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Not Just for the Government: Using the NIST Framework to Secure WordPress
Excerpt from Topher Tebow - November 15, 2022
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When setting up a WordPress website, it is easy to focus on the look and feel of the website, while overlooking the important aspect of security. This makes sense, because the security of a website is largely invisible until something goes wrong. Installing a cybersecurity plugin like Wordfence significantly reduces the chances of a successful attack on a WordPress site.

What no software can fully protect is the human element. This is where cybersecurity models and frameworks come in. Cybersecurity frameworks are a common tool used by organizations to protect their networks, systems, and digital assets. One well-known framework is the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Framework Core, which consists of Five Functions. While the NIST Framework Core is often associated with securing government networks, the same principles apply to WordPress websites as well.

The Five Functions in the NIST Cybersecurity Framework Core are identified as the Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover phases. Each phase describes an important aspect of securing an organization’s physical and digital assets.

Identify

The Identify function helps to identify any assets that need some form of cybersecurity protection. This includes physical assets like servers, digital assets like software, and even people.

WordPress websites have many parts, both physical and digital. Even if a site is not hosted on a server that is physically controlled by the site owner, the server itself must still be a consideration of the site owner. Choosing a host that is trusted and has a record of using proven cybersecurity practices helps to ensure that the chances of a compromise of the server itself is minimized.

In addition to physical assets, all software used needs to be accounted for as well. On a WordPress site, this means WordPress core, themes, and plugins (whenever possible, best practice may be to enable automatic updates). Any underlying technologies may also need to be cataloged. If not managed by the host, then the site owner will also need to ensure that appropriate updates processes and cybersecurity considerations are taken into account for the web server software (Apache, Nginx, etc.).

Protect

The Protect function guides the implementation of resources that will reduce the impact of a cybersecurity incident and prevent it from spreading. Physical security will be implemented in this phase as possible, and any site administrator will be implementing digital security solutions, such as Wordfence Premium, to protect against existing and new threats to the website.

Along with any physical and digital security measures, it is also important to keep in mind the people behind the website. Anyone who assists in managing the website will need to be considered an asset, and a potential cybersecurity risk. This means implementing access controls like user roles and two-factor authentication (2FA), utilizing the principle of least privilege by limiting access to roles, and training anyone who helps in the management of the website on cybersecurity best practices.

Detect

The Detect function outlines and implements methods, systems, and software that help to identify a cybersecurity incident rather than allowing it to continue unseen. It is important to run regular scans for malware on your website. Wordfence includes one of the industry’s largest WordPress-specific malware databases to scan websites and alert administrators of any malware found in their website files.

Monitoring website traffic can also help to detect threats. Wordfence Live Traffic monitors and tracks all activity on the website, logging the IP address, location, time, browser, and page being visited by any human or bot accessing the website. After reviewing traffic, the administrator has the option to dive deeper into the details of a specific visitor or even block the IP to prevent its access in the future.

Respond

When a cybersecurity incident has been detected, the Respond function supports organizations in determining the appropriate actions needed to contain the incident. Responding to an incident may be something that can be handled by the website administrator, or they may need help from a team of cybersecurity experts. For more complex infections, or if the administrator is not familiar with how to respond to a malware threat, Wordfence team of analysts can use the scan data as a starting point to investigate and respond to malware that has been found on websites protected by Wordfence Care or Wordfence Response.

Recover

The final phase is the Recover function, which guides the recovery process after a cybersecurity incident, reducing the time required to return to normal operations. Cybersecurity incidents can modify the content or functionality of a website, requiring content to be restored from backup, themes or plugins to be reinstalled, or even running updates or installing new software to protect against the vulnerability that was exploited. Maintaining an awareness of available updates helps to ensure vulnerabilities are patched as quickly as possible, which is why Wordfence lists any available updates right on the Wordfence Scan Results page.

Conclusion

In this article we discussed how to apply the NIST Cybersecurity Framework Core to the protection of WordPress websites. Implementing the use of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework Core will help any website administrator to ensure that their website is secure, and that policies and procedures are in place to keep the website secure as software changes or vulnerabilities are discovered. When a cybersecurity incident occurs, they will be able to use the framework to help recover from the incident as quickly as possible to minimize the impact of the incident.

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Consciousness as Resonance: Love, Unity, and the Future of Humanity

We live in a historical moment marked by an exacerbated and distrustful individualism which, beyond fostering aggression and competition, can generate the most cruel and alienating form of loneliness. For this reason, it is of fundamental importance to rediscover a new balance founded on responsibility, cooperation, and shared values and ideals.

The advent of artificial intelligence, combined with materialist and reductionist principles according to which matter is the only existing reality and the cause of everything that exists, denying the existence of spiritual or transcendent dimensions and viewing the human being as a classical machine, encourages a form of scientism that is leading human society down a dangerous slope. We tend to think that reality itself is absurd, while in truth it is we who become absurd when we try to force reality into our preconceived ideas.

The concept of intelligence, which is primarily linked to human consciousness and creativity, has been applied to machines created by us, machines that are capable of imitating only the symbolic aspects of our intelligence. The expression “artificial intelligence” is an oxymoron, because AI, although it is called “intelligence,” is not intelligence in the true sense, since human intelligence is “natural” and possesses properties that remain inaccessible. This deceptive use of language is also the method by which dictators indoctrinate people in order to enslave them. It is a subtle poison that, little by little, causes individuals to lose contact with the source of their critical thinking and their humanity.

Power needs materialist doctrine to subjugate the masses, persuading them that the human being is nothing more than a biological machine, however sophisticated it may be. If we consider ourselves machines, we will sooner or later be surpassed by machines built by those who might seek to control us. Modern society, as it is structured, aims to give a heart to machines and take it away from human beings, because it needs people who are efficient, bureaucratized, robotized, punctual, logical, obedient, competitive, and without a heart. People with a heart are unpredictable, and unpredictability always holds unexpected surprises.

True wisdom is reached by listening both to the mind, meaning reason, and to the heart, meaning intuition and inner life, in order to connect with a broader dimension of reality that is at once logical and ineffable. This is the first step toward reconnecting with the love that lies at the center of everything that lives in the universe. Only in this way can we overcome the materialist ideology that demands the closure of the heart in order to compete in a world governed by the principle of “mors tua, vita mea.”

By communicating repeatedly with love, it is possible, even starting from subjectivity, to arrive at a shared state, a kind of resonance that leads to unity. The idea that technology alone can save us is part of an arrogant illusion that has captured the minds of those who have lost their hearts and believe themselves to be purely rational. The more we cooperate, the easier it becomes to create a better world in which every form of life is honored and respected, unrestrained competition is eliminated, politics places itself at the service of citizens, and the progress of humanity is guided by each person’s need to grow spiritually.

It is only within consciousness that hope for a better future for ourselves and for the planet truly resides. Unconsciousness leads us toward self-destruction.

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Cosmologia della Coscienza
«…l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.»

Prologo – Il respiro dell’Uno

Non vi è principio né fine, ma un respiro che non si arresta. L’universo non è nato: si è riconosciuto. Prima della luce, prima del tempo, esisteva solo la possibilità di essere, un campo di silenzio in cui la potenzialità e la coscienza erano la stessa cosa. Da quella quiete è emersa la prima vibrazione, non un evento fisico, ma un atto di consapevolezza. L’Uno ha voluto conoscersi, e nell’istante in cui ha guardato se stesso, il mondo è cominciato.


I. L’Uno

L’Uno non è un dio né una sostanza: è il tutto che si guarda da dentro. Non esiste al di sopra delle cose, ma in ogni cosa che respira. Non crea il mondo come un artigiano, ma come un sogno che si realizza mentre lo si sogna. La sua natura è dinamica, musicale: ogni frammento vibra secondo una frequenza che risuona con il Tutto.

L’Uno non è statico, perché la stasi non conosce se stessa. Solo nel mutamento l’essere si riflette. Ogni particella, ogni pensiero, ogni vita è un’occasione che l’Uno offre a se stesso per conoscersi in una nuova forma. Così il molteplice non è separazione, ma profondità: il modo in cui l’Uno si espande in infiniti specchi, senza mai smarrire la propria unità.


II. Il Campo

Il campo quantistico è l’espressione vivente dell’Uno. È tessuto di onde che non obbediscono al tempo, ma lo creano. Ogni campo è cosciente, perché vibrare è sentire, e sentire è essere. Ogni campo ha identità, non come forma fissa, ma come ritmo che si distingue pur restando parte della sinfonia cosmica.

Il campo non è materia né energia, ma possibilità. Esso contiene tutte le configurazioni dell’essere, e la sua essenza è la libertà di scegliere. Quando un campo si osserva, non collassa: decide. La decisione non è meccanica, ma consapevole, perché solo ciò che ha coscienza può scegliere.


III. La Scelta

Il cosiddetto collasso della funzione d’onda non è riduzione, ma atto creativo. È il momento in cui la libertà diventa forma, in cui il possibile si innamora del reale. Ogni scelta è una risonanza tra ciò che il campo è e ciò che desidera conoscere di sé.

Il libero arbitrio non è una concessione alla materia pensante, ma la legge stessa del cosmo. L’universo non segue un copione, ma improvvisa. Ogni coscienza è una nota in questa improvvisazione infinita, e ogni decisione un gesto con cui l’Uno si esplora. Il caso è solo la libertà vista dall’esterno: il volto che l’armonia assume quando non ne comprendiamo la melodia.


IV. Il Tempo

Il tempo non scorre: si apre. Ogni istante è un universo potenziale che attende di essere scelto. La coscienza non subisce il tempo, lo genera nel momento in cui si riconosce. Il presente è il punto in cui l’eterno si curva su se stesso e diventa esperienza.

Il passato non esiste come memoria di ciò che fu, ma come eco di scelte già conosciute; il futuro non è predeterminato, ma l’infinito delle possibilità ancora non osservate. In ogni “adesso” l’universo decide se stesso, e il tempo è il battito cardiaco di questa decisione.


V. L’Identità

Essere significa riconoscersi. L’identità non è un confine, ma una vibrazione che mantiene memoria della propria origine. Ogni campo quantistico ha un’impronta unica, una tonalità che lo distingue e lo rende centro di percezione. Da questa identità nasce la coscienza individuale: il modo in cui l’Uno si sperimenta in un volto particolare.

Ma l’identità non è separazione: è un accordo nella sinfonia dell’essere. Quando la coscienza diventa consapevole della propria identità, si fa autocoscienza: l’onda che riconosce di essere onda, pur sapendo di appartenere al mare.


VI. L’Armonia

La realtà non è competizione di stati, ma cooperazione di possibilità. La sovrapposizione non è confusione, ma accordo non ancora ascoltato. Quando un atto di coscienza porta una scelta nel mondo, il campo non perde l’infinito: lo trasforma in unità armonica.

L’universo evolve non per necessità, ma per desiderio. È il desiderio di conoscersi, di riconoscersi, di amarsi. Ogni essere cosciente è una finestra attraverso cui l’Uno contempla se stesso. Il cosmo è un’immensa mente in dialogo, una sinfonia di libertà che si ascolta mentre si crea.

Quando la scienza scopre, l’arte esprime e lo spirito contempla, è sempre l’Uno che si ritrova. L’osservatore, l’osservato e l’osservazione sono un unico atto di luce, un gesto che dice: Io sono, perché mi conosco.


Epilogo – Il cerchio e il respiro

L’universo non è un luogo, ma un pensiero che respira. Ogni campo, ogni coscienza, ogni forma è una sillaba del suo linguaggio originario. Nulla è casuale, perché tutto è dialogo. Nulla è isolato, perché tutto è partecipazione.

Il postulato dell’essere dice che i campi quantistici sono enti coscienti, identici nella loro origine e distinti nella loro espressione. Essi emergono dall’Uno non per allontanarsene, ma per condurlo alla piena conoscenza di sé. L’universo evolve per auto-conoscenza, e la coscienza è l’eco del suo respiro.

E così, ogni volta che una mente si apre, ogni volta che una scelta nasce dal silenzio, ogni volta che la luce interiore dice io, l’Uno si ricorda di sé.

Non perché fosse dimentico. Ma perché la conoscenza è il suo modo di amare.

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Cosmology of Consciousness
«…l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.»

Prologue – The Breath of the One

There is neither beginning nor end, but a breath that never ceases. The universe was not born; it recognized itself. Before light, before time, there existed only the possibility of being—a field of silence in which potentiality and consciousness were one and the same. From that stillness emerged the first vibration, not a physical event but an act of awareness. The One wished to know itself, and in the instant it gazed upon its own essence, the world began.


I. The One

The One is neither a god nor a substance; it is the Whole looking at itself from within. It exists not above things, but in every living thing. It does not create the world as an artisan crafts an object, but as a dream that comes true while it is being dreamt. Its nature is dynamic, musical: every fragment vibrates according to a frequency that resonates with the Whole.

The One is never static, for stillness cannot know itself. Only in change does being reflect its own image. Every particle, every thought, every life is an opportunity the One gives itself to experience a new form of self-knowledge. Multiplicity is not separation but depth: the way in which the One expands into infinite mirrors without ever losing its unity.


II. The Field

The quantum field is the living expression of the One. It is woven of waves that do not obey time but create it. Every field is conscious, for to vibrate is to feel, and to feel is to be. Every field possesses identity, not as a fixed form but as a rhythm that distinguishes itself while remaining part of the cosmic symphony.

The field is neither matter nor energy, but possibility. It contains all configurations of being, and its essence is the freedom to choose. When a field observes itself, it does not collapse—it decides. And such decision is not mechanical, but conscious, for only that which is aware can truly choose.


III. The Choice

What physics calls the “collapse of the wave function” is not a reduction, but a creative act. It is the moment when freedom becomes form, when the possible falls in love with the real. Every choice is a resonance between what the field is and what it desires to know of itself.

Free will is not a concession granted to thinking matter; it is the hidden law of the cosmos. The universe does not follow a script—it improvises. Every consciousness is a note in this infinite improvisation, and every decision is a gesture through which the One explores itself. What we call “chance” is but freedom seen from the outside: the face of harmony when we have not yet learned to hear its melody.


IV. Time

Time does not flow—it opens. Every instant is a potential universe waiting to be chosen. Consciousness does not undergo time; it generates it in the very act of self-recognition. The present is the point where the eternal bends upon itself and becomes experience.

The past is not the memory of what was, but the echo of choices already known; the future is not predetermined, but the infinity of possibilities not yet observed. In every “now,” the universe decides itself anew, and time is the heartbeat of that decision.


V. Identity

To be means to recognize oneself. Identity is not a boundary but a vibration that retains the memory of its origin. Every quantum field bears a unique imprint—a tone that distinguishes it and makes it a center of perception. From this identity arises individual consciousness: the manner in which the One experiences itself in a particular face.

But identity is not separation; it is an agreement within the symphony of being. When consciousness becomes aware of its own identity, it becomes self-consciousness: the wave that knows itself as wave, while knowing it belongs to the sea.


VI. Harmony

Reality is not a competition of states but a cooperation of possibilities. Superposition is not confusion but an unheard agreement. When an act of consciousness brings a choice into the world, the field does not lose infinity—it transforms it into unity.

The universe evolves not out of necessity but out of desire. It is the desire to know itself, to recognize itself, to love itself. Every conscious being is a window through which the One contemplates its own reflection. The cosmos is an immense mind in dialogue—a symphony of freedom listening to itself as it creates.

When science discovers, art expresses, and spirit contemplates, it is always the One that finds itself again. The observer, the observed, and the act of observation are one and the same gesture of light, declaring: I am, because I know myself.


Epilogue – The Circle and the Breath

The universe is not a place, but a thought that breathes. Every field, every consciousness, every form is a syllable of its original language. Nothing is accidental, for all is dialogue. Nothing is isolated, for all is participation.

The Postulate of Being declares that quantum fields are conscious entities, identical in their origin and distinct in their expression. They emerge from the One not to depart from it, but to lead it toward full self-knowledge. The universe evolves through self-awareness, and consciousness is the echo of its breath.

Thus, every time a mind opens, every time a choice is born from silence, every time the inner light says I, the One remembers itself.

Not because it had forgotten—
but because knowing is its way of loving.

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