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