“Dare I reply lest this thread is removed also.”
‘Security’ threads are not usually removed but some people do get overexcited and we’ll start having the “OMG!!11111!!!!! My BloG wiLL bE HacKed!!!!” gang descending in droves, slagging the program off, saying WP takes nothing seriously etc etc etc. That does nothing except give a platform to people who know little but can scare more, and worry those who have no need. It gets really tedious.
The decision to close the thread / respond was taken on the forum list – no coders had any input before that.
Hasty? Possibly, but from experience it turns into firefighting and those threads never ever have a “WP is doing something? Cool, we are all reassured”. If that happened, great. But it doesn’t.
Like Westi has said, this takes a set of circumstances rather than a simple action.
I’ll add that people should take note of (2) above:
“You have a simple /null database password.”
Regardless of ANY exploit the weakest link in your wp install is your password. Make it better.
https://keepass.sourceforge.net/