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If you’re a customer who uses WordPress, you have probably already noticed the issues concerning logging into your WordPress control panel.

We wanted to send out this notification to alert anyone who hasn’t been briefed on the situation, as well as give some additional explanation about what is going on, how we’re handling it, and why we’re handling it in this manner.

• A global brute force attack on WordPress’ wp-login.php file began on April 11th. This attack affected WordPress users worldwide and was experienced by virtually every web hosting company.
  
  • A ‘brute force’ attack is when an automated program (sometimes referred to as a ‘botnet’) repeatedly attempts to log into a password protected site by trying different passwords over and over again until it finds the right one.
• We implemented a server side check to reduce the number of wp-login requests, but found that the attack started to increase the time between login attempts.
• On April 12th, we noticed the botnet activity ramped up dramatically, and we were forced to block all traffic to wp-login pages. This was a temporary solution that remedied the brute force attack in the following ways:

  • Customer WordPress sites were able to stay up and running
  • All incoming brute force requests were stopped
  • This also kept out any unwanted, malicious intrusions into our customers’ sites
  • By blocking the malicious incoming traffic, it also stopped the slowness issues we were having on our Linux servers.

In the meantime, we began collecting attackers’ IPs so we could start blocking them.

• On April 13th, we began using the data we’d collected on the attackers’ IPs to begin blocking them from connecting to our servers. This was a slow process that took time to refine and put in place as a permanent solution.
• On April 16th, we removed the block on each server for wp-login once the new system was implemented across all of our servers. Users should now be able to log into their WordPress sites. Once you log in, we recommend that you change your password to something very strong (e.g. a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters like #, $, and &). You can find instructions on how to change your password here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Resetting_Your_Password.

The tactics used in the attack are changing daily (sometimes even hourly), and we are responding with adjustments of our own. While we currently have the situation under control, we are still watching and reacting to the attack to make sure it doesn’t begin affecting our servers again.

Although we can’t announce too many details about our attempts to block the attack (because we don’t want to give too much information to the attackers), we still want you to know that we are aware of the situation, and are working on it. Keep an eye on the status blog for major updates as the situation progresses.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to defend against this attack.

Sincerely,

Lisa Grice

Director of Customer Operations

IX Web Hosting

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You know, we’ve always said we LOVE our customers, but with February 14th fast approaching, we get to prove it!

That’s right, Valentine’s Day is coming, and since digital candy doesn’t exist yet, we thought of another way we could spread the love and convince you to be ours.

So, light the candles and open the red wine, because IX Web Hosting is going to woo you with some seductive savings this Valentine’s Day.

Starting February 7th, on our popular Expert Plan, we’re taking 55% off our original price of $6.95. The lovely new price is a stunningly low $2.96! Not only that, but we’re offering almost 50% off all other shared hosting plans!

That’s better than a mediocre dinner at the bistro and a handful of chalky heart candies, right? Just remember, this dreamy deal ends the day after V-Day (February 15th), so stop dodging Cupid’s arrows and check it out now. We guarantee it’ll be love at first sight.

Keep us in your heart!

Love,

 IXOXO Web Hosting 

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It’s New Year’s! A happy time?

A time for reflecting. A time to party. A happy time!

For most of us, it’s a time of making promises to ourselves that get seem to get harder to keep as the year goes by… so instead of that, I resolve to focus on what makes happy times even happier. (Hint: it’s not alcohol.)

It’s gratitude.

I’m not recycling an old “Thanksgiving” email about being thankful here. I will make this new year the happiest it can possibly be and I’m taking you with me.

This new year comes with a bunch of awesome new stuff; new products we’ve worked really hard on like our Domain Club that will save you money, great projects that will continue to improve our hosting services (I even hear whispers of a new hosting control panel, “zzzz…. cPaaahhnellll…. zzzz” in the ice-cold winter breeze), and our new account control panel, which you may have already seen.

So, my ambition for 2013 is to be happier. Happy people make better partners, parents, business owners, thinkers, and well, people. The way to get there is to be grateful for everything you’ve got and to constantly search for things to be happy about. If you can spend your time focusing on the positive around you, you will influence your world to be more positive toward you.

I hope you start searching for all the good in your life until it just becomes obvious on its own and all your struggles appear smaller by comparison. There is a lot to be grateful for, in anyone’s life, and it is all too easy to forget.

We’re incredibly grateful to have you as our customer and partner in doing better things with the Internet.

I hope this year will be a happy one for you.

What’s your New Year’s Resolution? Any specific ones in regards to your business or website?

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Fathi
Happy IX Leader

PS: I’m really interested to hear what you guys think. Put your answers in the comments and we’ll try and answer each one – especially if you have any confusion about what you can do to reach those goals with your site.

PPS: So, check this out. I got myself this really cool Christmas gift called “prism glasses.” They’re awesome and totally weird, but I love them. Who knows, you might like them too!

Also, if you want to read more about gratitude and happiness – I recommend you check out “The Happiness Advantage” book. I will be using my new prism glasses to read it in bed, but don’t judge the book by that. It’s actually good and has inspired me in many ways!

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Hey everyone!  This year we wanted to do something special for the holidays, so, we’re having a huge Holiday Sale!  These great deals are just around the corner:

• 25% off ANY shared hosting plan when you use the coupon: HOLIDAY2012!
• 50% off the first month of our introductory Cloud or VPS plans! Coupons: HOLIDAYCLOUD12 & HOLIDAYVPS12
• For IX Customers Only: SSL certificates are only $4.95! Check your email for coupon codes!
• UPDATE – The $1.99 new .com domain promotion has reached the limit.  Promo Code HAPPYHOLIDAYS is no longer effective.  The $1 .com, .net, and .org domain promotion when WHOIS Privacy is purchased is still active, however.  No promo code necessary.  Thanks!

It all starts this month, December 17th-25th!  Don’t miss out!

We love giving back to our customers for the holidays, but we also remember that there are less fortunate people people in the world.  There are families out there struggling to make ends meet. That’s why, for the third year in a row, IX Web Hosting joined the Franklin County Children Service’s Holiday Wish event!  This year, we all came together and raised enough money to give toys to 85 children. Check out the full story!

Happy Holidays! We hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday season.

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The same team that’s been helping you with your sites is also helping children to have a happier holiday season!

For the third year in a row, IX Web Hosting participated in Franklin County Children Service’s annual Holiday Wish event. This charity doesn’t just donate to children in foster homes, but also to underprivileged families and orphans. What’s more, the kids actually get to choose the gifts they want, so rather than just picking from an assortment of random toys, they get exactly what they asked for.

For the second year in a row, Customer Relations (CR) Supervisor Robyn Mckee took lead as event coordinator and pseudo-santa. Much like last year, she planned a series of awesome fundraising events held throughout October and November.

We held a bunch of different fundraising events, like the Halloween Cook-Off (won by Cloud Sales rep Ken Long with his delicious cheeseburger soup), a Bake Sale, Movie Day, the annual Raffle, a Pancake Breakfast and even a Magic the Gathering Tournament.

All in all, our plan was to provide toys to 75 kids this year. However, we actually exceeded our fundraising goals enough to give gifts to 85 kids instead!

Robyn, Wil Jones, Dana Carey, and Chris Bates (all CR) then combed through the list of gifts the children had picked out. Kevin Mager (Oracle) helped make a spreadsheets to track bookkeeping for the various events as well as help divide up what gifts had been purchased and what gifts were still needed. After everything had been purchased, the grand total came to 160 toys!

Robyn, Dana, Kelly Walkauskas, Kevin Rucker (CR), and James Holt (Oracle) all played the role of Santa’s elves by wrapping the gifts, while Wil designed all the posters and signs like a pro.

Then, the big day. On Thursday, December 6th, we loaded up our donated fleet of SUV’s (Thanks to Tibi Ungureanu (Network Engineering), Dir. of CR Lisa Grice and VP of Operations Rick Gideon) and hit the road with Sr. Manager of CR Chris Testerman driving the pace car. When we arrived at the donation center, we were amazed at how many gifts they had. It was literally a warehouse stacked wall-to-wall with presents. It was beautiful to see just how much had been donated.

We look forward to Holiday Wish every year.. It doesn’t just benefit the children; it brings us closer together as a company, and brings us closer to our community.

We hope you have similar opportunities to help where you are. We’d love to hear about what you’re doing for the holidays in the comments.

Thanks for sharing the experience with us by reading. Happy Holidays!

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