If you have no idea what i’m talking about, you’re one of the lucky few!
This weekend my sites were attacked by a virus trying to install maleware and redirecting visitors to URL that started with firesavez7.com/ and then a long line of characters that led straight down a path to virus hell.
I have enough computer prophylactic mechanisms in place that I did not download anything but the job of cleanup is just beginning.
I was out of town at a conference this weekend and was unable to be in front of my computer, but while frequently checking my analytics with my iPhone app I noticed my daily traffic, bounce rate and time on site were WAY down. Like almost non-existent!
My sites are hosted at Bluehost, and with a little research discovered that they were indeed a victim of this attack along with many other providers.
The Solution was not that bad
To initially resolve the problem, I had to restore my entire public_html directory to a previously backed up version from about a week ago, this was Sunday night. That seemed to solve the problem.
I went the entire day yesterday with no occurrence of the dreaded redirect notice and anti-virus alarm. Site traffic, time on site and bounce rate (vitals) were normal….whew, that was close.
But the dead rose to feed again
Tuesday is my marketing day. The day that I send an update to my entire consumer and agent database (9,100 recipients of this email update) to notify them of the articles I wrote this week about claiming California’s tax credit.
Initially, there were no issues….and then it started. One, then two, then three emails came rolling in warning me that I was sending out a virus! HOLY S%&T! This isn’t happening. I saw my reputation being flushed before my eyes.
I screamed through my site with absolutely no challenges, no virus, no warnings, no redirects….what the hell was going on?!
I jumped on the phone with the smartest and nerdiest guy I know, Ryan Hartman. He mentions that it’s common for viruses to attack your .htmaccess file in WordPress – so we look at it.
Ryan saw some stuff in there Read more