Using my coffee break for a public service announcement today.

If you're using your own installation of WordPress to host your blog, you need to be aware that there is a nasty worm going around right now that has hit quite a few big-name sites, and many blogs large and small. It will silently add spam and malware on your blog. The latest version of WordPress is immune, but it is important to upgrade as soon as possible.

This only affects people who have downloaded the WordPress software and installed it on their own Web server. I only know of one of you that this applies to -- namely Verity -- but there may be others I don't know. If this is you, then go to your WordPress admin panel and make sure it doesn't beg you to upgrade, and/or that you have version 2.8.4 or higher. If you don't have the latest version, then upgrade as soon as possible.

If you have a blog hosted at my-awesome-blog.wordpress.com this DOES NOT apply to you. This is only for people who downloaded WordPress at wordpress.org and installed it on their own server.

If you have a blog hosted at blogspot.com or other blog-hosting services, this DOES NOT apply to you.

If you are crazy enough to write your entire blog application from scratch, then this DOES NOT apply to you, but may God have mercy on your soul, since you surely have a ton of security holes you're not clever enough to have thought of.

For more info: "Old WordPress Versions Under Attack"