Why you SHOULD upgrade your Joomla or Wordpress website NOW

Nobody likes spending money when they don't have to. But when it comes to modern CMS based websites like Joomla and Wordpress, 'have to' comes around periodically.

Both systems are now quite sophisticated pieces of software, and like all software, neither are flawless when it comes to security, and neither are the server operating systems upon which they rely.  Recent revelations in relation to long undiscovered/patched flaws in some older PHP versions exposed vulnerabilities in both Wordpress and Joomla, with both organisations recently releasing critical updates (J3.4.8 and WP 4.41).

Unfortunately this PHP flaw leaves any Joomla or Wordpress version prior to the latest release potentially vulnerable, so now is one of those periodical 'have to' moments. Updating Wordpress is usually a straightforward process, and if you haven't updated to the latest version, we strongly recommend you do as soon as you can.

If you have an older Joomla site, we strongly recommend you look at your upgrade options: if your site is Joomla 3.4.3+ then updating is usually a simply matter of hitting the "Update now" button, taking a backup first of course!

If your site is running 3.4.2 or earlier, then you need to be a bit more careful, as it's possible that your server might not support the most recent version - starting with 3.4.3 the minimum PHP version required to run Joomla was increased, and many webhosts, notably those running Red Hat Linus Centos 6, like out long term hosting partner Futureservers, won't support 3.4.3+

If your site is running even older versions, such as Joomla 1.5 or 2.5 then you really should be considering a full upgrade to the latest version. Both 1.5 and 2.5 are now beyond 'end-of-life' which means that no further updates will be released; they are potentially already vulnerable, and the longer they are left, the more complicated any future update might become.

If your website is running on one of these older versions, then contact us about your upgrade options and how we can help you.