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WiscWeb deploying changes to firewall settings for WordPress environments

The CALS Web Services Team is sharing news of an important announcement from WiscWeb with CALS website owners and editors. The message is relevant because CALS’ WordPress sites are located on the same DoIT/WiscWeb server infrastructure. The team asks that CALS site owners and editors read the information below and contact the CALS Web Service team if they experience any issues related to this change.

The following email was sent from Jenna Klinner, service coordinator with DoIT.

Hello WiscWeb users,

In the coming days, WiscWeb will be deploying subtle changes to the way that we configure our firewall settings for our WordPress environments. Our goal is to implement these changes in the least impactful way. However, it is possible that some of these changes will create false positives for you and users of your site(s).

More information about this change, including an example of the block message, are included in the related WiscWeb news page.

Why is this happening?

Our service is seeing an increasing amount of bot traffic and malicious attacks. To combat this, we are reconfiguring the way our firewall layer handles this traffic. These changes will help prevent nefarious traffic from impacting the performance and stability of the WiscWeb service.

When is this happening?

Small changes will be rolled out daily between June 4 and June 17, 2025.

What will the experience look like?

If users are blocked due to the firewall changes, a custom error page will be shown, along with next step recommendations.

What should I do if I (or one of my users) gets blocked?

If someone encounters the block message, please advise them to follow the instructions in the message. This will encourage them to first clear their browser cache and cookies. If this does not help, they are instructed to contact the DoIT Help Desk via the link provided in the message.

Thanks,

Jenna Klinner
Service Coordinator | WiscWeb
DoIT | University of Wisconsin – Madison
she/her/hers