- Written by: Michael Russell
- Hits: 139
A large-scale exploitation campaign is targeting various vulnerabilities in content management systems (CMS) globally, with many small to medium sized businesses impacted.
As part of this campaign, malicious cyber actors are actively scanning websites for opportunities to deploy webshells, leveraging various vulnerabilities affecting CMS software and plugins. These vulnerabilities primarily allow unauthenticated file upload, remote code execution, server side request forgery or deserialisation.
Once deployed, webshells can allow malicious cyber actors to remotely access and control targeted web servers. This article discusses the recent surge in these attacks in relation to Joomla.
- Written by: Michael Russell
- Hits: 108
For years, the Joomla ecosystem has thrived on a large array of templates and extensions that allowed users to build complex websites with just a few clicks. However, a growing trend has emerged within the community: the number of free extensions is dwindling. This shift isn’t accidental; it is the result of a changing economic and social reality for the developers who power the platform.
Joomla’s own “core-first” design philosophy incorporates many essential features directly into the base installation, thereby reducing the demand for a library of utility extensions seen in other ecosystems. We make no judgement about the need, benefit or reliability of extensions added onto the Joomla CMS. This article is about why independent extension developers are either leaving the scene or transitioning to “pay to subscribe/download” models.
- Written by: Michael Russell
- Hits: 105
For over two decades, Joomla has stood as a beacon of digital independence. Born from a mission to offer a free, accessible alternative to closed, corporate-controlled systems, it was built on a powerful dream: a platform created for everyone, by everyone, without the strings of investors or corporate agendas.
However, as we move through 2026, the cracks in this purely volunteer-driven foundation are no longer possible to ignore. To survive an era of rapid technological upheaval, Joomla’s organisational model requires a fundamental overhaul.
- Written by: Michael Russell
- Hits: 175
Although there has been a setting in Joomla for enabling Gzip compression since Joomla 3.x, it was not until Joomla 4.0 that this feature made a major impact … in both a good way and a bad way. For those webhosts that already provide server-side compression, the feature in Joomla is not only redundant but it can cause real problems. This article examines the benefits as well as the risks associated with Joomla’s Gzip feature.
When it is used properly, Joomla’s Gzip does make a difference in improving the perceived performance of a website; pages are downloaded faster. Combined with caching, a Joomla website can appear to the end user to display faster. We will see how much faster a website’s performance is affected by caching and Gzip.
- Written by: Michael Russell
- Hits: 146
This is a modern-day fable about how committees, intent on rigidly applying a code of conduct on their members, can lead to the destruction of their communities.
One bright sunny morning a jolly rooster did what he had done a thousand times before and announced the beginning of the new day with his characteristic—if not trademarked—“Cock-a-doodle-doo”.
Happy in the knowledge that he had served his community, the jolly rooster went back home to have a rest.
- Written by: Michael Russell
- Hits: 129
In the quest for digital visibility, website owners often find themselves lost in a forest of conflicting advice. One of the most persistent debates in the web development community—infamously dubbed the “unicorns and fairies” debate—revolves around whether the Site Name setting in a content management system (CMS) holds any secret power over search engine rankings. While some pundits believe that tweaking this setting is a shortcut to the top of Google, the evidence suggests that for SEO purposes, the Site Name is largely a mythological factor.
We will also take a short detour to site branding—choosing a domain name and creating the all-important favicon. To some extent, choosing the domain name may offer some SEO benefits and we will offer our thoughts on matters you may want to consider.