All posts tagged: WordPress

Automattic confirms Mullenweg has returned as CEO after attempted ouster by board

Automattic confirms Mullenweg has returned as CEO after attempted ouster by board

Published by skeptic

After a tumultuous week, which saw WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg ousted from his position as CEO of Automattic, WordPress.com’s parent company, by way of a board vote, the company has now issued a statement confirming that Mullenweg has returned to his position. “Matt Mullenweg is the chairman and CEO of Automattic, with full support of the board and if you search online you can see many top executives and Automatticians supporting him as well,” a company spokesperson shared with TechCrunch via email just after 5 PM ET on Saturday evening. (The mention of online support appears to refer to supportive posts on X that Mullenweg has been reposting from his X account.) Automattic’s board had voted earlier this week to put Mullenweg on a paid leave of absence for unknown reasons. The move seemingly came as a surprise to Mullenweg, who posted on Automattic’s Slack, accusing the board members of “conspiring” against him. Automattic confirmed Mullenweg’s removal to TechCrunch on Wednesday, saying that Mullenweg was “currently on leave” and that Automattic’s Chief Financial Officer, Mark …

Matt Mullenweg tells (trolls?) Automattic staff, saying he’s back in control after CEO ouster

Matt Mullenweg tells (trolls?) Automattic staff, saying he’s back in control after CEO ouster

Published by skeptic

Matt Mullenweg has posted a message to Automattic’s Slack, claiming he is back in control as CEO of the WordPress.com parent company, according to a screenshot of the message seen by TechCrunch, which was confirmed by multiple employee sources. The post arrives only days after Automattic’s board voted to oust Mullenweg as CEO for unknown reasons. Automattic has been asked to confirm if Mullenweg’s statement is true, but has not yet responded to repeated requests for comment. Mullenweg responded to our inquiry, saying a blog post is forthcoming. When it dropped, it was about him buying a houseboat. Friday afternoon, Mary Hubbard, the Executive Director of WordPress.org, wrote on X that she was “relieved and pleased to see Matt Mullenweg return as CEO of Automattic.” This story is still developing. Founder advice: If you don’t have a coup attempt every few years, you’re not hiring strong enough leaders. — Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) September 11, 2026 On Wednesday, the WordPress founder and a key advocate for the open source community told his team via Slack that …

Automattic’s board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

Automattic’s board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

Published by skeptic

Matt Mullenweg, the founder and CEO of Automattic, best known as the parent company of WordPress.com, has been put on a leave of absence by his board against his will, according to a Slack message seen by TechCrunch. Earlier Wednesday, Mullenweg posted in a Slack channel visible to all employees that the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Mark Davies, had “conspired” with other board members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker to vote to put Mullenweg on a paid leave of absence. The message read: And the biggest news: I won’t be able to make the [meeting] tomorrow. @Mark Davies has conspired with @Ann Dunwoody, @Toni, and @Sue Decker behind my back and they voted to put me on a paid leave of absence. I voted against that. Wishing Mark and all of you the very best. To clarify @Mark Davies was voted as interim CEO. I received the resolution 50 minutes before the meeting start, and requested repeatedly for time to have it reviewed by independent legal counsel, even a few hours, which was …

How I stopped a massive WordPress spam attack with 4,700 lines of code in two days – thanks to Codex and Claude

How I stopped a massive WordPress spam attack with 4,700 lines of code in two days – thanks to Codex and Claude

Published by skeptic

Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Spammers found ways in and flooded my database. Claude and Codex became my emergency coding team. The 4,700-line fix added stronger defenses and cleanup tools. About a month ago, my main website was on the receiving end of a new attack. Spammers were using the username field as a message carrier, stuffing it with a fake domain and crypto bait such as “check balance,” “withdraw funds,” “BTC transfer” and “action required.” WordPress then helpfully forwarded that payload to me in thousands of “new user registration” emails. Also: Apple rushed to squash 29 bugs because AI is supercharging hackers – update ASAP At that time, my server was using a commercially purchased security product that was supposed to protect my WordPress website from registration spam. That product clearly wasn’t up to the task. I’m the developer of a WordPress security plugin that is designed to help users restrict access to their websites. Since the registration spam security product I had been …

Someone planted backdoors in dozens of WordPress plug-ins used in thousands of websites

Someone planted backdoors in dozens of WordPress plug-ins used in thousands of websites

Published by skeptic

Dozens of plug-ins for the widely used open source web blogging software WordPress are now offline after a backdoor was discovered in them, used to push malicious code to any website that relied on the plug-ins. The backdoor was discovered after a new corporate owner bought these plug-ins. Anchor Hosting founder Austin Ginder sounded the alarm in a blog post last week describing a supply chain attack on a WordPress plug-in maker called Essential Plugin. Ginder said someone last year bought Essential Plugin and the backdoor was soon added to the plug-ins’ source code. The backdoor sat dormant until earlier this month when it activated and began distributing malicious code to any website with the plug-ins installed. Essential Plugin says on its website that it has over 400,000 plug-in installs and more than 15,000 customers. WordPress’ plug-in install page says the affected plug-ins are in over 20,000 active WordPress installations. Plug-ins allow owners of WordPress-based websites to extend the site’s functionality, but in doing so grant the plug-ins access to their installations, which can open …

The best WordPress hosting services of 2026: Expert tested and reviewed

The best WordPress hosting services of 2026: Expert tested and reviewed

Published by skeptic

WordPress is one of the most popular content management system (CMS) solutions for managing the backend of websites available today. Using a CMS like WordPress eliminates the need for coding. Unless you want to customize your website this way, WordPress offers a blog-style backend complete with plugin support, templates, SEO, and user management making it a great choice for new and experienced webmasters alike. According to W3Techs, around 60% of all websites with a known CMS use the service. With this in mind, you should opt for a hosting service that supports WordPress right from the start, and preferably with one-click installation. That said, just because so many hosting providers offer WordPress support doesn’t mean that every service is good value for money, reliable, or trustworthy.  Also: Best free web hosting service 2026 In ZDNET’s February update, we refreshed our guide to the best WordPress hosting services of 2026, revisiting each of our recommended services and performing a thorough editorial update. Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome …

It just got easier for Claude to check in on your WordPress site

It just got easier for Claude to check in on your WordPress site

Published by skeptic

On Thursday, WordPress launched a new Claude connector, enabling site owners to share back-end data with Anthropic’s chatbot system. Users can control what specific data they want to share, and access can also be revoked if and when the user chooses. Notably, Claude is given read-only access, meaning it won’t be able to alter anything within a user’s CMS. However, last year WP claimed that it would eventually deliver “write” access to the MCP integration, presumably allowing users to conduct editorial tasks directly from a connected chatbot of their choosing. At any rate, after Claude is linked to an account, users can ask the chatbot all sorts of questions about the site data that it’s been given access to—from summarizing the site’s monthly web traffic to conducting analysis of which posts have low user engagement. WordPress has also provided a list of template prompts for the chatbot—stuff like “Show me pending comments on my blog” or “Which of my sites gets the most traffic?” or “Show me which posts are generating the most discussion.” Others …