Wordpress backups - spam?

[cashchampion]

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Hi guys,

I was doing a manual backup of my wordpress site the other day.
Once I had downloaded the backup I had a look in the file (notepad doc) and it had lost of porn links listed.
Any ideas what this could be? Is it just older spam comments that are still in the system?

Thanks,
Marc

[Jack Russell]

Hello Marc,

Your blog might be injected with malicious code. You need to contact your web host and sort this out.

[Josh-A]

If its not spam comment links then your wordpress blog is surely injected.

[cashchampion]

If its not spam comment links then your wordpress blog is surely injected.

Well, I am not too sure.
My host says it looks ok.
But here is my question. When I do a backup, would spam comments be saved as well?

Thanks,
Marc

[mike_01]

But here is my question. When I do a backup, would spam comments be saved as well?

Yes, whenever you take the backup of the database, all the entries in it gets stored in the backup file. Best way to go forward would be, to delete the spam links first and then take the backup as that would save your time which you might invest to delete those spam comments again (if you restore the same backup file).

Apart from that you can always use the feature of blocking the comments from a given ip address within the Wordpress and using the keywords that you would like to block in the comments.

Hope it helps.

[cashchampion]

Yes, whenever you take the backup of the database, all the entries in it gets stored in the backup file. Best way to go forward would be, to delete the spam links first and then take the backup as that would save your time which you might invest to delete those spam comments again (if you restore the same backup file).

Apart from that you can always use the feature of blocking the comments from a given ip address within the Wordpress and using the keywords that you would like to block in the comments.

Hope it helps.

Thanks Mike,

I never knew you could block comments via IP and KW from within wordpress. Where can I do that?

Thanks again,
Marc

[mike_01]

I dont really have the details handy with me, as I dont use wordpress anymore. but you can give a try to "Settings" tab or "Comments" tab.

I also found

Combating Comment Spam/Denying Access WordPress Codex

and

Comment Spam WordPress Codex

"The best defense against comment spam is just watching your comments. Under Manage → Comments it shows a listing of the latest comments on any post and you can quickly scan the comment activity on your site."

Also, you have install a few plugins to have reduced SPAM attacks. Try WordPress › WordPress Plugins

Cheers,
Mike...

[cashchampion]

Thanks MIke,

will have a look through all of that today