#Hacked – When My Blog Was Hacked…..

Ever got hacked? Be it any account like Facebook, Twitter or any other account? Ever experienced getting hacked? These are a few basic cases, but what if your blog or web site gets hacked?

How would you feel? Of course bad and also you will be angry! Won’t you be? What if I tell you that Blogging Junction got hacked a few days back? Yes Blogging Junction got hacked some days ago. Many of you who are our regular readers might have noticed it, but the new ones here might have not!

The hackers some how brought Blogging Junction under their control. I never thought that Blogging Junction will get hacked, but life is full of surprises – good or bad. This was a bad surprise! I always thought I had taken enough precautions that were enough to safeguard my blog. But when I got hacked, I concluded that I was wrong, 100% wrong! The precautions I had taken were not enough.

My first expression when I noticed Blogging Junction was hacked – “Ahh..! Oh God!”… ”Why Me?” But I decided not to panic. I kept my patience. I tried solving the problem coolly. Fortunately the hacker had control just over my WordPress panel. This meant that he couldn’t delete any of the files, but just could have modified them.

FIRST DAY…

What The Hacker Did To The Site First Time?

The first time he hacked the site, he modified my theme files and added links back to his site. I can’t mention that site here due to security reasons. He added links all over the site. Almost all of them were in Arabic. Many of you might have noticed them as they were clearly visible in the site.

How Did I Solve The Problem?

As the hacker had control only over the WordPress admin panel, I modified my password using phpmyadmin. It was indeed an easy job! I was very happy when I got back control over my blog admin panel. What a time it was! It was night and I slept!

SECOND DAY…

What The Hacker Did To The Site Second Time?

Next morning I woke up. I decided to write an article for my blog. I tried logging into my admin panel, but unfortunately couldn’t do so. The reason: Site was hacked again! The unexpected thing happened! I thought after I had changed the password, no one will be able to hack in again. But the hacker did what I didn’t expect. This time too he added similar links in Arabic which were clearly visible. Unlike the first time, this time he also added links that were hidden in some parts of the blog. I had a bad time finding them as the hacker had changed the links, but had used text already present in my blog. But I did it!

How Did I Solve The Problem?

To solve the problem, I did the same thing again. Again changed the password using phpmyadmin and got back control over my site. Then I removed all the links that the hacker had added.

I was no longer interested in writing an article that day! My mind was revolving around that hacker.

THIRD DAY…

What The Hacker Did To The Site Third Time?

Hacker this time did something different. Instead of adding links to his site, he redirected my entire site to his website. Thus I lost a lot of my traffic. This made me upset and very very angry!

How Did I Solve The Problem?

I was wondering how to solve this everyday hacking problem. My friend Pubudu of Tech Hamlet suggested me to reinstall WordPress. I did that. Then I restored all my posts, installed all the necessary plugins and did all the other necessary work. The blog was finally back. I was very happy!

I was thinking if the hacker will hack the site again? Will he? Won’t he? If he tries, will he be successful? My mind was full of questions. I waited for next morning. Fortunately my site was still live and in good condition. There were no signs of it being hacked. No links, no redirects, nothing! The blog was finally back! Still till today site is running properly.

That was the happiest day of my blogging life!

That’s it for this time. In my coming posts I will tell you how the hacker could have got control over my administrator panel and we will also discuss on protecting your blog / site from getting hacked.

I’ve decided to make mine experience and some other posts that will come on hacking in coming days a part of the new series #Hacked! So read all the posts of the series and enjoy!