{"id":4512,"date":"2026-07-10T09:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T16:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/?post_type=wcb_speaker&#038;p=4512"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:56:09","slug":"robert-abela","status":"publish","type":"wcb_speaker","link":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/speaker\/robert-abela\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Abela"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Robert Abela is the founder and CEO of Melapress, where he and his team build WordPress plugins that help people manage and keep their websites and users secure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before starting Melapress in 2013, Robert spent over a decade at companies like GFI Software and Acunetix, where he held various positions, from lead systems engineer to product manager. His work during those years shaped his passion for creating simple, effective tools that solve real problems. Today, the Melapress plugins protect more than half a million websites worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"205\" src=\"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/07\/red-map-flowers-colorful.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5020\" style=\"width:auto;height:50px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/07\/red-map-flowers-colorful.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/07\/red-map-flowers-colorful-766x157.jpg 766w, https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/07\/red-map-flowers-colorful-300x62.jpg 300w, https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/07\/red-map-flowers-colorful-500x103.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-query is-layout-flow wp-block-query-is-layout-flow\"><ul class=\"wp-block-post-template is-layout-flow wp-block-post-template-is-layout-flow\"><li class=\"wp-block-post post-4518 wcb_session type-wcb_session status-publish hentry wcb_track-honing-your-skills wcb_session_category-showcase\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-post-title has-large-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/session\/the-attacker-that-never-logged-in-session-hijacking-stolen-cookies-and-the-blind-spot-in-wordpress-security\/\" target=\"_self\" >The Attacker That Never Logged In: Session Hijacking, Stolen Cookies, and the Blind Spot in WordPress Security<\/a><\/h2>\n\n<div class=\"taxonomy-wcb_track wp-block-post-terms has-medium-font-size\"><span class=\"wp-block-post-terms__prefix\">Track: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/track\/honing-your-skills\/\" rel=\"tag\">Honing Your Skills<\/a><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt\">They didn&#8217;t guess the password. They didn&#8217;t break 2FA, bypass the firewall, or trigger a single alert. The activity log shows no failed attempts, no unusual login times, no new accounts created. And yet, the attacker is inside your WordPress site, accessing your WordPress dashboard. Session hijacking leaves no login trace, because the attacker never&hellip; <\/p><\/div>\n<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Abela is the founder and CEO of Melapress, where he and his team build WordPress plugins that help people manage and keep their websites and users secure. Before starting Melapress in 2013, Robert spent over a decade at companies like GFI Software and Acunetix, where he held various positions, from lead systems engineer to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20930034,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_wcpt_user_name":"robert681","footnotes":""},"speaker_group":[],"class_list":["post-4512","wcb_speaker","type-wcb_speaker","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgSBpQ-1aM","avatar_urls":{"24":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2fde22454fe69c4f3dbab2398560161bd24186c96cae7fef48fd111082985f75?s=24&d=blank&r=g","48":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2fde22454fe69c4f3dbab2398560161bd24186c96cae7fef48fd111082985f75?s=48&d=blank&r=g","96":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2fde22454fe69c4f3dbab2398560161bd24186c96cae7fef48fd111082985f75?s=96&d=blank&r=g","128":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2fde22454fe69c4f3dbab2398560161bd24186c96cae7fef48fd111082985f75?s=128&d=blank&r=g","256":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2fde22454fe69c4f3dbab2398560161bd24186c96cae7fef48fd111082985f75?s=256&d=blank&r=g","512":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2fde22454fe69c4f3dbab2398560161bd24186c96cae7fef48fd111082985f75?s=512&d=blank&r=g"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/4512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wcb_speaker"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20930034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4512"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/4512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5458,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/4512\/revisions\/5458"}],"sessions":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/4518?_embed=1&context=view"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wcb_speaker_group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker_group?post=4512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}