This post is part of a series featuring sponsors from our WPCampus 2018 conference. Events like WPCampus would not be possible without the support of these amazing organizations. Be sure to check out their services and say hi to them in St. Louis.
The internet was born on university campuses. It started with an "Interface Message Processor" (essentially a router) built and housed on the campus of UCLA. It was the first node of a new network.
On October 29th, 1969 the first message was sent to another node built at the Stanford Research Institute. The first message consisted of just two letters, "LO", the beginning of the word "LOGIN", because the system crashed. An hour later they tried again and it worked. If you haven’t read the origin story of the internet, it’s a fascinating read.
Without the technical and academic innovation that happens behind the walls of higher education institutions, the world would be a very different place. And without events like WPCampus focusing on WordPress as it pertains to use within Higher Education, SiteLock wouldn’t have the opportunity to share our passion for technology and education.
Supporting Current and Future Generations of Technologists
At SiteLock, we’re extremely passionate about giving back to the communities where we live and work. We are especially dedicated to supporting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs for schools in need.
In 2015, SiteLock established the Digital Kids Fund to help support technology-based projects at local schools in Arizona and in 2016, we partnered with DonorsChoose.org, an organization that makes it easy for anyone to help a classroom in need, to fund STEM-related projects in schools located in the Phoenix, Arizona and Jacksonville, Florida areas. We donated a total of $50k, which supported 198 projects and benefitted 19,992 students at 141 schools.
In 2017, we continued our partnership with DonorsChoose.org, but increased our total donation to $60k and included an employee gift card program! Every SiteLock employee was given a $25 gift card to support a STEM-related project in the Phoenix and Jacksonville areas. In total, our donations have supported 234 projects benefiting 30,952 students at 184 schools!
Who We Are
If you’re not already familiar with SiteLock, we are a global website security company protecting over 12 million websites worldwide, with over 4 million of those sites powered by WordPress. SiteLock delivers a 360-degree website security solution to find, fix and prevent malware and other threats from affecting websites and their visitors.
Founded in 2008, the SiteLock cloud-based suite of products includes automatic file and database malware scanning and removal, automated security patching, an advanced web application firewall, static application security testing, PCI compliance and website acceleration powered by a global CDN.
Supporting the Community at Large
In 2016, we launched our popular “Secure Your Word” campaign to help promote WordPress security. Today, “Secure Your Word” branded shirts are a fixture at WordPress events worldwide. SiteLock has been a global community sponsor and remains committed to sponsoring individual WordCamps and other WordPress-focused events in 2018. It’s all part of our goal of Fostering the WordPress Community as a whole.
Not only is the company passionate about the WordPress mission of “Democratizing Publishing,” but you’ll also find members of the SiteLock team sharing their own WordPress experience through speaking opportunities. In fact, our own Jamie Schmid will be leading the Building a solid foundation: Introduction to content strategy workshop and we’re an official sponsor of WPCampus.
But it’s not just about sharing knowledge with others, it’s also about listening to the needs of users and businesses within the community, and leveraging these experiences and resources to create solutions that address specific needs. That’s why SiteLock announced its new SMART®PLUS™ product during WordCamp U.S. in December of 2017.
Website Security Innovation with SMART®PLUS™
Similar to how the SiteLock SMART™ and INFINITY™ scans automatically find and remove malware in a website file structure, SMART PLUS extends the company’s automatic malware identification and removal abilities to include automated vulnerability patching for the core files of popular content management systems (CMS), as well as automated WordPress database scanning and cleaning.
SMART PLUS also provides the ability to identify and automatically remove spam comments, and can be customized in order to filter specific keywords and phrases that matter to you. This saves valuable time from the generally tedious task of reviewing and maintaining the cleanliness and quality of the comments included within your content.
We Can’t Wait to Meet You in Person!
We’re excited to be a Graduate level sponsor for WPCampus 2018 and welcome you to stop by our table, say hello and learn more about how we protect websites. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to get your own "Secure Your Word" t-shirt!
WPCampus 2018 will take place July 12-14, 2018 on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. We hope you can join us for three days filled with sessions, workshops, networking, and social events, all focused on using WordPress in higher education.