Ike And The Academy
By Vic on Sep 13, 2008 in Comment Reactions
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2008 20% Discount Code BUVIP
Popularity: 28% [?]
Well … Well …. what a preach you did! with...
Justin all my best to you and your wife and hope you both can get back home soon, and that your home will be okay as well.
My prays go to all that are effected by Ike. Hope all turns out well.
Hey everybody just wanted to let you know somebody is systematically hacking my word press blogs….three of them so far. My passwords were 8 characters long with upper case, lower case, numbers, symbols….i am very angry as these blogs had phpbay on them and they were part of my network.
I expect them all to be going down over the next day or two. My advice is to never use the word press generated user name when putting wordpress on a domain. I think that was my mistake. Anyone who knows wordpress would be able to figure out the user name. I thought a strong password was enough.
Grrrrr…..
So now sniper hack has my email, knows some of my domain names in my network…what kinds of things are likely to happen as a result of this? Do I just not use these domains again? I assume I delete the accounts from WHM for starters.
What other things does sniper hack know about me now? Any advice?
Ain’t life a bitch?
Damn! There went number four.
Five….Six…..hell I am going to bed.
Diane, this is terrible! Hope you get this figured out.
I just read a post where someone else got hacked the same way you did.
There determination was not the username but that they had not kept their WP versions updated to plug some of the security leaks.
Are you keeping your blogs and plug-ins updated to the latest versions?
I did not update any of my wp blogs…tried one day but I did not understand how and so gave up. I guess I had better get that figured out. But I can’t imagine having to update all my wpblogs every time wp updates, which is at least twice a year…tell me it isn’t so!
Diane just login into your WP accounts and go to Fantastico. Then click on wordpress blog and in that area it will tell you whether there is an update available. Click on the update to current version and it automatically updates for you.
Also keep an eye on your plug-ins to insure you are using the current versions.
Hope this helps.
Denise, thanks for the instructions. Easy enough, and we are only talking a dozen sites here, but oh bother, what a pain as i get more. sure hope future versions of wordpress will have an easier way to update!
Shite Diane that’s terrible: why? Why would someone bother hacking another blog - what’s the advantage? By the default user name do you mean the one hostgator generates for a new account or just the admin a/c the wordpress has. Must admit I never update my WP blogs: - haven’t really figured out how to do it to be honest - though the new ones with fantastico make it easy many of my others dont have any easy update - or maybe I missed it?
I am probably confused. I guess I have been using the default username generated by hostgator also on my wp blogs. Yeah I got to quit doing that.
Hey Diane! I also had this happen to me about 8 times. It makes me loose my patience because it takes me a shitload of time to reinstall wp and put the articles up etc. I make backups but its still a fucking pain in the ass, and now I am checking many of my blogs to see if they are up!
Mine was some islamic hacker that leaves a shit song and an image on my front page (changes the wp header template), changes my pw so i cant access the blog. I think it is a wordpress problem, so you dont need to change the cPanel account, that is another password.
I was hacked by Georgian hackers once. It was a week old blog and not much on it. But still. Yuck.
You can search through forums at Wordpress.org for the exact phrase the hackers left. Others may have been affected nd left info.
I found someone affected the same day on the forum. He directed me to a Wordpress security expert who helped me get it up and running.
Try emailing security@wordpress.org
Then I had to reinstall a database back up that my host Dreamhost had made. It was a one click process and easy, though the backup was 3 days old so I lost a bit of content.
So - moral. Do keep Wrodpress updated. The updates patch security holes. With hostgator and Dreamhost it’s a one click process.
The latest Wordpress versions have made updating your plugins a breeze - your plugin panel shows the plugins that have updates available and it’s a one-click process.
Get the Wordpress database backup plugin and have it make backups that are sent to a gmail account automatically for safekeeping.
Hi Irene,
thanks for the info. I am updating now and trying to use the host’s backup databases. thanks for all the info. this is just a blip on the radar and i am learning lots from the process. thanks again
always something to learn in web stuff
Islamic, eh? Mine calls him/herself Sniper Hacker and leaves a nice graphic, so each of my visitors gets the gesture of “Fuck You” when they reach my sites. Nice, huh!
My thoughts to Justin and his family.
Vic, thanks for answering my question.
See ya soon in the academy.
Sorry Vic for going off topic.
This is why we need the academy to open. So many of us do not have the knowledge to perform some of the tasks that you deem simple.
Justin, hope you and your family have weathered the storm of Ike. Please let us know how you are doping and if there is anything you need.
Mike Paetzold has a white paper on Wordpress security measures, but it was over my head.
Here’s a plugin that I have been using for my WP upgrades. All automated and I’ve never had a problem with it:
oops, html didn’t work, here it is:
http://techie-buzz.com/wordpre.....lugin.html
All my best to you and your family Justin and to everyone else in the path of Ike.
But off topic:
Please do not use the Wordpress Update Plugin to upgrade to 2.6(1 or 2). It doesn’t work!
Added to this, I have just mashed up one of my blogs big time with this wretched plugin.
It said it had backed up, so when I got the errors come up I thought “fine - no problema”… wrong!
The backups were incomplete and I’m now left with a blog on an error page and no clue as to where I go from there.
Luckily it was only the one.
The plugin worked fine before upgrading to 2.51, but this time around it sucks big time!
The WP forum has loads of people complaining about the same kind of things happening to them.
So please do not use it until it is guaranteed updated to cope with the latest WP install.
Thats odd I was just going to add a thank you to Dan because the plugin just worked brilliantly on one of my blogs: from 2.5.1 to whatever is current. I used ver1.2.1 of the plugin - did you use the latest version Zania - I am happy and am off to update some more blogs- what I don’t understand is WP doesnt include this sort of useful thing in their base install and not all the bloatware they have been adding recently
Hi Lissie,
glad that plugin worked okay for you. There is some hope left then, lol!
And yes, I was using the latest version (as I do with all of my plugins when they update), but it still went badly wrong.
Could have been any number of things I guess (where the blog is hosted, the type of things needing to be included in the backup files.. I really do not know..).
I will amend my comment then, lol!
) rather than one of your flagship blogs, as I did.
Just to say make damn sure you try it out first on a blog which doesn’t matter that much(if you know what I mean
And then hopefully, things will be okay
75 percent of my BANS sites have been de-indexed by Google. These are pre-owned domains. Anyone else having problems with BANS. All my other niches have not be effected, just BANS. If so, has anyone figured out what to do about it?
Thanks,
Chad
I know the launch of the academy is tomorrow, but I am really confused!
Chad,
I wish I had an answer! 24 of my pre-owned domains with BANS on them were de-indexed within the last four days. I have no idea why this is happening to these particular domains.
Three of my other pre-owned domains are just fine.
The only thing I know to do is keep my hat pulled down low and continue link building.
However, I have to face the possibility that the 24 pre-owned domains will never be re-indexed again.
It has crossed my mind that for all practical purposed, my entire operation could be wiped out right now.
Sigh.
This isn’t the first time this has happened this year. I had 65 .infos with BANS wiped out at the end of July.
I may be a fool for continuing to pump money into this business, but so be it!
I plan on jumping into the Academy as soon as the doors open.
I love the feeling of the wind in my hair, and with 92 of an even 100 domains (.infos, regular new .coms and pre-owned .coms) with BANS on them de-indexed since I started building in April of this year, the only thing left is the wind.
Please let me know if you figure this out.
Michael
Man, if that many of my BANS sites were de-indexed I would already be hanging from a tree in front of my house….that sucks.
WOOHOO! TODAY IS THE BIG DAY!
yeeeeh! looking forward to it!
If I have to I will change them all to affiliate blogs, but want to wait until academy to ask vic in live session, the main reason I posted was to see if anyone else was having the same problem or if I was the only one.
chad
probably looked over it but is there a live chat tonight from within the academy and at what time? Hopefully not too late for us Europeans
Academy registration is extended at early bird price.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AFltljAjKQ