What To Do If Your Blog Is Attacked?
IMPORTANT!!!! You NEED To Back Up Your Blog
Lesson I learned THE HARD WAY...BACK UP YOUR BLOG. My blog was hacked and completely down and frankly I wasn't sure how the heck I was going to fix it! New experience...never been hacked before and hope it never happens again.
Obviously we worked out the kinks and the blog is now back up and running, but there was some definite panic when I paid a visit to my site only to see a huge banner on the front of it "tagged" this site has been hacked...with a logo! The person who hacked the site, has their own logo saying they hacked it along with proud link to their website and blog.... Are you kidding me!
Thank goodness, Wordpress had an upgrade and this is what I did to get our site back up and figured I would share in the event this "special" person/bot pays a visit to your site.
1. I upgraded our WordPress because there was a new release available. This is one of the many reasons I LOVE HOSTGATORS!! Hostgators makes everything so easy and automated. I went to Fantastico, clicked on WordPress, it showed there was an upgrade available, I click it and upgraded. It automatically created a back up for me as well...which is highly recommended.
2. I found that most hackers attack your wp-blog-header.php, which I checked and nothing obvious there. I am no "technical wizard" so if there was something there, I am pretty sure I wouldn't have noticed it anyway....probably the case!
3. I read that you should immediately change your user name and password as the friendly hacker who tagged your site may have created an additional account as well, which is what happened in my site.
4. Make sure to check your User Administrator Accounts. My friendly hacker, was kind enough to set up his own administrator account. Wasn't that nice of him??? Delete the user account immediately...obviously.
5. I then went to my handy dandy "artisteer" program, which I ABSOLUTELY LOVE for creating my own templates and exported a new template thinking that if the hacker did something in the CSS or the HTML template file, deleting the old and replacing with a new one may do the trick! It worked and it only took about five minutes because the program is so easy to use!
What Is Blogging Anyway?
The word "Blog" comes from the term "Web Blog". Web Blogs became a popular and easier way to communicate once the Internet came along than past methods like having a Pen Pal, mailing cards or even writing emails. With a "blog", friends and families can communicate with everyone at one time by simply adding a blog post and allowing everyone to have access to it.
When "blogging" first became popular, people used blogs as on-line diaries and journals. One of the things that made it fun and exciting was giving family and friends the ability to comment on blog posts and interact with one another via their web logs.
Websites like MySpace, used mostly by teenagers and young adults really helped blogging explode in popularity giving users the ability to post something on MySpace page and other users/friends could respond and interact about whatever had been posted. Posting photos, change themes and customizing MySpace pages to fit personal tastes, the latest trends, or simply rebel against parents made it even more exciting and fun for this generation.
Blogging became a new way of communicating with friends. When other social websites like FaceBook and Twitter began to catch on, it closed the generation gap and kids found not only their friends had Facebook and Twitter accounts, they even found their grandparents "twittering" as a way to stay in touch.
"Twittering" is considered "micro blogging" because you are limited to 140 in each "tweet". Read more about Twitter and how to participate in the post "Six Easy Twitter Lingo "Twips".
Because blogs offer dynamic content vs. static content with a standard HTML web page. Search engines like Google have become more fond of blog sites because the content us much more fresh and up to date and therefore end up closer to the top of a search result in many cases. With all of the talk about Search Engine Marketing and businesses trying to figure out the secret recipe to being indexed on page one of Google, more and more businesses are turning to blogs to create current content, make announcements and keep their clients up to date about their businesses.
For businesses, a blog could and really should include announcements, market updates along with any and all commentary having to do with the industry the business is serving. The more relevant and important the information, the more people will frequent the blog. Businesses who have blogs and depend on their blogs as a communication tool, need to commit to keeping their blogs updated and current. Businesses who don't make that commitment and are fortunate enough to make their way up to the front page of Google because of their blogs, will soon find their websites lost in the shuffle without such a commitment.
With regards to maintaining a company blog, it should fall under the specific job description of someone in the company who should be held accountable to keep it up to date. In an ideal world, a blog is updated daily, but updating it two to three times per week is totally acceptable as well.
The big thing to remember is to provide your readers quality and relevant information. Filling your blog with a bunch of fluff meant to keep search engines happy will not help your business in the long run.
Learn more about blogging for money by reading the free e-book, Profitable Blogging. Profitable blogging includes everything you need to know to help you get started.