Hacked!

I’ve been running an elderly version of WordPress for my blog.  Today when I logged on to add a new post my virus checker freaked out (avast home edition 4.8,  I know it works now).

I sniffed around on the server a bit and discovered the php script for my page footer had been modified on March 7th.  I hadn’t changed it, so I contacted my overwhelmingly capable system administer (and youngest son) and he ferreted out the attack was coming from someone in Holland.    He blocked them, and I set about upgrading to the newest (and presumably securest) version of WordPress.

It was a bit more pain to upgrade than I hoped, but once I eradicated all traces of the old version my blog was back on-line.

I had a big stack of farm magazines to read on this cold and rainy Saturday that didn’t get touched since I’ve spent all afternoon flailing with this.  What did learn from this?  I find myself wagging my head like J.K. Simmons at the end of  “Burn After Reading” and saying, “I guess we learned not to do it again.”