Posts Tagged hackers

Sometime towards the end of 2009, a Syrian hacking team hijacked my blog and changed the theme to always display their information. Founding their logo in poor taste and not appreciating their action in the least, I immediately decided to take the appropriate safety measures and make my blog more secure.

Here are the steps I took in order to accomplish that:

Step 1 – Always Backup your files
This is your very first line of defense. And it’s always a great idea to keep a fresh copy of your installation files and a backup of all your posts. Check with your hosting company to see if they offer automatic backup. Do this task on a weekly basis – it only takes minutes if not seconds (depending on the size of your blog).

It is also a good idea to store your files in 2 separate locations (see this article for good backup procedures) 

Step 2 – Immediately Change the Admin Password
Make sure you know the email address you provided for the “admin” account. This is where you’ll receive the new password. Login and change the password to something a bit more complicated than your pet’s name. Remember and use a combination of numbers, special characters, lower and upper case letters. For instance – Fluffy is a very weak password while fLu55Y$ is much harder to guess.

Here’s a link on how to reset your password http://codex.wordpress.org/Resetting_Your_Password#Through_phpMyAdmin

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