When Logging Into WordPress, It Says Bad Bot??
It seems like every other day that I log into my WordPress dashboard and there’s a new “product” or “service” that I’ve got to try out. One day it might be a diet product, the next it could be a psychology tool, and the day before that it might be a health app. So it never ends.
Along with all of these updates there’s seemingly a never ending stream of bad bots trying to hijack my blog’s login. I’ll get an email or a tweet from a bot pretending to be a human, directing me to a landing page where I’ll be asked to install some software or to give them my details. Sometimes it’s even a chain letter where I’ve been contacted multiple times by different bots.
How Do You Know It’s a Bot?
Apart from the fact that they’re typically automated and try to get you to do their bidding, you can tell a bot from a human by looking at their behaviour. If a bot is trying to behave like a human, to get your approval or to scam you then they’re probably a bot.
You might see a lot of “clicks” on a web page that you visit, lots of suspicious activity in your Google Analytics, or a sudden and unexplained increase in your website’s traffic. If you’re trying to run a blog, these are all red flags that something is amiss.
You might see a sudden drop in performance too. Platforms like Shopify and Wix report that 75% of their customers experience downtime at least once per month due to a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. (Source)
Why Do You Need To Know?
Even if you think that a product or service is legitimate, it’s always a good idea to take a few minutes to see what others are saying about it. Not only will it help you determine whether or not you should try out the product or service, but it might also give you some insight into the company behind it. (If it’s a company, that is.)
Sometimes even seemingly good products and services are really a bad idea. Google is a big company with a lot of money and resources. Despite all of this, they still make questionable moves from time to time. In April of this year, Google banned all cryptocurrency mining and trading related content from their platforms. According to a Google source, “Many projects that promote cryptocurrencies or other digital tokens promote activities that are likely to lose us money.” (Source)
The Consequences Of Not Knowing
If you think that you might have opened a door to a bad actor, there are some pretty serious consequences that you could face. In the worst case scenario, if you’re hacked, your personal and financial information could be exposed. (Not to mention your blogging platform!)
The truth is, there are a lot of good reasons why you should try to identify and eliminate bad bots from your blog’s ecosystem. Not only will it help protect your personal information, but it could also help improve your blogging experience. After all, what’s the point in having all of that personal data if no one can find it useful?
There are always risks associated with trying out new things. Despite all of this, it’s important to keep an open mind and to try new things. If you’ve got a healthy scepticism, you might just avoid some major disappointments and get some good use out of what would otherwise be a dubious product or service. (Just make sure that your scepticism is properly calibrated! You don’t want to discredit good products and services because of a few bad apples.)