AMS Computer Services is now on Facebook! You can find our page at:

http://www.facebook.com/amswebhost

Be sure to click Like to become a fan.

We will post special announcements on this page, special web hosting deals, and other notables from the webhosting industry.

Interact with us, tell your friends, and join our social community!

Scott

WordPress 3.1.3 has been released. This is a security update and all WordPress users are encouraged to upgrade.

Release notes for WordPress 3.1.3 is available at:

http://wordpress.org/news/2011/05/wordpress-3-1-3/

Users who have installed WordPress through Softaculous can use the Softaculous interface to upgrade to the latest version.

Users who manually installed WordPress can use the automatic update feature in their WordPress admin panel to upgrade their script.

Steven

UPDATE Apr 9, 2011 10:28AM CDT — Softaculous has been updated now to include WordPress 3.1.1. If you installed WordPress with Softaculous or Fantastico you can now use the Softaculous link to upgrade to version 3.1.1. If you previously used this link to upgrade your WordPress script you may want to check again and make sure you have applied the 3.1.1 update. Sorry for the confusion with this.

UPDATE Apr 8, 2011 09:01AM CDT — It looks like WordPress 3.1.1 being included in Softaculous was in error. Softaculous does not yet have WordPress 3.1.1. We will update this post again when this becomes available in Softaculous. Users who installed WordPress through Softaculous or Fantastico may want to hold off on upgrading until it is made available. You can check the Softaculous interface in your cPanel periodically to see if the upgrade has become available for you.

A new version of the popular blogging script WordPress has been released, version 3.1.1. All users are encouraged to upgrade.

There are known security issues with versions prior to 3.1.1, so all users need to upgrade!

Release notes for WordPress 3.1.1 are available at:

http://wordpress.org/news/2011/04/wordpress-3-1-1/

SOFTACULOUS – The update to 3.1.1 should also be available to you in the Softaculous interface if you installed WordPress from Softaculous. While you can probably upgrade WordPress through the WordPress Admin Dashboard interface, if you installed WordPress with Softaculous and you do not update it through Softaculous, then Softaculous will not know that you updated, and this can create a version mismatch. If you installed WordPress through Softaculous or the old Fantastico interface, you should upgrade WordPress through the Softaculous interface.

Plugins – Take this opportunity to insure that all of the plugins, components, and themes you have installed for your WordPress script are up-to-date and secure. If you keep the core WordPress script up-to-date, but fail to keep any plugins up-to-date, then you are still vulnerable to attack. Updates to any plugins or components are made with the intent of fixing security issues, so these need to be kept up-to-date as well.

Steven

A new version of Joomla! has been released, version 1.5.23. The release announcement is available at:

http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5367-joomla-1523-released.html

ALL USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO UPGRADE. Related to this release, there appears to be an information disclosure bug in version 1.5.22 and older.

NOTICE REGARDING JOOMLA! COMPONENTS – All users need to insure that the components and extensions you have installed for Joomla! are secure and being kept up-to-date. We are again seeing a rash of accounts being hacked into due to outdated or insecure components. If you use an insecure or outdated component, then even if you have the most up-to-date Joomla! script, you can still be vulnerable. Please keep your components and extensions up-to-date to avoid having your website compromised, defaced, or hacked into.

The Joomla! 1.6 tree does not appear to be affected by this.

This upgrade should also be available in Softaculous if you used Softaculous to install Joomla!

Steven

UPDATE Feb 11, 2011 11:52AM CST — This update is now available in Softaculous.

We sent out notices yesterday regarding webhosting accounts that had outdated WordPress scripts encouraging you to update. That notice had the latest version of WordPress as being 3.0.4.

The WordPress developers then released an update, WordPress 3.0.5. Users are encouraged to update to this version. The release notes are:

http://wordpress.org/news/2011/02/wordpress-3-0-5

Softaculous has not yet updated to 3.0.5, but the update should be available in Softaculous in a few days.

Steven