Alert: Law Firm Websites Globally Could Be Impacted By The PHP Security Risk
As a small business owner you have dozens of challenges to attack every day, and having a trusted vendor or marketing agency gives you one less thing to worry about, unless they used WordPress to build your website.
You should have confidence in your website, and it should be something you don’t have to reallocate precious time away from income generating activities to think about. Even though your website may look professional and might be working fine today, the software behind it could introduce risk that will very likely go unseen.
On October 21, 2026, PHP released emergency updates addressing two critical vulnerabilities that have allowed hackers to run code without even signing in to the backend of your website. If your website is built in WordPress, it is PHP that powers it.
For law firms, a compromised website can mean more than downtime. It can disrupt lead generation, damage client trust, and potentially expose sensitive information. Taking action now can help reduce these risks.
Why Updating WordPress Alone Is Not Enough
This is an urgent security concern for businesses that depend on their website for lead generation and the conversion of new clients and referrals. There are ways to fix this with the recent software releases. If you haven’t already, you should immediately reach out to your website provider and ask for documentation that they have updated the software on the website you own. If your website is built using WordPress, it uses PHP to process requests and generate pages. Your website can be threatened even if your plugins, WordPress installation, and the template or theme being used are current.
WordPress confirmed that these vulnerabilities require a PHP update. Updating WordPress to the current version isn’t enough. Ask your provider which PHP version your website is running, whether it has been updated to a secure, supported release, and whether additional security monitoring is in place. Request written confirmation rather than assuming the issue has been resolved.
Is Your Website Partner Keeping Up?
Even though this can get extremely technical, it’s important for business owners to understand the technology that runs beneath their website, at least on a surface level.
An estimated 65% of small to midsizelaw firms (and nearly half of all small businesses) have a website running on WordPress, with a likely higher percentage among professionally built websites launched in the last three years.
At Fuel Web Marketing, since 2017 our standard is and has been to build on HTML, precisely for reasons like this. It has been reassuring for several of our clients who have reached out just in the past few days to know that they have nothing to worry about.
The real question is, how closely is your website vendor or partner making software maintenance updates, or are they asleep at the wheel? Website maintenance should be an ongoing responsibility, not an afterthought. Your marketing partner should be able to explain its security practices, update procedures, backup strategy, and approach to detecting suspicious activity.
The Advantages of HTML Websites
The title of the post should have been called: This Is Why We Do Not Build In WordPress.
Businesses that have partnered with marketing agencies that invest the time and resources into professionally hand-coded websites, using static HTML without requiring WordPress or PHP to serve those pages, are at a distinct advantage with this most recent attack.
Along with the security benefit in this situation, well-built HTML websites can offer better control, more efficient loading, and fewer recurring software dependencies. The strength comes from deliberate engineering, and from fewer exposed components and plugins that require updates to prevent them from breaking portions of the website.
What Business Owners Should Do Now
So, what should you do now if your website is built with WordPress? If the marketing agency guiding your strategy and website is using WordPress, ask them to confirm that PHP has been patched, or better yet, ask them to convert your website into a sturdier HTML platform. Ask for a monthly, if not weekly, report to investigate signs of compromise. Simply installing a patch does not remove an attacker’s current access. Separate WordPress vulnerabilities might also need their own updates. In the future, when you’re looking for a new marketing partner, make sure to ask the big question: Does your agency only build WordPress?
Protect Your Website With a Smarter Long-Term Strategy
Your website is an important business asset, and its security should never be left to chance. Whether you need to evaluate your current platform, improve your website maintenance strategy, or explore the benefits of a professionally built HTML website, having the right marketing partner makes a difference.
Contact Fuel Web Marketing today to discuss your website, review your current platform, and learn how a professionally developed website can support your business goals while reducing unnecessary technical complexity.
