A Hijacked Blog and a Happy Ending
September 24th, 2009Check out this note I received from one of my readers. Someone hijacked this business owner’s blog — someone created his own administrative user identity and took control of the blog. (The IP address and some names have been withheld.)
First a tech told me that the WordPress application wasn’t supported and to contact WordPress. Next, one actually had me believe the WordPress database was on the WordPress server. His voice was calm, authoritative and so believable. Then I thought to myself a few minutes later “hey, that’s not true”.
Finally after vacation, I got a tech guy who told me the IP address, name and password to my WordPress database. He warned me that I could totally damage my database with this information. I thank him and said it if did too much damage, I would delete the whole thing and start all over.
It’s a good thing I have command line skills:)
I did a:
ssh 000.000.00.00 -l wp_0058p_0
mysql>DELETE wp_user from wp_users WHERE display_name ='Blog_Hijacker';
A happy ending:)
This reader handled the situation very well. No thanks to his web host. And as an avid reader of his blog, I noticed he never skipped a post.
Aside from security issues, there are a few things to take away here… If you are a non-technical person, don’t despair. Some “technical” people have no clue either. So make sure you are with a host that is knowledgeable and helpful. Don’t settle for mediocre service, and be persistent.
Another thing is — it does pay to educate yourself a bit. Just a few lines of code solved this issue.
Also, I believe it’s better to install and set up your own blog, don’t go through software applications offered through your web host. Ask your web designer to download and install WordPress on your server. Then you will have more control, style and functionality with your blog. And if anything goes wrong, your designer will know exactly where your database is located, and who or what to delete!
As a business owner, you are in control. With knowledge, persistence, and good help, your blog will never skip a beat.
