Google Warning Sites About Security Issues

Patrick Chapman explained on the Webmaster Central Blog, "We will be leaving messages for owners of potentially vulnerable sites in the Google Message Center that we provide as a free service as part of Webmaster Tools." An old version of WordPress will get singled out in a first test involving five or six thousand webmasters.

Here's the really interesting part, though: "If you manage a website but haven't signed up for Webmaster Tools, don't worry. The messages will be saved and if you sign up later on, you'll still be able to access any messages that Google has left for your site."

So we wind up with unsolicited advice that's stuck in a time capsule. This seems a little Big Brother-ish of Google, but it's hard to argue with something that improves sites' security. As most experts will agree, security tends to become more of a problem with every passing month.