Website Security – Hacked by Aseroh

Doc Stone July 7, 2011 3 Comments

This is a warning to everyone.  There are people out there that don’t have anything to do except mess with you.  This picture is what I woke up to when visiting my website this morning.  It required building a brand new server and moving the website and data to the new server.  I have read on the internet other ways to fix this, but this is the way this particular ISP fixed it.  I guess it was nice that the database was still intact and I was still able to access the site through FTP. 

But it underscores the necessity for regular backups and downloads of updated databases once in a while.  It also underscores the need for the best and proper security on your servers.  I realize a lot of you don’t own web servers or even maybe have your own website to worry about.   But a lot of you have blogs of your own and security is just as critical there.  Always update your wordpress blog as soon as you get notification and procure backup software widgets and download the backups regularly.

THIS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU

By the way, be real careful looking this guy up.  You may very well get a virus.  I looked him up and luckily, my virus software caught it trying adding a trojan horse to my system.

Why do I say all this? 
I do own my own web server with GVO,  http://salesnav.gogvo.com.  They do a pretty good job of working with me to secure my server.  Server can be setup to send you messages about what’s going on your server.  Changes to files, who logged in, emails being sent out, and what’s called “port scanning”.  Port scanning is just some weirdo trying to to see if we have a chink in our armor they can exploit.    Port Scans literally happen once or twice a day.  With GVO working with me on this, we have added permanent IP blocks on all these attempts and they are slowing down.  They are from all over too, China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, etc.   Welcome to the Internet, huh?