News media · Regional daily Piura’s Daily Newspaper, Kept Safe and Online
Diario El Regional de Piura publishes the news every day on Joomla 6. We run its updates, backups, security and server – moved it from Joomla 5 to Joomla 6, cleaned it up after a hack and hardened the server against bots.
- JoomlaJoomla 6Current
- PHPPHP 8Current
- Security updatesEvery weekOn schedule
- BackupsEvery dayDone
- UptimeMonitoredAll the time
- Last incidentHack · Sep 2026Cleaned & hardened
A daily newspaper can’t go quiet
Diario El Regional de Piura is a regional newspaper from Piura, in northern Peru. Its website carries the day’s news in eight sections – Editorial, Locales, Región Piura, Nacionales, Mundo, Especiales, Misceláneas and Columnistas – plus a video channel and a blog.
New stories go up every day, so the site has to be up, fast and safe every day too. Our job: keep Joomla, the template and the server in shape, so the newsroom only thinks about the news.
- Published every dayFresh articles on the front page each morning – downtime means missed news.
- A busy front page“Noticias del día” slider, latest news, ad slots and a Videos page with YouTube embeds.
- A public targetA well-known news site draws spammers, hackers and aggressive bots.
Every day, every week, all the time
Maintenance, security updates and server management run on a fixed rhythm – nobody has to remember to ask.
- BackupsSite files and database.Every day
- Security updatesJoomla core, JA Teline V and its T3 framework, extensions.Every week
- Uptime monitoringWe hear about an outage before the readers do.All the time
- Server managementPHP 8, web server, database, firewall and Cloudflare.Ongoing
When the site was hacked
In September 2026 a spam gambling article appeared on the site, published by a Super User nobody knew. The attacker had also added themselves as an owner in Google Search Console.
We scanned the files, the database and the server logs. The first backdoor had been planted at the end of July, through a vulnerable extension – weeks before anyone could see a thing.
- Spam article by a fake Super UserSearch Console ownership hijacked
- Backdoor planted at the end of JulyEntry through a vulnerable extension
- Every webshell and backdoor removedIncluding ones hidden in the image cache and template folders
- Holes shut, attackers blockedVulnerable plugins removed, firewall rules saved
Accounts
- Fake Super User deleted
- All sessions cleared, admin passwords reset
- Hijacker removed from Google Search Console
Files
- Webshells and backdoors deleted
- Spam article removed for good
configuration.phpno longer world-readable
Closed for good
- JA Social Share disabledThe extension the attack came through.
- JCE editor removedAfter attackers tried to upload files through it.
- Front page layout restoredThe attacker had emptied the home page.
When bots took the site down
Twice in the same month the site slowed down or returned errors. Not a hack this time: aggressive bots sending hundreds of requests in minutes, filling every PHP worker. We blocked them, then changed the server so the next one can’t do it again.
| Setting | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Rate limit · pages | 15 req/s per IP, burst 50 | |
| Rate limit · admin | 5 req/s per IP, burst 10 | |
| Nginx FastCGI timeout | 120 s | |
| PHP-FPM request timeout | 300 s | |
| Attacking IPs | blocked, rules survive a reboot |
- ServerVPS · Ubuntu 24.04 LTSManaged with CloudPanel
- AppNginx + PHP 8PHP-FPM pool tuned
- DatabaseMariaDBBacked up every day
- In frontCloudflareCDN and caching
From Joomla 5 to Joomla 6, as part of the care
- BeforeJoomla 5JA Teline V on the T3 framework.
- The workExtensions checkedTemplate, T3 and every extension tested on Joomla 6.
- MigratedDec 2025The site moved to Joomla 6.
- NowJoomla 6 · PHP 8Same template, same sections – back to weekly updates.
Kept
- JA Teline V template
- The eight news sections, Videos and Blog
- Every article and its URL
Updated
- Joomla 5 → 6
- T3 framework running on Joomla 6
- PHP 8
After the move
- Weekly updates continueJoomla 6 releases go in on the normal schedule.
One team for the site and the server
- The newsroom just publishesUpdates, backups and the server are handled for them.
- Someone answers when it breaksA hack cleaned up, bots blocked, the site back online.
- Already on Joomla 6The major upgrade done inside the care plan.
- Dec 2025Joomla 6Migrated from Joomla 5.
- Sep 2026Hack cleaned, server hardenedBackdoors removed, rate limiting added.
- NowWeekly careDaily backups, weekly security updates, uptime monitoring.
Related work & services
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