What Version Are You Running?
Refusing to upgrade WordPress on your blog is no longer an option, it is a security requirement. If you are not running the latest version of Worpress, then why not asks John H. Gohde? Those running older versions of WordPress are being specifically targeted by hackers.
Most hackers hack WordPress blogs by automatic means. Further, hacks made to blogs in most cases are implemented by automatic scripts. Thus, you should be protecting your blogs from Spiders, Crawlers, and Bots crawling the Web looking for easy targets.
WordPress is being developed by a team of programmers that are constantly fixing security problems as they are reported. As a result, every older version of WordPress has a long list of well known security problems. Hackers are actually crawling the Web with bots looking for blogs running specific older versions of WordPress. Thus, bloggers refusing to upgrade their version of WordPress are in fact putting their blog in grave danger of being hacked.
Do NOT Advertise Version Number
At the very least, you should not be advertising which version of WordPress that your blog is running. Thus, you should check your Header (header.php) template, for the following line of code.
Leave that line of code in and you are advertising to the world that you are an easy target for hackers to hack. Thus, John H. Gohde strongly recommends that you should delete that line from your Header template coding. It is totally unnecessary. And, poses a significant security risk to leave it in.
WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin
The next step is to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress. One of the most painless ways of doing this is with the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin by Keith Dsouza. Naturally, you should always backup your blog with either a backup plugin or utility before attempting to upgrade. And, you should always keep into consideration that backup and restore plugins will not work unless you can access the control panel of your blog. Hence, John H. Gohde, also, strongly recommends that you literally download your entire blog with a secure file transfer utility onto the computer that you are using to connect with your blog.
Upgrade To A Recent Version
Any strange behavior experienced after an upgrade is most likely due to one or more of your plugins. If you have yet to upgrade to version 2.3 of WordPress, then there is going be a radical changed in the tables being used in the WordPress database. Hence, you will have to disable all your plugins, and then reactivate them one at a time looking for the bad plugin.
Upgrade Yes, Immediately No
Certainly, you do not want to be still running version 2.1 of WordPress. But, that does not mean that an upgrade is required the moment a new version is released.John H. Gohde advises you to hold off, in most cases.
Upgrading WordPress always imposes a major risk to your blog. You always need to give plugin developers a chance to adapt their software to the latest version of WordPress. And, WordPress will always soon announce yet another version of WordPress that fixes a bunch of bugs and security problems with their last release. Thus, the best approach is to usually be one or two versions behind the latest released version of WordPress.
Just, do not use this as an excuse to never upgrade.
