I have just spent over a month dealing with a major hacker/spammer problem in my websites and databases. One data base that I ran 7 blogs out of was taken over and the hacker had changed the root passcodes so that I no longer had the necessary permission to change my own database nor did my hosting co.
The database that I ran Charismatica out of had a entire ‘PMA’ book store running off of a subdomain that a hacker had created. Didn’t really give me much of a ‘positive mental attitude’.
The feed for my Answers For The Faith blog was redirected so many times (20+) that Feedburner couldn’t track them all. Still don’t know how that happened and still trying to get it back to normal.
The only help and suggestion my host gave me was that I needed to flush the database and start over. The problem was that the backup programs were infected somehow and not working properly on 3 of my blogs.
At that juncture I decided if I had to start over it might as well be somewhere else with another host since my host had been no help at all and very unresponsive in the midst of my attack. The move created other problems and I ended up getting some help in the process.
Well finally my 9 blogs are up and running again though each one still needs some major tweeking here and there. I should be able to get it finally done and behind me over Memorial Day weekend.
Michael
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That makes me wonder how easy it is for hackers to get to sites.. I run a domain for my dad’s business & now that kind of worries me…. Hmm.
In this case, hackers were taking advantage of a weakness in the WordPress program that has supposedly been corrected in the latest upgrade.
However, experts do say that given the proper motivation a good hacker can eventually defeat any program if they want. Apparently from what I read, a group in Russia figured out the WordPress hole which gave them access to thousands of WordPress blogs.
Also, see the article by Carl @ Revivalblog.com http://www.revivalblog.com/wordpress-uprades/
Michael