I am fit to be tied. I have just wasted my entire lunchtime due to some "clever hacker."

A few days ago when I went to my main domain space I noticed a couple of tiny grey blocks up in the lefthand corner. I thought something funny had gotten into the code and checked my original copy. But that was clean. Since it didn't appear that way on another computer, I thought it was just some anomaly.

Sunday, I think, I had occasion to go back to the page and my Avast popped up saying something about a virus. What? How could I have a virus on my own web page? I had clicked the link to my domain page from another page I had never been to before and assumed the Avast warning was for that previous page.

Well, at lunchtime today I wanted to check something on my domain page. Again the Avast warning, and again those little boxes. So I looked at the source code and nearly had a fit. Next to the code where I had the background and link colors described, was a damn line of script with a bunch of pluses and stuff in it so you couldn't find it and defining the area of the little grey boxes! I went immediately to FTP and uploaded a clean copy of the file and no matter what I did, this corrupted file came back up. Not only that, but every single file of that name (all the main file pages have the same name in each domain or subdomain) had this wretched script attached to it!!!!!!!

Jeez, I don't want people getting viruses from my site! So I finally tried renaming one of the pages to another acceptable name and that worked. So I had to rename all these files and then upload them and delete the offending files with the original name.

Youbetcha I shot off a nasty note to 1and1.com. Their response was to direct me to Symantec's site and suggest I change my FTP password, which I have done. My FTP password was the most complicated one I have, random letters and numbers in different cases. It's a little difficult to believe that someone managed to guess the mess, then go into every single file of that name and add the malicious code in the very same place! What a royal PITA.

If I ever catch whomever does this kind of crap, like there's ever any chance of it, I've planned appropriate revenge: tie him to a chair and force him to watch television commercials...and not the clever commercials, either. Maybe all those wretched Progressive Insurance commercials, night and day, until he or she turns into a gibbering wreck.

Labels: computers

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 1:28:00 PM

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