesn't have to do anything with religion. It talks about site security. The beast I am referring to, is unwittingly opening a back door to your site to potential hackers. You may not know it, but you could be a sitting duck. It all lies in the dark world of ownership, users, groups and permissions. This is a long article, but I promise you that you will learn things you would have never imagined. Let us shed some light to the mystery of the 777 number, and kill the evil beast!
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Fighting Spam in a Joomla! Powered Website

Fighting Spam in a Joomla! Powered Website

SPAM! This is one problem that any webmaster today has to contend with in his daily tasks. If not dealt with on a fundamental level, it can really become a pain in the neck and also end up in consuming time. Not removing Spam comments/registrations/forums posts on websites can really be harmful for its reputation and credibility.

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Joomla! Hosting Security

Joomla! Hosting Security

Joomla! security is one of the most frequent topic of conversation among Joomla! users. Joomla! has received a lot of unjustified and misinformed criticism concerning its security. A vast majority of providers are often concerned about the seeming high number of hacked Joomla! sites while assuming Joomla! itself is the problem.

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7 Simple Tips For Using Your Joomla! Site

7 Simple Tips For Using Your Joomla! Site

There are many webmasters who need assistance with their Joomla! site. Most problems webmasters have to deal with will be avoided by following these 7 simple guidelines for using a Joomla! site:

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Only a Ninja can kill another Ninja

Only a Ninja can kill another Ninja

If you were to provide a short list of the threats against your site, which one would be the number one threat? For me, it's script kiddies. Those pesky individuals who don't have a programming bone inside them, but still can cause a great deal of harm to our sites by using pre-packaged attacks against them. Their success rate is amazingly high, mostly due to our fault. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate some trivial techniques to add a degree of stealth on your site so that script kiddies can't launch their attacks and even if they do, they will most likely be fended off successfully. Just like a ninja, you'll learn how to have your site lurk in plain sight without being spotted by those pesky attackers.

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62 reasons to fire your Super Administrator

62 reasons to fire your Super Administrator

In our last issue we were discussing about how any Joomla! site belongs to a homogeneous population, why this is bad from a security perspective, and how to avoid that by changing your database table prefix. In this issue, we are going to expand a bit more, by making sure that another set of common characteristics – the Super Administrator user name and ID – are different than those a potential hacker would expect.

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The prefix has nothing to do with telephony

The prefix has nothing to do with telephony

When dealing with website security, most web masters think only about fending off potential attacks. However, we are all human. No matter how hard we try, some of the attacks will make it through, and hit our site. Our concern should be making sure that these attacks never cause any real harm to our site. We'll start covering our bases from... the database! In this issue we'll see some working, real-world examples of security measures based on that concept, which take a minimal amount of time and skills to apply to your own site. But, first, what has the database to do with security and your site surviving hacking attempts anyway?

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Things to do before your site gets hacked

Things to do before your site gets hacked

Joomla! is often bashed by unknowledgeable people as insecure. How little they know! The fact is that no system is airtight, unless you do your part to secure it. Most people coward away hearing as much as the word “security” itself. You don’t have to! Securing your site is rather easy, if you know what, where, and how it needs to be completed. This article may only scratch the surface, but will provide you with enough advice to perform a major upgrade in your site’s security in a few, easy steps.

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