ClassicPress / WordPress Tips & News for March 4, 2021

Last Week’s Show

It’s Episode 501 – ‘After the Hangover’, with plugins for Tracking, Trapping, Redirecting, Shipping, New Images, Security …, and ClassicPress options. It’s all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!

Join Amber and John every Thursday at 11:45 am for the pre-stream and noon for the show!

The Contest

Enter The Contest to Win!!

Contests Powered by Simple Giveaways who kindly provides us with the premium version for our contests.

I do want to thank Charlie for coming to the aid of the show and getting our contests all organized. I also want to thank all the developers again for supporting our show with their plugin donations! Please check them out.

Short note about participating in the contests folks. Remember we go to great efforts to get these licenses and look for more participation from you the producers.

Current Contest Winner is Jason:

Jason is The Winner of the Annual Single Site License of

Accessibility Checker Pro

products.equalizedigital.com

We are taking a hiatus from the contests for the next month.  Check back in April to learn about our next giveaway!

Let your friends know about the giveaway!

Visit http://WPPluginsAtoZ.com/contests for more info.

For all developers who would like to support the show. You can donate a premium license to be used in a future contest please go to WPPluginsAtoZ.com/PluginContest

WP Plugins A to Z News

Welcome to the week after the big party. Kinda seems like the hangover after a great New Year’s party. There is a bit of a letdown and you realize you need to pick up and move forward for the next 500.

Note to the Artists who supporting us, we have a new system for submitting art work for the show https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/. You can also view the art work from the past. Currently you can see all the submissions for Episode 500 here https://wppluginsatoz.com/show-art-submitted/ and you can even vote on the art work. Please, get over there and vote!! Also, if yo have any feedback about the new system, please send it to us.

The image for the March 4 show is a downloadable watch face. Read below for how to get it for your watch.

HI Guys

I have designed a Watch Face for Android Watches dedicated to the WP Plugin A to Z podcast. From my blog, there is a real working watch face for Android Smart Watches. The files are available to download for free at this URL: https://danielepais.com/journal/watch-face-design-wp-plugin-a-to-z/

Keep up the good work
Daniele

Yes, John is pimping out his daughter here, if you want to see her very pretty mug in the live stream it is now up to a $500 donation and until it happens that price will continue to go up… At the rate it is going she will never be live. Someone may want to start a Go Fund me to make her mug live.

Remember, you will want to hang around to the end of the show for our Q & A segment with Amber…. and to those listening on the podcast, you may want to check out the YouTube version which has some great discussions before the show starts…

The first episode of our podcast is here https://www.johnoverall.com/inaugural-podcast-wordpress-plugins-a-to-z/ tune in near the end for some nostalgia about where the show has come from.

Listener Questions

Hi John.

I know this is more of a security and Elementor question, but I wanted to get your take on it as well.

I’m using the latest version of Elementor Pro on a couple of my sites, and the contact form is built using the Elementor form widget. I’ve had reCAPTCHA v3 set up through Google for several months now, and set up in Elementor’s settings. I’ve had Google analytics set up from the start.

When someone fills out the contact form, I get an email, and very shortly thereafter I can see the resulting hit on that page in Analytics.

All has been working perfectly, and still is. However…

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve gotten the same email from the form being filled out, but this time it’s from a spammer. Legitimate emails are still coming in.

Here’s where the mystery is. After I get one of those, Google Analytics DOESN’T show that the contact page was visited at all. It’s as though the spammer was able to “fill out” the form without being detected! I’m scratching my head as to how this is possible.

I’ve obviously updated plugins and WordPress as needed, but haven’t changed the form, or anything in GA or reCAPTCHA.

Any thoughts on what this might be, or what direction you would go to investigate? Is there is a more secure contact form system/plugin you’d recommend?

Thanks in advance.

Greg H

In Other News

WordPress 5.7 Release Candidate 2
https://wordpress.org/news/2021/03/wordpress-5-7-release-candidate-2/#utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=social

Jailbreak Tool Works on iPhones Up to iOS 14.3
https://threatpost.com/jailbreak-tool-works-on-iphones-up-to-ios-14-3/164420/?fbclid=IwAR0UUDMvTnWUW7l3WwRx60Ods4_0bjo5Ct01ZXnOfE5_qROzinQbp_4VtSw

Microsoft Exchange Zero-Day Attackers Spy on U.S. Targets
https://threatpost.com/microsoft-exchange-zero-day-attackers-spy/164438/?fbclid=IwAR2mnKaAsQEJR3nIpHfF1RWpW7Nx9XNQjP84TBw0jjvOET-wH8hujCa87Po

Critical Vulnerability Patched in WooCommerce Upload Files
https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2021/03/critical-vulnerability-patched-in-woocommerce-upload-files/?utm_content=156429121&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-609853517

FireEye finds new malware likely linked to SolarWinds hackers
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fireeye-finds-new-malware-likely-linked-to-solarwinds-hackers/

Google will stop selling ads based on tracked individual browsing history
https://www.cnet.com/news/google-will-stop-selling-ads-based-on-tracked-individual-browsing-history/?PostType=link&TheTime=2021-03-03T15%3A48%3A56&UniqueID=F6397B0E-7C37-11EB-BD2D-8E424D484DA4&ServiceType=facebook_page&ftag=COS-05-10aaa0a&fbclid=IwAR0TMFL-j0Vml_pvup9ACvdOfGAWhynU6ftrpZ4f5eEBDSZoV_u5ocHGd2M

Brave goes after Google with privacy-first search engine
https://www.xda-developers.com/brave-search-engine-privacy-first/?fbclid=IwAR33AlcaQ99LR5C3Ua8n3Gq2Labr0f9fG3fYDe0GDgwYW5S7CyJNitGmN5s

Google promises it won’t just keep tracking you after replacing cookies
https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/3/22310332/google-privacy-replacing-third-party-cookies-privacy-sandbox?fbclid=IwAR36C9ak8XuQTQZaTtucn9Cito583uyAY3QpINpsgftTw2DR16VL6Mk59Ko

Cisco Warns of Critical Auth-Bypass Security Flaw
https://threatpost.com/cisco-critical-security-flaw/164255/?fbclid=IwAR0uoszsxO2TzhGH-sTYy16_-jl80-PQjN_Olu3m4SYwBcs_FWG7lin5ps8

Microsoft Teams hardware will join new presenter modes later this year
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3609870/microsoft-teams-hardware-will-join-new-presenter-modes-later-this-year.html?fbclid=IwAR0u8k9EU3NuAv8tWfenOcf7CyrWuBBz7lASbFfry8bd_tPXbs0lp3ae2hI

Top Ten Ways to Reduce Your Digital Footprint
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/magazine-features/top-ten-reduce-digital-footprint/?fbclid=IwAR3kQgg1C2wV5rM0VN_WMHDT4VwpBgZpLpZEkonmdz_7j3SSX2XzqQzwzdg

WordPress News and Info

The hall of shame via Automattic:
transparency.automattic.com/tag/hall-of-shame/

Matt’s Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php

ClassicPress News and Info

Just a note for my ClassicPress listeners please send me info to help keep the ClassicPress section full.

No plugin suggestions for this week.

• Email: amber@wppro.ca