A few Sunday ago I checked my website and to my surprise I found that my domain has been set up for redirection to a game website. I thought I must have been seeing doubles are my browser might have been hacked. Then it dawned on me that something went horrible wrong. I logged in to my control panel and what I see said it all my files were gone there and then the reality hit me hard, the extent of the damage just sunk in. At this point all my files have been deleted and my .htaccess file replaced and my domain was set up to redirect to another IP address.
This brings me to the question, how secure is your website or Blog? A good question but from my experience it is as secure as the hacker sees it. This might seems frightening but I am not trying to scare you and as a blogger this might seems like a bold statement, true but after my nightmare experience I am of the opinion that any hacker can get to your website if they so desire. Many of you might know I have some programming experience and believe it or not hackers are just great programmers who use their skills for the wrong reasons.
A good friend of mine Ditesco over at IblogZone as some valuable questions and one of them was what back up plug-in am I using? The simple answer is none. As bloggers we need to take back up seriously this is an essential part of online survival, but for me the best back up is to keep a copy of your database on your local machine and also on a device like a USB Stick. The best form of security is to keep an updated version of your theme files safely and download a copy of your updated database to your local server.
This brings me to another point the vulnerability of your web host. This is a crucial part of your business so How secure is your web host? Yeah a tough one to answer, I don’t think they are as secure as they look. The blogging platform can make a difference but may it be blogger or WordPress it can still be hacked when your WordPress self hosted blog is hacked you know but when your WordPress or Blogger site is hacked you may never know they tell you that it was a technical glitch.
Now how secure is your website? And particular your web host. These are points to take in consideration remember your blog is your business and it is never a good feeling it happened to me and I would not wish it up on any one. Back up Back up every day that is your best bet to stay safe. I am no expert here but I am just sharing my knowledge and experience here. So I finished with this question have you ever been hacked? Share your thoughts.
image credits ebookee
Sorry to hear that Gary…but like you said, a great part of security comes from your host, i wrote about it a few months back. I had no problem with Dreamhost for almost 3 years now, they have perfect backup, not that I ever needed it, but like you suggested I keep backup on my computer as well.
In the end it doesn’t have to be a hacker, it can be a friend or someone that can just guess your password.. I have seen plenty of those…
Well, I hope you didn’t lose anything important, in the future keep your private info private and decide only on top level hosting providers, not that they are 100% safe, but they are much safer then the rest and the difference in price is none!
Yeah you are right Zarko i believe that it was one of those moment that we really dread but when it happens we just have to face it and mive on Thanks for your kind words Zarko.
Hello Gary,
It is very unfortunate that your site was hacked. I hope you were able to recover that you lost. I usually back up every week but I guess, I got to increase the frequency. Were you able to determine the method using which it was hacked( open ftp, weak password)? Take care and be safe.
Best regards,
Ashvini
Thanks Ashvini i was told by the web host that it was a long in from the client side however i dougbt it because other website has been hacked too that i know of so it still remains a mystery. Thanks for your warm words.
The only thing you ensure before you enter your password is that you can ensure that you can only know your password. Type your password fast to not be hacked. And put some security questions in your website.
Welcome to my blog and yes you are right the concern here is that the hacker was able to reach my control panel and delete all my files however i did not lose any of my database files so it was easy for me in the end to restore my theme. Thanks for your wise words.
Sorry to hear that your blog was hacked and yes, it could happen to anyone.
We need to be really careful.
I use plugin to back up my data every day.
Thanks Shabnam i think i get out of it very well i am hoping that it does not happen again but we can only take precautions hackers are just great programmers.
Backup Backup Backup… I learned it the hard way when a virus deleted all my thesis files. tsk tsk tsk
Backing up your files is very important after all it is our business blogging is what we do so we need to make sure that whenever our site goes down it is back up as soon as posible.
Very sorry to hear about this news but it is the major problem faced by all the websites,hope we all get rid from hackers…
That is so right but we can’t give up because of that we have to keep fighting this only makes me stronger and more determined. Thanks for your kind words.
You have been hacked…that is very shocking indeed! I cannot even imagine the same happening to my own site. That would be a real nightmare for me. Anyways, I’ve never been in the same situation till date. And yes, blogger does have an option to have a backup of the whole blog as well as the template. As far as wordpress is concerned, I think there are many plugins available for the same. You must be knowing about it. Keep backing up on a regular basis and happy blogging to you !!
I always keep a copy of my website back up my database and my customised theme files it was a cunning move by the hacker Aswani but for me i never say die.
I’ve learned my lesson as well 🙂 Always have a backup of your blog as well as database on your hardware, always! That experience had taught me well, good thing it’s easy to get back, especially when you have the drive to push through with your business, even if you have to start from scratch again (well, that happened in my case). I haven’t been blogging recently, and I’m still fixing my error pages this past week. But all is well, been planning to get back with writing this coming week.
I realize it Jason and from my personal experience it is not a good feeling but i will not let a situation like that deter me from blogging Back up Back up is the key message here. Glad to have you back brother.
OMG ! shocked to hear that .Even though wp goes on updating , there is no guarantee that its hackerproof ! Only if you have taken prooper backup solutions 😛
Never-mind , you have learnt your lessons dude 🙂 All the best for your future blogging venture and take proper care of your blog 😀
It was a lesson well learnt the good thing is that there was not much damage done because i found out very early so i just reinstall my back up themes change password and username blogging still goes on.
Do you have any clues as to who it might have been or how they got into your account? I think these kind of questions would haunt me if my blog had been hacked! Just wondering what the person’s intention was and what information of mine they had! Very sorry to hear about that! Definitely consider finding a new host and changing all of your passwords!
Not really but i know that quite a few blogs got hacked that day and there were on different host the only thing most of the blogs have in common is that they are runing Thesis so it could be someone out to prove a point.
So I take that by not using any backup plugin, you are doing this manually? I do not rely much on plugins as well although I do use PressBackup which can be use automatically or not. I chose the manual option and I back up everything from database, to plugins installed , to themes, the whole shebang. never what can happen and your experience (sad unfortunately) is a great lesson to learn. BTW, thanks for writing this post, as for among other things to reply on my questions. Great
Thanks Ditesco the best back up is to keep your files away from your web host having said that the hacker had access to my control panel delete all my files and install his own index.php file luckily the database was not destroy.
Sorry to hear the hackers got to you too. I know I was devastated when they got to my site, and I am still trying to recover from the lost ground of being down for a few days.
Hackers that place viruses on your computer system should be slowly boiled in oil
I know exactly how you feel Steve i believe that we were both targeted on the same day luckily it took me about two hours to sort it out but that memories will live for ever. Thanks for your support Steve.
There is no surefire way to counter hackers. I think without backup solution, we cannot be safe in online working. To be hones, after reading your article, I immediately change password some important account and deploy other backup solution.
That is true but we can only try to put preventative measures in place along with a good back up plan and keeping a copy of our files on a back up disk is the best bet. Thanks for your comment.
This hacked situation is what I am mostly afraid of. The hacker is very clever so I believe they can hack despite how strong the security is. Therefore the backup is a must for us to overcome this hacked situation.
That is just the way the Internet works as long as you have an online presence we will always be face with this situation However, how we overcome the after marth is the main thing thanks for your comment.
Blimey I’ve just come over to your blog here Gary from Jason’s (kaiserthesage) I can’t believe you’ve both just gone through this! Would you say that on-line back-up is a good secondary place for files to be backed up regularly? Cheers, Stuart.
You are right we both get hacked about the same time and i know other blogger with the same problem however i get over it now. The good thing i did not loose anything just my customise thesis theme. Thanks for the visit.
Wow, that really is quite scary. I’ve been doing some work on our site and this would be absolutely devastating. I’m going to take a good long look and reassess the security of my site, thanks for the heads up.
This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing blog that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free..
Hi, sorry to hear it, have you managed to get it back? I recommend using something like wordpress of blogger, as they have built in security which would be quite useful in a case like this, also as they store your information online, it would be easier to return to you 😛
Very good information, thank you very much by the article and the quality of your Web site.
Oh I’m sorry to her that. Nobody wants to get their website hacked. This post is a great reminder that we must provide a back up of our files.
I never experience to be hack but a lot of my friends experience this and it is not easy to be hack with those hackers. You done so many things to your site and it will suddenly hack, it will hurt actually.