I would hope it would be spectacularly obvious that I would never, ever have pop-up ads or anything like that on here …
… but if you can see a big green sidebar selling dubious medical supplies, that’s evidence that my site has been hacked. By supremely evil asshats.
*shakes fist in direction of one of those countries where people have gold teeth*
Anyway, here’s the part that’s important:
1. We’re on it. My web guy put in five hours on this yesterday and now we’ve hired a super-genius expert to take care of it and build in even more fancypants protective stuff.
2. Your information is not in any way compromised. The part of the site that evil asshat hackers can get to has nothing to do with the shopping cart software or mailing lists or anything else.
3. Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. Sorry that you had to see something so stupid and annoying. If you can even see it. And apparently not everyone can (gott sei dank).
Love the irony though. Love that I’m the one who always talks about how the whole point isn’t selling stuff. It’s learning what to do so you don’t have to.
And now someone found a way to make it look like all I do is sell stuff. Tacky. Horrible. Bizarre.
Grumble grumble grumble. And more apologies. And things will be (knock on keyboard) back to normal soon.
Thanks!
Havi & Selma
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Everybody knows you’re not ‘do nothing but sell stuff person’. Hackers happen. E-hug.
Keely H.s last blog post..Road Trip Songs Mix CD
Dear Havi
By gracefully acknowledging the problem in this post, I think you have flipped it into a positive situation. These things happen.
I once got a terrible pop-up virus on a PC at an office job. (Dreadfully embarrassing as I consider myself computer inclined.) Even more embarrassing when the pop-ups started including video and audio of transgendered individuals stimulating each other.
FYI, I saw your ad column an hour ago, and it is gone now. So thumbs up to the rescue team.
Problem solved, nothing to see here. 😉
Joels last blog post..A Canadian Tourist’s Impressions of New Zealand (Part 1)
I’m so glad you’re solving this! I’d love to know who you got to super-genius it away, though, I have a friend who’s going through something similar, and she can’t seem to get anyone to help her solve it once and for all.
Amy Crooks last blog post..It’s Good to be Small
Nicely handled, and just let me use this as an excuse to say I really enjoy your style, posts, and tweets. You’re one of the few I follow that I unconditionally appreciate.
Anyway, good luck with the “purge.” Knock wood, my site has been online since 98 with no similar issues, and it’s likely luck…
namaste
Wayne Allens last blog post..What’s Happening
I wondered about that — I thought maybe it was some screwy malware on my end. It didn’t seem your style.
@Amy – Will report back! I’ll let you know when the super-genius-ing is done, and will also put out a request for “hey, anyone else know how to do this stuff?”.
@Joel – Oh wow. See? I feel so much better now knowing that it would be so much worse with transgendered individuals stimulating each other right there in my sidebar. How very awkward indeed.
Thanks for your wonderful calming energy. I am much relieved.
@Keely – Thanks! That’s very reassuring. 🙂
Monsters: they are everywhere! 😉
Yeah, I’ve seen those ads twice, I think – which isn’t too bad considering how often I’m visiting your site! Both times, I refreshed the page and they were gone. Don’t worry: anyone who hangs out here for more than two minutes knows it’s not your style at all! Sorry you have to deal with craptastic spammy horribleness; good luck getting rid of it.
Josianes last blog post..A bluesy version of the Ramayana
No worries darling,
I never, ever for one moment thought that you were all of a sudden in the business of selling medical supplies. And I also knew that you would no more willingly have a pop up ad on your site than you would give up sneaking into people’s homes to watch basketball games. Or Goddess forbid, abandon your beloved Bay City Rollers!!
In other words… it was impossible.
Hope your web genius mateys get the problem fixed pronto! And that the asshats who did this too you find out that their teeth are only GOLD PLATED!!!
Love you bunches,
Chris
chris zydels last blog post..Creative Miracle Grow: The Crazy Wonderfulness That Can Happen When Someone Believes In YOU!
Hi Havi,
I looked at your blog a number of times over the last 36 hours, and those nastyboy med ads didn’t make it to the Central Australian Outback. Maybe they don’t like camels and spiky Spinifex grass!
Glad you’ve fixed the problem.
Thanks for visiting my blog last week, BTW.
Hugs
Amandas last blog post..Kill Your Home Yoga Practice!
It’s still there, I am looking at it right now.
Daves last blog post..About Damn Time
Oh yeah, now I remember seeing that. I think I was on the Dance of Shiva site, maybe. And I saw it, I x’d it out, shrugged thinking “That’s odd. Havi doesn’t do that.” And then I was so absorbed in all the Havi/Selma goodness that I completely forgot about it.
I’m glad you’ve got good peeps to get rid of the evil hacker spammers. I hate those guys.
Jessicas last blog post..So maybe Blogging Rule #1 wasn’t such a good idea . . .
I’m having my people stare intently and purposefully in the general direction of your asshats. They should start feeling guilty and nauseous. Then they’ll break out singing Britney Spears songs. The shame may very well kill them. (Or make them question their sexual preferences, in which case they may start purposefully watching popups of transgendered individuals stimulating each other and singing opera.) We’re on it!
Havi,
yes, I noticed something green on your page (it’s gone now, I think), but I was so concentrated on reading your post that I simply overlooked it.
Those things happen. But your content, your posts count!
Ulla Hennigs last blog post..Water Buffalo – slow but steady!
It was there when I looked just now. Evil people grumble grumble.
Riins last blog post..Hey, I’m famous!
Phew! Glad I said something about it…
Sally J.s last blog post..Great Read: The Museum of Obsolete Technology
I saw them the other day, but didn’t say anything because I figured you already knew and didn’t want to add to your stress by pointing out the obvious, lol. I knew they weren’t yours right away though.
Yeah, these things happen a lot. It pretty much always sucks trying to fix it. High 5’s to your web people for fixing it so fast!!
Naomi Niless last blog post..Planning Your Website – Before You Contact a Web Designer
Ugh! Sympathy! It happened to my blog, too – extra paragraphs added to posts, with links to assorted medical supplies. To add to the fun, the Aweber automatic update-emailing thingy got very excited about this and emailed everyone all this new stuff with my name signed at the bottom.
This is where the really cool part starts: not one of my subscribers complained or reported me or anything.
The moral of this story? No-one has found a way to make you look like anything, except a person with a hacked site.
(Mine was fixed by a friend’s recommendation for an especially fierce .htaccess file. Let me know if you’d like a copy.)
Hilarys last blog post..Book of (long term) Change
I should have seen that coming.
My WordPress blog just got hammered, hacked and totally shut down. Your green sidebar people probably didn’t like my implied associations about their fetish preferences.
Gack.