As we’ve seen in the WordPress Stats infographic, the software has not only become the most widely used CMS but is also the software of choice by the majority of the Top 100 blogs in the Internet. With that, it’s not a surprise to see the increased number of attacks and other security threats on WordPress and because of these constant threats and attacks, it is important for WordPress users to keep their blogs/websites secure.

One of the goals for iThemes’ Make Waves campaign for 2012 is to make every WordPress site safe and secure from malware and other security vulnerabilities. As part of that campaign, iThemes will be sponsoring a FREE webinar on April 25th featuring security expert Dre Armeda who is the CEO and co-founder of Sucuri Security. In this free webinar, Dre Armeda will be sharing tips on how to do basic garage cleaning on your WordPress site and how to reduce the risks of it being infected or compromised.

SIGNUP for the Lockdown WordPress: Security Tips from Sucuri FREE Webinar

If you can’t attend the webinar, don’t worry because there will be a follow-up post and recap of the webinar on the iThemes Blog.

If you haven’t upgraded your WordPress installation to the latest version WordPress 3.3.2, stop what you’re doing and upgrade now! If you can’t do the upgrade right now, don’t delay and do it as soon as you can. WordPress 3.3.2 which was released a few days ago is a security update which makes it mandatory if you want to keep your blog/website safe and running smoothly.

Here are the affected libraries that received security updates:

• Plupload (version 1.5.4), which WordPress uses for uploading media.
• SWFUpload, which WordPress previously used for uploading media, and may still be in use by plugins.
• SWFObject, which WordPress previously used to embed Flash content, and may still be in use by plugins and themes.

WordPress 3.3.2 also includes the following fixes:

• Limited privilege escalation where a site administrator could deactivate network-wide plugins when running a WordPress network under particular circumstances.
• Cross-site scripting vulnerability when making URLs clickable.
• Cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in redirects after posting comments in older browsers, and when filtering URLs.

Users can download WordPress 3.3.2 to upgrade manually or do it automatically via the WordPress admin panel – Dashboard > Updates. Don’t forget to make it a habit to backup your WordPress database and deactivate all plugins before upgrading.

Since I was pretty busy during the weekend, I was only able to upgrade my WordPress installation earlier today. The upgrade process went smoothly and so far, there’s been no problems or compatibility issues with any of the plugins that I’m running on the site.

Aside from WordPress 3.3.2, the dev team has also released WordPress 3.4 Beta 3 which includes about 90 fixes/changes since Beta 2. Again, please take note that WordPress 3.4 Beta 3 is only for testing purposes and shouldn’t be used/installed on live sites. For those testing the software, please make sure to report any bugs that you find.

Download WordPress 3.4 Beta 3

Anybody else upgraded to WordPress 3.3.2? Did you experience any problems or issues during and/or after the upgrade? Anyone trying out WordPress 3.4 Beta 3? Please share your thoughts?

That’s exactly what Joost de Valk aka Yoast, a WordPress/web developer and one of the well-known figures in the WordPress community did. With the help of Experian Hitwise and Design by Soap, Joost has created and released this detailed and very informative infographic on WordPress stats.

click here to view full size version

As a WordPress user and advocate, it’s wonderful to see how far WordPress has come, to see its rapid growth the past few years and how more people are benefitting from using the software not only as regular users but also as web developers or theme/plugin developers. Thanks to Joost for creating and sharing this awesome infographic.

Quick note for beta testers, theme & plugin developers and other users who would like to try out and test the upcoming version of the WordPress software. WordPress 3.4 Beta 2 was just released earlier today, it comes just a week after the Beta 1 version was released and contains over 60 bug fixes and feature adjustments based on user testing and feedback.

WordPress theme and plugin developers are encouraged to start testing their products with the 3.4 Beta to make sure that they work when the stable version gets released some time next month. Parties who try out and test this version are also encouraged to submit and report bugs.

Download WordPress 3.4 Beta 2

WordPress 3.4 Beta 1 was released earlier today by the WordPress dev team. If you’re a web developer, theme/plugin author and would like to try out the upcoming version, then go ahead and get a copy. This version is still in development stage you shouldn’t install it on a live/production site. Rather, install it on a test site, play with it and report any bugs you find.

Here’s some of the new features on WordPress 3.4:

• Theme Customizer with Previewer
• Flexible Custom Header Sizes
• Selecting Custom Header and Background Images from Media Library
• Better experience searching for and choosing a theme

And some of the changes made under the hood:

• New XML-RPC API for external and mobile applications
• New API for registering theme support for custom headers and backgrounds
• Performance improvements to WP_Query by splitting the query (Please test!)
• Internationalization improvements (improved performance and locale support)
• Performance and API improvements when working with lists of installed themes
• Support for installing child themes from the WordPress Themes Directory

The final and stable version of WordPress 3.4 is scheduled to be released in May and if more people help in testing and reporting/fixing bugs, the sooner the final version will be released. Those who want to be beta testers should check out this Codex article.

WordPress theme and plugin authors are encouraged to start following the WordPress 3.4 development cycle so that they can update their themes & plugins and have them compatible with the newest version of WordPress.

Download WordPress 3.4 Beta 1