Monitoring Dictionary
False negative
Definition
A false negative is a real security problem that a tool or process failed to detect.
Also called: false negatives
Why it matters for WordPress
A green “no malware found” badge feels great. It is not proof the site is clean. New backdoors, clever obfuscation, and database-only injections get missed. Pair scanners with integrity checks, logs, and human review when symptoms disagree with the report.
How it shows up in practice
- Visitors still see spam redirects while the scanner stays green
- A host blacklist notice after your plugin said everything was fine
- Reinfection from a persistence mechanism no signature knew yet
- A known vulnerable plugin version that a misconfigured scan never listed
What to do
- Treat scanner output as evidence, not gospel.
- If users report odd behavior, investigate anyway: logs, core diffs, users, cron.
- Combine malware scanning with file integrity and vulnerability checks.
- After cleanup, keep watching; false negatives love to show up on day two.
Go deeper
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Nearby ideas in the dictionary
- False positive A false positive is an alert that looks like a problem but turns out to be benign after review.
- Malware Malware on WordPress is unwanted code that steals data, spam-sends, redirects visitors, or keeps a backdoor open.
- Vulnerability A vulnerability is a weakness in software that attackers can abuse to break confidentiality, integrity, or availability.
- File integrity monitoring File integrity monitoring checks whether important files changed compared with a known-good baseline.