We found out about it when one of our schedulers texted me to say that a client advised her that our website had been hacked. She'd checked it out and said it was "creepy". "Creepy" was an understatement. It was beyond creepy. The music was creepy, too.
I believe the hackers wanted me to contact them - based on the words "Contact Me" that scrolled intermittently across the page. Really no chance of that. I wasn't about to click on any link they had there. I felt that to do so would have been inviting even more trouble. I also assumed they wanted me to pay them because they were so clever that they were able to hack in. They were also clever enough to destroy the backups so that we were not easily able to get our site back up and running. Did I say "not easily able"? It was totally wrecked and impossible to restore.
We found the web hosting provider completely useless. Apparently the hackers managed to change our security information so that when we phoned in for support, we were unable to prove we were the rightful owners of the domain and the hosting company refused to speak with us, other than to tell Mark that he didn't actually know the name of his first dog. But what did I expect? Their call center, (like so many others) is in the Philippines. They can barely understand you, much less your problem. All they would have had to do is look at the site to realize that there was a problem. Let's just say that I don't expect them to process any additional credit card charges.
We were able to open a site with a new hosting provider - hopefully one that is more secure. And here's what those hackers don't understand - I am more willing to pay someone a thousand dollars to do an honest job rebuilding the site than I am to pay them ten cents because they are dishonest thieves.
And make no mistake - they are thieves. They may not have taken any money from me directly but they stole my time, my resources, and my peace. But we WILL rebuild.
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