Don’t Let The Wolf Get You
If you are a self-hosted blogger, like me, one of the worst things that can happen is some annoying little so and so manages to get into your blog and cause havoc. A blog “hack” can be anything from someone adding new posts, without your say so, to people injecting links or adverts to earn themselves money from your work. To the more worrying cases where blogs have been completely taken over and all content remove and the times where they are left downloading malware to any visitors computer.
I’ve personally suffered a few different hacks across my time as a self-hosted blogger, I have to admit I can’t tell you what happened the first time, it has become completed outdone by a hack I suffered a couple of years ago.
Anyone who has been following me for a while may remember it, it was early August 2015 and my whole blog had been infected by malware, to the point where even clicking to the home page started an automatic download.
Thankfully I was alerted to the fact quite quickly by someone and my host was able to take it offline while I wait for it to be cleaned up. However, the clean-up didn’t last long and my blog was quickly back to square one. One thing about the blogger community is they are so diverse in talent and Zoe Corkhill was able to get to the bottom of what was going on, after a lot of digging and many late nights. She really was an angel in disguise, as she even tightened up my security before deciding she had most definitely sorted it.
However, as technology becomes more sophisticated so does our need for security and these days it isn’t just computers and websites that need to make sure they are as secure as can be against those wolves. As The Wolf starring Christian Slater shows, printers are becoming one of the largest security risks in offices, check out the trailer here:
So next time you have a few spare minutes, why not make sure your equipment is as safe as it can be.
Have you ever been hacked?
*This is a collaborative post.
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Interesting blog! I never even considered someone would hack into someones blog! I’m glad you had a good blogger friend to help you vamp up your security 🙂
I would never have thought of my printer as a security risk. Really eye opening.
I think I’m keeping spam well away from my blog for now.
I have been hacked before but thankfully it wasn’t anything serious and easy to sort out. I do need to look at security againx
Thank goodness it wasn’t too bad for you.
I have 2 forms of security but am always shocked how many hacking attempts my blog gets its really scary to think people are trying
It is awful isn’t it, I’ve woken up some times to 100s of tries.
Really interesting to think how connected everything is! You never think about a printer being harmful!
I’ve never been hacked fortunately, but i do have some things in place to help prevent it happening.
I have wordfence installed and it tells me when anyone is trying to hack my blog.
It is so scary how quickly a blog can be hacked!
Luckily *touch wood* I haven’t but I am terrified of it happening – I’d be so stressed!
Oh god this stuff really scares me I’m hoping a complete take over never happens must have been awful when yours was infected by malware but so great that you got all the help you needed!
*touch wood* I’ve never been hacked yet, but I’m always worrying about it happening to my site! I try to make everything as secure as I can though
I have never experienced a hack, touch wood. I can imagine it being so frustrating.
My blog has never been hacked, as far as I know. I can’t imagine that happening. It would make me want to cry.
Geesh! I knew I should be protecting my computer and my blog, but my printer, too? What the heck is this world coming to? Guess there is more work for me to do now to protect my printer from hackers.
This is really interesting, but also really terrifying. It’s scary to think of what people can do if they know how!
I have no idea what hackers get out of doing that to someone else. It all sounds super stressful. Glad you were able to catch it quickly and get it sorted
This is so scary. The idea of a blog being hacked is a terrible thing. These are great things to raise awareness about. Who would have thought your printer could be an access point?
Touch wood my blog hasn’t been hacked before, but it is my biggest nightmare! x
Printers?! I would never have thought I needed to be concerned about a printer. I haven’t been hacked thankfully but I did have google manage to block all access to my blog a few years back. I don’t see why people feel the need to hack you
My blog has not been hacked (touch wood) but I have had my card hacked, my computer and my academic work. It is scary to think how people can hack at the click of a mouse x
I have yet to suffer the worry of a blog hack, although I have had my instagram account hacked which was a nightmare x
I hope I never get to experience being hacked. Years of work gone is just going to be devastating. I will have to check with my I.T. man and see what needs to be done to protect my work.
Hacks are crazy. And I am not always sure that these people have much of a purpose than taggers on a freeway. They want to write their name or leave their imprint somewhere because they can. I think it’s sad but it’s the world we live in.
I have never been hacked and I cannot imagine why they even do it. It sounds very frustrating.
Knock on wood, I haven’t been hacked severely yet. Some issues with emails, but I changed the password and I’m good. I know I’m probably lucky in that respect and hope my luck holds out!
I haven’t been hacked before. My server is highly secured and they are really serious when it comes to security.
I love Christian Slater in Mr Robot. It is so important to make sure you are protected. Hackers are getting so good at getting around security.
I can’t even imagine what you must have gone through when you were hacked, talk about stressful! Thanks for talking about this and reminding us how serious we need to be when it comes to site security!
I back my site up weekly and I update my theme and plugins. This is my worse nightmare.
This is really scary, luckily its not happened to me yet but i would dread to think what would happen if it did.
Hopefully it is something you will never have to experience:)
I’m now two days (fingers crossed it holds!) clear from a 6-month attack on my small space in the world. And it’s scary; it’s insane how you don’t really think about it until something happens, and then you realise it’s only a couple little things you need to do to keep yourself secure…
Oh my goodness six months! You poor thing here’s hoping it is now over for you.
I’ve been hacked. It’s awful, and you really can’t understand what motivates these people to hack!
No I don’t get it either doesn’t make sense to me.
I was hacked once, but it has been a long time. It’s an awful thing to happen. Took a lot of work to straighten out.
It’s so hard isn’t it 🙁 I’m hoping I don’t have it happen again.
Yessss! This is so important. I’ve been hacked before and it’s the most frustrating thing.
It really is so frustrating, the whys and how’s are grrrr
You know, I am paranoid about this really. I always download my backups and have a collection of them on my pc, just in case something happens. I should be taking a day only to make sure my blog is secured and I took all the possible measurements to prevent a cyber attack.
I have my host backup and pay for vaultpress as well just in case.
That is always a fear of mine, to be hacked. I have it happen to so many friends, it’s scary.
I wouldn’t wish it on anyone I hope it never happens for you.
It is crazy how easy it is for people to hack your personal stuff now. I haven’t been hacked but I realize it happens everyday. I mean look at how all the websites were shut down for part of the country a few months ago!
It is stupidly common, I don’t get what they get from it at all.
Definitely thought about the printer as a hacking way in but it does make sense because usually their Wi-Fi to the computer makes perfect sense that way. I have been hacked on a small scale but I was able to get stuff back pretty quickly I hope this doesn’t happen again.
It’s scary isn’t it. I hadn’t thought of it but my other was like oh yeah it’s a really easy way in!
We always try to keep everything as secure as possible. Unfortunately there are people out there who seem to take pleasure in developing malware and causing problems.
I don’t get why people find fun in it, doesn’t make sense to me.
I have not been hacked, but my host was hacked. It was a rough 48 hours trying to get things settled.
Oh gosh hat a nightmare! You would think your host was ultra safe as well.
I’ve never been hacked and hope I never do get hacked. I’m glad you were alerted quickly and had someone who was able to fix it.
Here’s hoping you never have to go through it, it really is stressful.
No I have never been hacked, but I get A LOT of notifications from wordfence that people try every single day. These people need to get a life.
Wordfence is great, though it is scary how many times people try and get in!
I’ve never been hacked, but it is awful when it happens
Must be so annoying when this happens – I REALLY fonts see ehat the hackers get out of IT