Hacked, but back
Twice in the last few weeks, my site’s been hacked. Whoever did it used it to send spam out, which resulted in my website being suspended. Talk about a rude awakening…It stinks to go to your website only to find a big banner going across it reading something to the effect of “This account has been suspended…” with instructions to contact the host company.
This all happened on Wednesday, August 6. I remember it well because I found out about it right before I had to leave for my pre-admissions testing at the hospital. What timing, I tell ya.
At that time, the tech told me it might have been because I didn’t have the most recent version of WordPress installed. WordPress fixed some vulnerabilities in a later version I didn’t even realize was out there. I had trusted Fantastico to have the most current version, but they didn’t. Simple Scripts is much better about keeping scripts updated, I later learned. There were some other glaring issues which left my site vulnerable, too.
Did I figure all this out on my own? Heck no! I am accomplished in many areas, but web design and coding is not one of them. I’m a very proficient end user, but don’t ask me to dig in and do stuff in a site’s back end. I am one of the huddled masses who rely on others to help them with this stuff.
All I can say is thank God for William. He met me at the coffee shop near Howie’s office that afternoon and spent a couple of hours updating our WordPress installations and checking on other things. His wife Rebecca had a thick novel with her and spent the time reading and sipping on a decaf.
As soon as I called and spoke to them, Hostmonster e-mailed me a list of things to do in order to secure my site. From what William said, it is stuff most web hosts suggest, but some of the things aren’t really necessary anymore.
Flash forward to yesterday. I found myself with my site suspended again. Fortunately, by then I had transferred our e-mail service to Google Apps, so it was only the website affected…Only this site, actually. The hackers didn’t do anything to our other sites on our shared space.
Once again it was William to the rescue. I reached him on Google Chat yesterday afternoon and he took it from there. I don’t know what all he did, but he must have spoken to someone at my host because my site was back up a few hours later.
Still, neither he nor I knew whether the hacker had left some kind of back door access to my site. William suggested I backup my SQL databases and my entire website, then have my host wipe it out so I could reinstall everything cleanly. It is the only way we’d know there weren’t any lingering issues.
So, with some gentle prodding from my friend, I exported my SQL databases last night and downloaded our entire webspace. Today, I asked tech support to wipe it clean.
Well, they wiped out everything. I went back and logged into the control panel only to find everything was cleared back to the point where nothing was left but my admin name and password. I knew the MX entries, subdomains, user accounts and such would have to be recreated, and that wasn’t so big a deal because I knew how to do those things.
My biggest problem was getting the SQL databases back up to my site. I tried importing them using phpMyAdmin, but I kept getting errors. I knew I had to get them back online before installing WordPress again, but only because I had gone to Simple Scripts and tried to install WordPress, only to have it ask me what database to associate with the installation.
Is this boring? I went through it and even I think it’s boring. Sigh.
To make a long story short, William helped me yet again by having me e-mail him my SQL files then doing some crazy magic in phpMyAdmin and getting them where they needed to be. He also reinstalled WordPress.
Whew!
The only plugin we are using for now is the Akismet comment spam filter. Since we really don’t know how the hacker gained access to the site, it’s best to start with a pretty clean slate and then add other plugins back in slowly and monitor what happens.
I tell ya, this stuff about gives me panic attacks. It is such an awful feeling of violation when someone messes with your site. Yuck. And to be someone who doesn’t know about all this php stuff and how to even find where the stuff on that list is, let alone fix it…Well, it sucks. I just hope this stuff is shored up and we’re good to go.
I really need to learn about this stuff, but I know it’s will have to be in the form of a class I attend. I know myself well enough to see that self-study or even an online class won’t work for me. I need the structure that a classroom setting provides, with the ability to as questions and learn by example. I should check into auditing some classes at the local technical college.
Okay, kids, I’m exhausted and sore. My shoulder’s not up to this much computer time and I’ve been working on website-related stuff since about 8pm. I’m going to bed!
Go, Shelly-Ann, go!
Howie and I have been watching the 2008 Summer Olympics about every night since Friday. Tonight it was with pure pleasure that we watched Shelly-Ann Fraser burn up the women’s 100M race, winning by a whole body’s length.
What made it so utterly enjoyable was the unbridled excitement and joy in her face when she realized she had it!
We laughed as we saw her leaping and dancing on the track, alternately embracing or waving the Jamaican flag, photographers trying to keep up with her as they snapped shots. It was just that fun.
At one point, she lay down flat on her back, kicking her feet in the air with glee. It just tickled us to see her so excited.
This wasn’t the cocky grandstanding seen so often in pro football after a touchdown. This was pure, childlike jubilation, totally refreshing. It just made my day!
Way to go, Shelly-Ann! Don’t ever lose that…Keep having fun and loving what you do!
Back home
Back home since 6:30pm. Sleepy. This blog’s regular programming will resume tomorrow.
Shoulder surgery today
I haven’t posted about the accident much, but it’s effected my life greatly and the shoulder injury has not healed up despite time, physical therapy and steroid injections. So, as a last resort, I am undergoing outpatient surgery on it tomorrow.
The doctor said the choice of when to have it done was up to me. I could get it over with, but not be able to do much of anything for the rest of the summer, or I could wait and have it done in the fall and be laid up for the holidays. The way I see it, I’ve not been able to weed or do much of anything without ending up in a lot of pain that night, so why not just get it over with? Anyway, I won’t be able to drive for about 6 weeks, so I’d rather be able to get outside and read or go for walks while recovering, not be stuck inside the house on ever-darkening fall days.
Not only that, but the 2008 Dave’s Garden Kentucky roundup is coming up in September, and this year we’re planning on staying a whole week, tent camping. By having the surgery now, I should be recovered enough by mid-September to go on the trip as long as I don’t lift anything. That’s the plan, anyway.
We’ll have to play it by ear and see if I will be able to lie down on the air mattress to sleep, though. If I’m not, we may do something crazy like drive the van instead of the Jetta and bring the recliner with us! Look out, Beverly Hillbillies!
More realistically, we might have to rent a cabin and shorten our visit since the cabins are so much more expensive than camping. Either way, the important thing is we’ll get to see our good friends.
The last week has been pretty stressful as I’ve gone through pre-admissions testing and prepared myself for what’s to come. An abnormal EKG last week was proven to be a false alarm when, on Tuesday my stress test came back normal. One issue we discovered was that my blood pressure is high. That has been remedied with a beta blocker, and readings have been good as long as I am taking it. It’s an inconvenience having to take it twice daily, but the alternative’s unacceptable.
The good news is, my cholesterol and triglycerides are great.
Boy, do I sound old here, talking about cholesterol. Zzzzzzz.
Howie and I bought a comfy used recliner from someone who advertised some furniture on Craig’s List. It was suggested by the doctor that a recliner would be a good thing since I won’t be comfortable lying down for some time. Howie got the chair in the house on Sunday and I gave it a test run that afternoon, taking a nice long nap in it. It passed the test with flying colors.
If cholesterol makes me sound old, waxing on about a recliner must make me sound positively ancient!
Hey, I’m also ready from a geek standpoint. I should be okay to use my laptop since the doctor said I can move my right arm from the elbow down, as long as I keep my upper arm close to my side. Photography-wise, I am covered too. While I love my DSLR-A300K
Howie’s been wanting a point-and-shoot camera and I’d been wanting a little camera I could just keep in my purse. With the surgery happening, that size-factor became even more important. We bought, but returned, a Fuji FinePix F50fd
Not to worry, we returned it in exchange for a little camera that fits the bill: Sony Cybershot DSC-W150
Mary at Scrappers Gallery was kind enough to let me turn in two layouts this week for the design team; that covers me through August 31. Hopefully by the beginning of September I’ll be able to scrapbook a bit here and there, long enough to do my layout that’s due September 15. That’s also the deadline for a newsletter article, but that won’t be an issue since I use a laptop.
I’m rambling…I don’t want to go to bed, because I want to sleep in a bit in the morning. My surgery’s not scheduled to start until after Noon, and I don’ want to get up too early and spend a thirsty, hungry morning, craving a cup of strong coffee and just waiting to head over there.
I guess that about sums it up! I hope to be blogging, albeit shorter entries, in a few days. Anything will be short compared to this entry. Sheesh!
At any rate, I will be reading e-mails either way, so feel free to write! 
A pinata’s life
I am camped out in the gazebo, bundled up against the night chill (in AUGUST, people!) and watching videos on Hulu. This one tickled me.
Poor little fella. They scared the candy right outta him. 
The Mean Kitty Song
Anyone who’s had a kitten knows they can be angelic little beings…When they’re sleeping. The rest of the time, they’re terrorists. As Laurief at Dave’s Garden said as a word of advise to Melva, unsure about letting her nookitty Corky out into the whole at large,
And don’t worry about the clutter. Kittens LOVE clutter. In fact, if you don’t have enough clutter to keep him happy, HE’LL MAKE MORE! Don’t worry about losing him in the clutter, either. Although he may, indeed, find lots of fun hidey holes to hide in, he’ll reappear anytime he wants food or affection.
That about sums it up. Snoopy drove us nuts with her “cat toys”, sometimes deftly retrieved from trash baskets, sometimes left accidentally on a table…Bottle caps turned hockey pucks on the hardwood floors, plastic rings from milk jugs, crinkly celophane wrappers from bottles, you name it.
And the nipping! Kittens love to bite and claw. They’re trying out their built-in weapons, seeing how it is to hunt.They have to be taught not to bite and claw their humans or other inappropriate objects. When blowing in the kitten’s face didn’t work, we’d flick her nose with a finger while saying a loud “NO!”. That usually did the trick. Of course, sometimes kittens (and cats) bite because they’re overstimulated and they kind of short-circuit. At times like those, a little time-out from petting and playing is good.
Sybiltwo at DG linked to a video at YouTube that vividly and humorously illustrates what life with a kitten is like. It’s a keeper!
Cory posted the lyrics in the information section on the video’s page.Can anyone relate? I sure can, and I laughed out loud when I watched that. It’s favorited now, you betcha! I like Cory’s style, too, so I’ve subscribed to his channel.