Ack! There was a hack, but now I’m back!

A week ago today, I was set to write my daily blog post when, horror of horrors, I discovered my blog had been hacked! This made no sense; why would someone go after my little blog, which was only two weeks old? Then I learned that hundreds of blogs hosted on Network Solutions and at least one other large hosting company had been hacked due to a HUGE hole in security. Knowing that it wasn’t just me made me feel a little bit better, but only just a very, very little.

Because people who attempted to go to my blog were getting a popup that used the dreaded word “malwear,” my trusty Web designer, Pat Mullaly of Circle Graphics, and I decided to take down the whole thing rather than put anybody at risk. The techies at Network Solutions and WordPress now appear to have solved the problem so I’m back in business and I have republished  two weeks’ worth of posts.

Lessons learned from this experience

1. Bigger is not always better, but then we knew that already, didn’t we? Network Solutions was probably targeted because its size gave the hacker the opportunity to take down hundreds, perhaps thousands, of blogs. So at some point, I will migrate my Web site and its blog to a smaller company. Of course, I had initially started out with a small company years ago when I first launched a Web site, but industry consolidation eventually landed me with one of the behemoths, just like my beloved South Boston Savings Bank eventually became Bank of America after merger upon merger. (I couldn’t close that account fast enough when that happened!)

2. Back-up, back-up, back-up. Because I had not saved back-ups of my postings, I had to copy them from the site before we took it down. This was not too horrendous a task because I had only been writing for two weeks. But imagine if I’d had two years of postings instead of two weeks’ worth? Yikes!

I have always lived on the edge regarding backing up my files, perhaps because during over two decades of Mac use, I have permanently lost just one file. Every once in a while I copy my Word docs onto a CD, but never often enough.

But this latest incident convinced me that I need to do better. So knowing that I rarely get around to doing by backup myself, I signed up for a free trial of Carbonite. They’ve backed up everything on my computer except my music files and when the free trial is over, I’ll throw them 50-some bucks and they’ll take care of me for the next year. Seems like a good deal to me.

3.  I really like this blogging thing. Much to my surprise, just two weeks of blogging was enough to get me addicted! During the time my blog was down, I really missed doing the posts. At the start, I didn’t realize that being able to write about things I want to write about and in my own voice would be so appealing after 30 years of writing about what clients want to write about and in their voice. I’ve been perfectly happy as a ghost, but am now also happy to be me!

3 comments

  1. Jeanne,

    I highly recommend Adventures Online (http://www.adventuresonline.com) for web hosting. Karen Callahan has been great. I've been hosted by her company for about 18 months.

    Susan

  2. Jeanne Yocum says:

    I know Karen! She tried to help Pat and me out when the hack occurred and as a result, her computer got shut down for two hours! I was mortified! i will definitely put her in my list of possibilities! Thanks for telling me…I had not thought of her in that light. Great advice.

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