It seems that for years I’ve been upgrading wordpress, and usually a security bug in xmlrpc.php is mentioned.
The latest update, 2.3.3, has a typical line:

…a flaw was found in the XML-RPC implementation…
Besides upgrading whenever I notice the problem, my attempt an additional measure of safety is:
chmod 000 xmlrpc.php
Or maybe:

mv […]

In this sad story about a man being beaten after a traffic accident in Oakland, I found the first comment
hilarious:

In that neighborhood, unless your car can’t run anymore, do not stop for anything. Call the police after you come to a safe environment. If your car is dead, come out shooting. If you don’t have […]