WordPress Compromise Recovery
Forensic cleanup and hardening for persistent malware in legacy environments.
- Payload and persistence analysis
- Core and plugin integrity checks
- Recovery followed by operational remediation
Security Engineering
Finding the compromise, removing it, and fixing the conditions that allowed it.
My security work grows out of operating long-lived production systems: malware investigation, WordPress compromise cleanup, integrity verification, hardening, and policies that reduce preventable exposure across a large fleet.
I approach incidents as system failures rather than isolated bad files. Recovery includes identifying persistence, restoring trust, preserving business function, and reducing the chance of recurrence.
Philosophy
Engineering Philosophy
Security is not a cleanup step. It is a property of how the system is designed and operated.
Treat every unexplained change as evidence, not noise.
- Remove persistence mechanisms, not only visible payloads.
- Verify integrity independently after remediation.
- Reduce attack surface through updates, retirement, least privilege, and operational standards.
Reduce attack surface through updates, retirement, least privilege, and operational standards.
Problems
Problems I Solve
The most valuable work usually begins where a system has accumulated complexity, operational risk, or assumptions no one has revisited.
- Persistent WordPress malware and reinfection
- Unknown web shells and altered core files
- Legacy plugins and abandoned dependencies
- Fleet-wide visibility and prioritization
- Secure recovery without unnecessary destruction of content or functionality
Approach
How I Work
I establish a trustworthy baseline, trace indicators across files, database content, users, scheduled tasks, and configuration, then remove both payload and persistence.
After recovery, I verify from multiple angles and address the operational conditions that made the compromise durable.
Selected Projects
Work that makes the method visible.
AI-Assisted Malware Remediation
Designed AI-assisted workflows that accelerate malware investigation while keeping technical responsibility with the engineer.
AI functions as an analytical assistant. Verification and final judgment remain human responsibilities.
Managed Hosting Policy
A supportability and planned-obsolescence framework for a large production fleet.
- Defined lifecycle expectations
- Reduced permanent exceptions
- Lowered technical debt and response complexity
Multi-Model AI Verification Workflow
Calendar Defender
A practical engineering project exploring collaborative AI review rather than depending on a single model to produce solutions.
Independent AI models reviewed architecture, challenged assumptions, explored edge cases, and critiqued implementation approaches before human synthesis.
The result was not simply better code. It was a repeatable engineering process that improved transparency, reasoning quality, and confidence in technical decisions.
Experience
Representative experience.
Zee Creative · 2011–Present
Lead Web Developer
Lead developer and systems architect for a large, long-lived portfolio of production websites and integrations.
- 250+ active web environments
- Custom application and integration development
- Technical standards, migration planning, launch QA, and incident response
SunGard Higher Education · approximately 8 years
Lead Software Engineer
Technical lead in enterprise higher-education software, working across large Oracle systems, performance testing, defect analysis, and release delivery.
- Synthetic data generation exceeding one million records
- Defect cross-reference and recurrence prevention
- Enterprise release estimation and delivery
Technologies
Core technologies and areas of focus.
Security Work
Incident ResponseMalware AnalysisIntegrity VerificationHardeningAccess Review
Platforms
WordPressLinux HostingPHPMySQLGit
Focus
Persistence DetectionRecoveryAttack Surface ReductionOperational PolicyVerification
Business Value
Why recovery must extend beyond cleanup
Deleting the obvious malicious file may restore a page while leaving the attacker’s access intact.
Durable recovery restores confidence in the whole system and changes the conditions that allowed the incident to persist.
Contact
Let's Talk
For technical leadership, architecture, modernization, or complex systems work, contact me directly.
Contact JulieA system is not clean because the warning disappeared. It is clean when trust has been rebuilt.