We are always seeking ways to strengthen the security of our platform, and this week we’ve rolled out something both simple and powerful: admin-area country whitelisting.

The VIP Rope for Your Blog’s Back Room

In the world of web security, plenty of threats target the most sensitive spot on your blog: the login page. Public readers can see your content, sure, but the login screen? That’s where the real treasure lies—if someone can force their way in, the damage can be swift and severe.

But what if we could put a velvet rope up by the login door, and only let in traffic from designated countries? Now, we can.

We’ve implemented a feature for our Premier customers: access to your blog’s login and admin area can be restricted by a “whitelist” of allowed country codes. If you or your team aren’t connecting from a country on that list, the login page simply won’t open its doors. No account guessing, no resource consumption, no brute force drama—just an “Access Denied” and a polite wave goodbye from our servers.

Why Bother? Security and Serenity

For a growing number of firms, brute force attacks aren’t theoretical. We see thousands of automated attempts to break into admin panels every day—from botnets with no legitimate connection to your organization.

This is where country-based whitelisting shines. By narrowing the list of places allowed to try logging in, we:

  • Drastically cut down on attack surface
  • Block entire continents of automated threats without even glancing at a password
  • Reduce server load (because we aren’t serving up login screens to endless bots)
  • Lower the chance of accidental lockouts or compromised credentials

Your public blog remains entirely unaffected. Readers anywhere in the world can view and share your posts—this is strictly about the admin login.

Why Do Most Attacks Come from Outside North America? (Follow the Cheap IPs)

If you’ve ever watched a server log scroll by at high speed, you might have noticed something odd: most brute force login attempts and bot attacks tend to come from data centers or networks in countries far outside North America.

Why is this the case? A major reason is the cost and accessibility of IP addresses in different regions. Here are a few facts behind the pattern:

  • IP Addresses as a Commodity: In North America, especially the US and Canada, IPv4 addresses are in high demand and tightly controlled. This means hosting providers must pay a premium, and anything “suspicious” draws more scrutiny.
  • Cheaper and Less Regulated Abroad: In many countries outside North America and western Europe, data centers can obtain large swaths of IP addresses cheaply—sometimes for a fraction of the price, with fewer questions asked about who’s using them and for what purpose.
  • Ideal for Malicious Networks: This abundance of low-cost, easily obtained IPs is a goldmine for botnet operators and cybercriminals. They can lease or hack blocks of addresses, launch massive automated attacks, and—when they get blocked—simply move to the next batch.
  • Harder to Track and Prosecute: Certain providers may not respond rapidly to abuse reports or might even turn a blind eye, making their regions attractive to attackers.

By restricting admin access to countries where you know your legitimate users are based, you’re instantly filtering out the majority of automated threats—often without even needing to look at login names or passwords. In practice, for users based mainly in North America, allowing only US and Canadian logins eliminates more than 95% of bulk login attack attempts at the gate.

Already Making a Difference (and How to Make Adjustments)

We’ve already rolled this out for several Premier customers and—true to the nature of good security—many haven’t noticed a thing. The only time folks ever think about it is when they (or a colleague) try to log in from an unexpected location. That brings us to the one caveat…

Let’s say your star blogger is traveling for a conference, or your firm’s marketing manager is logging in from a family vacation. If either country isn’t on your allow list, they’ll see a lock at the door. But no worries: just drop us a note. We can quickly add countries to your whitelist—usually in a matter of minutes.

VPNs: What You Need to Know

Now, about VPNs (Virtual Private Networks)—a favorite tool of the modern internet traveler. Many use VPNs for privacy, corporate access, or just to connect safely from a coffee shop Wi-Fi. VPNs work by routing your connection through a server located somewhere else in the world—sometimes across town, sometimes across an ocean.

Here’s how this relates to the country-locked admin access feature:

  • Your “location” is really your VPN server’s location. If you use a VPN and its endpoint is set in a country not on your whitelist, you’ll be blocked—no exceptions. To our system, it’s as if you’re physically in that country, even if you’re just down the street from the office.
  • On the flip side, you can use a VPN endpoint in an allowed country. If you’re traveling, or your real location isn’t on the whitelist, and you have access to a VPN endpoint in an approved country, that’s a perfectly valid workaround.
  • The same goes for corporate VPNs: If your company routes all remote worker traffic through a central, approved office country, you’ll typically have no problems. Just be sure you know where your traffic is emerging from—sometimes “home office” really means “Iceland,” at least as far as the internet is concerned.

The Takeaway: If you—or anyone on your team—regularly use a VPN, double-check:

  • Where is your VPN endpoint?
  • Is that country whitelisted for your admin login?

If you’re ever locked out because of a VPN (or travel, or both), just let us know. We can whitelist additional countries or help coach you through connecting from an approved location.

The Bottom Line: Stronger, Smoother, Safer

Security features often feel like obstacles—but when they’re done right, they offer peace of mind and a smoother-running platform. By keeping login attempts limited to “the right places,” we’re not just keeping out would-be hackers; we’re also giving your blog servers less to worry about—leaving more resources for the people who matter most: you and your readers.

Interested in turning on country-based admin whitelisting for your team? Already using it and have feedback? Reach out to our Success team—we’re always happy to help (and brag about new security tools).