Meet Brecht – a WordPress enthusiast, IT-engineer, speaker and author. He’s lucky to have an amazing girlfriend and a wonderful daughter and he loves his whisky from time to time. Brecht published his first book in 2014 on the topic of WordPress security, titled „WordPress Security 101 – How to secure your WordPress site against hackers“ and he’s currently working on a second one.
Brecht has prepared some practical WordPress security tips for his talk, WordPress Security – Top Down Approach where he’ll share with us some insights on how to secure our WordPress instances.
To understand what sparked Brecht’s interest towards WordPress and why security is as important as any other aspect of WordPress, check his video:
Hey Brecht, please introduce yourself.
My name is Brecht Ryckaert and I was born back in ’84 in Ghent, Belgium. I still work in that lovely city. If anyone of you guys decide to visit Belgium and Ghent, give me a message on Twitter. I’d be happy to show Ghent to other WordPressians.What’s your specialty?
I’ve been using WordPress since version 1.5, but over the years I’ve specialized in security, optimization and problem solving. This came through nearly 10 years of working at a Belgian hosting company (combell.com) where I am the go-to engineer for WordPress. I’ve been helping our customers to clean their sites after hacking, increasing their security and increasing their site’s performance. In 2014, I published my first ebook on WordPress Security („WordPress Security 101 – How to secure your WordPress site against hackers“). I’m currently working on a rewrite which I hope to get ready before the beginning of November.How many languages do you speak?
I speak a couple of languages: Dutch (my native language), English and French. I also have very basic notions of German, but I’m not fluent in it. I write in English.What was your first encounter with WordPress?
I was looking for an easy way to start a small website/blog. I tried several of the content management systems out there, but none felt as natural and logical as WordPress. So I kept on using WordPress for all sites I’ve built since then. When I started working at Combell in 2008, I immediately specialized in WordPress (and kept on doing it up to today).What is the best WordPress advice you have ever received?
There’s actually 2 pieces of advice I’d love to share:„Go to conferences/meetups/translation day/…“
This way you’ll get to know your local WordPress enthousiasts. It’ll help you grow your network of people you can help or get help from. They’ll gladly share their experiences and might offer you a new take on any issue you might struggle with. It’s great to dive into the community and contribute to it.„Get your message out there“I didn’t consider myself someone who would be able to present a talk at WordCamps. But following some inspiring words by a couple of speakers I’ve gotten to know, I took a chance and have been presenting since then. If you’re someone that hasn’t presented yet, go for it. The WordPress community is one of the most accepting communities I know. And that’s a great feeling.What is your motivation to speak at WordCamp Sofia 2017?
Sharing. I’m not a die hard developer, though I’m hoping to become one someday. But I am nowhere near writing a core patch or complex plugin. So the most logical way for me to contribute is to share my knowledge on topics I know.How did you you choose the topic of your talk?That’s easy. Security is something I’m very passionate about. If my talk helps one person to keep his or her site secure and hack-free, I’m happy. That’s why I get out there and present on security.How many countries have you been to?I’ve travelled to 6 countries so far. Bulgaria is about to become number 7 on my list.
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