Sonia Marsh - Gutsy Living

Life's too short to play it safe

My blog was hacked. Why me?

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My website was hacked last Friday and I felt sick to my stomach. It felt like an intruder entered my home, stole  my belongings and left me naked and vulnerable.

How could this happen to me? I’m not a corporation or a business selling products; no I’m Sonia Marsh, author and blogger who enjoys a community of people from around the world.

So here’s what happened. (I am not a professional website designer or coder who can offer technical advice.)

I logged onto my hosted WordPress website and noticed that the photograph on the most recent post on the landing page had disappeared. A black dot had replaced the photo. The photo was still on the post, so why wasn’t it being “pulled” onto the home page? (My website designer and coder had written code to do this automatically.)  I experimented uploading another photo hoping  this might be the solution. After deleting photos from my Gallery, and uploading them directly into my post, nothing worked. Within an hour or so, all photos on my home page were replaced by small black dots. I felt like my blog was slowly crumbling in front of my eyes just like the frightening photos of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

I checked all three of my domain names and my website never popped up. The directory no longer had an index file. I no longer existed on the web. As I mourned the death of my website with hundreds of posts, photos and comments gone forever, my immediate reaction was the most common one: panic, which can also be the most dangerous one. Douglas Karr explains in his article “WordPress Hacked? Ten Steps to Repair Your Blog,”

  • “Stay Calm! Don’t start deleting things and installing all kinds of crap that promises to clean your installation up. You don’t know who wrote it and whether or not it’s simply adding more malicious crap to your blog. Take a deep breath, lookup this blog post, and slowly and deliberately go down the checklist.”
  • Call your web-hosting company, if you use one, and ask them to look into it.
  • Act fast. Get immediate professional help if you don’t know how to fix yourself.

I went from panic, to mad to Gutsy, and said, “That damn HACKER is not going to get away with this. I’m not giving up after all these years of blogging, I have to get it back.”

I e-mailed my web-designer who got back to me right away and said, “Sonia, you’ve been hacked. Call your web-hosting company immediately and find out what’s going on.”

She is not a coder but put me in touch with a fantastic guy who informed me the problem lies with a script called: timthumb.php. That script had a ‘hole’ in it that would let people take over WordPress sites.

From there it infected almost every other file in WordPress, the plugins and the theme.
In order to reduce your risk here are a 5 steps to take if you use WordPress:
  1. Keep your themes and plugins updated – #1 cause of malware infections and hacks independent of any platform!
  2. Only download from reputable sources (WordPress.org).
  3. Only use plugins and themes that are being actively developed and have good, trusted reviews. Do your homework
  4. Keep an eye on WordPress security news to see if there are any issues with the plugins or themes you are using.
  5. Don’t just disable, remove any software that you’re not actively using. Just because it’s not active doesn’t mean it’s not vulnerable
I lost two pounds on Friday from nerves and not eating and had an event to attend in the evening. Fortunately, when I returned, Loren, the tech guy, left me this message.
“I pretty sure I’ve got it clean
I had to completely re-install WordPress
Delete all plugins
Re-install all plugins
clean every theme file.”

I clicked on my website: soniamarsh.com and I was back online. I celebrated with a glass of wine, and deleted a couple of plugins I don’t use. I hope this never happens to you, or to me again.

Don’t forget to change your passwords frequently.

Have you been hacked before? How did you react?

 

Above Photo Daniel Conway

 

 

Comments

  2. Debbie Miller says

    So sorry to hear this, Sonia 🙁 I can’t imagine. Thank you so much for this post and the tips, though — I’ll definitely be putting these prevention tips into action!

    • Gutsy Writer says

      Yes, it was rather scary. I never thought I would react this way. Anyway, Loren was great to get it up and running again.

  5. Jan Marshall says

    Sweet Sonia,I am sorry that you had trouble and I am glad it has been resolved. Do you realize you are in good company (or bad depending on your point of view about bombing anything but your computer),
    The Government’s Drone system was hacked as well.
    Now I saw a bit of good news in your distress which is mean of me but I learned how your aggravation lead to weight loss so I may get a wordpress blog as well. It is better than my system of eating as much as I can in 30 seconds with one chop stick while standing on my head, cause I’ve become very good at that! Hugs, Jan Marshall

    • Gutsy Writer says

      Jan,

      I love your sense of humor and how you come to some wonderful conclusions. The two pounds are back, so switching to WordPress might not do the trick. How are things going for you?

  7. Gutsy Writer says

    Gigi Ann,

    Nice to hear from you. I am not sure, but one reason I mentioned I’m not selling products is that sometimes hackers can divert traffic to their sites and get customers that way. As I said, I’m not an expert, but that could be one reason.

    • Gutsy Writer says

      Thanks Kelly. I’m glad I had professional help. I notice you use blogger which I used to have too. Just read your post on your daughter’s schedule in high school. Shall comment on your blog.

    • Gutsy Writer says

      Gail, I thank you for your support and I do hope it never happens to anyone else. It truly is scary.

  11. barbara says

    What a nightmare! I’ve considered going back to WP but maybe I’ll just stick w/ blogger.

    So happy you got it fixed, but feel bad you had so much stress. I would have too!
    b

    • Gutsy Writer says

      Barbara,

      You and I think alike and I can imagine you’d feel the same way as I did.
      Thanks. It felt like a miracle when Loren said he got my files back. I just wish I knew how to do it myself.

  12. PeterH says

    Glad to see all now ok. It is not a nice feeling, and I had my e-mail hijacked once before and am now quite careful about these issues.

  13. Sandra / Always Well Within says

    Sonia,

    I’m so sorry this happened to you! I’m so sad that there are people who are so desperate themselves that they hack other peoples’ sites for kicks or whatever.

    Thanks for getting a handle on this so quickly and sharing the essentials to do list with us.

    I’ve only been hacked on twitter and FB and that was enough for me!
    Sandra / Always Well Within recently posted..Open Your Heart and Drink!My Profile

    • Gutsy Writer says

      Sandra,

      Thanks. I know you put a ton of effort into your blog and so can relate. The FB and Twitter hacking must have been scary too. I wonder if this happened at the same time.

    • Gutsy Writer says

      Plus its cold in Moldova, as you said, so you must have wrapped an extra blanket around you Miss Footloose.

  15. Stephanie says

    One of my websites was hacked too a while ago. It’s upsetting and frustrating – and completely pointless. All it does is cause a lot of extra work and worry. I’m so sorry it happened to you. Put it behind you and carry on being Gutsy. I’m sure it will never happen again, especially if you now take those precautions you listed.
    Stephanie recently posted..Guinea-Pig Gardeners of Les FragnesMy Profile

  20. Penelope J. says

    Sounds awful. Never heard of a blog being hacked before. Didn’t even know that could happen. Why on earth? Loved that you went from Panic to Mad to Gutsy. Glad you were able to solve it.

    I have a WordPress blog though before I start blogging again, I plan to completely update/redesign and maybe have a separate one linked to website blog. Therefore, thanks for the advice that should serve me well in setting up defenses against such an occurrence.
    Penelope J. recently posted..Never Give Up on Your DreamMy Profile

  21. Gutsy Writer says

    Pennie,

    I wasn’t sure what you meant by having a separate blog linked to your WordPress blog. Do you want two blogs?

  23. Barb says

    Oh goodness, you have my sympathy. Never happened so far here, although Ihave had a hotmail addressed hacked – someone sent messages out as me

    • Gutsy Writer says

      Hi Barb,

      Checked out your nice blog. Must have been horrible to have your e-mail hacked.

    • Gutsy Writer says

      Hi Amanda,

      Yes, but I needed help too. Enjoyed speaking about the headaches that all writers seem to face when rewriting, restructuring, etc., with you.

  26. sandy a says

    I am a little late seeing this, but one of my friends had her domain stolen and bits and pieces of her website lifted and placed in other websites. She is a free-lance magazine journalist, interviewing rock bands and writing critiques of music.

  27. Gutsy Writer says

    Hi Sandy,

    That sounds terrible. How scary for her and I am shocked that someone can steal a domain name. Is she still writing?

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