Following an email this morning that my website had been the subject of some form of attack I thought it might be worth reposting this post from 2014. I am pleased to report that with a further upgrade to my security package the threat is now resolved.
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A couple of nights ago I received an email from Sitelock telling me of a critical vulnerability at my website.
I only had a vague idea of what that meant although I was sure it wasn’t good!
After a chat with Sitelock who are webcow, my webpage host’s security provider it was clear that it wasn’t good, in fact it was very bad. Apparently, I had inadvertently linked to something nasty and if I didn’t fix it my blog would be blacklisted by search engines.
After more than a year of posting and a month spent on seriously building www.browney237.com web presence, this sounded disastrous. What did I need to do? Who could help? I was in a mild (actually not so mild) panic.
As someone not the slightest bit tech savvy, I knew it wasn’t going to be the one who was going to be able to fix this problem. The good news is that in the words of every boat owner a “cheque will fix it”, although in my case it’s a Visa Card! The security provider was able to remove the malicious links and then for a further modest fee I was able to buy annual protection so that this never happens again. What a relief!
It’s a valuable, albeit scary lesson.
I’m protected, are you?
Love the image from Lost In Space! Another blast from the past!
Indeed. I was so pleased to find an image in black and white, which is the way I remember it.
Glad to hear that you’re safe again now. The obvious question, though, is how good was the security you bought last time if this has happened again?!
A good question. I went for a cheaper option originally, as my blog isn’t a money making option. It did not contain a firewall protection as it was a quite significant additional cost. I have now added this which should solve the problem. As I said in the post “a cheque will fix it”.
It all seems a bit expensive to me – I just trust WordPress free site to keep mine safe. I guess I might come to regret that one day, but as far as I know there isn’t an option to buy additional security on a free blog.
I can’t imagine WordPress don’t have you adequately covered.
I opted for my own website rather than being directly under the WordPress banner as at that stage I was thinking I might monetise it in some form.
You’d hope so, wouldn’t you! I’ve never wanted to monetise mine, that isn’t the point for me. Glad to see you’ve retained your integrity too 😊
As we have discussed previously I think we are on the same wavelength on why we blog.
PS – I am enjoying the Carabao Cup Semi this morning – nice when games are on at a sensible time in Australia.
Indeed. Glad it’s on at a good time for you and I’m enjoying it so far! It’s like the timing of the Big Bash for us, most games start at 8.15am so are perfect for the retired gentleman of leisure 😊
Yes it’s a guilty pleasure.