Hi all,
I'm running a handful of small wordpress sites on my Linode and today I got an alert to say

"Your linode has exceeded the notification threshold (5) for outbound traffic rate by averaging 7.95 Mb/s for the last 2 hours"

I'm assuming this is something I need to worry about?

My network graph shows an outbound spike up to 99.73 mb/sec for what looks like about 15 mins looking at the 24 h dashboard graph. It now appears back to normal.

What steps do I need to take?

I have Linode backups enabled.

Thanks!

Maybe check your web server logs to see if anything there used a lot of traffic? It's hard to diagnose that kind of thing when it's not actively happening.

Nginx and PHP with fastcgi has a security hole in them. Hackers can inject a code through your files, images, etc. Read up on the following to secure your site:

https://nealpoole.com/blog/2011/04/setting-up-php-fastcgi-and-nginx-dont-trust-the-tutorials-check-your-configuration/
http://cnedelcu.blogspot.com/2010/05/nginx-php-via-fastcgi-important.html

I was surprised that several of my WordPress sites were vulnerable.

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One of the very few Americans who travelled the world and can communicate in 7 languages.