Last September 17, Georyl.Com was hacked.
At first, I thought there was just something wrong with my connection because the WordPress dashboard loaded differently. The screen layout was just one-columned when my settings was set at two columns. The left bar that contains all the options and commands had a different font-size and color, was shown in a list format, and the icons were missing. And my!!! It just took forever to load the page.
Then I noticed something in the status bar. It said “connecting to myblindstudioinfoonline .com.” I’d never heard of that site so I wondered why WordPress is connecting to it. Curious, I checked on my web site to see if I had a widget or script that includes it. I saw the script in the page source but still I can’t recall installing it.
I decided to search for the site on Google to know more about it but was alarmed to learn that it was actually a virus or malware that attacked GoDaddy sites sometime in April and May.
I immediately wrote an email to GoDaddy’s support, reporting the incident and asking for help for I am not internet savvy to know where the script was installed among all those WordPress files. I was thinking that they have an idea about it because they’ve been attacked by the same hacker a few months ago.
After sending the email, I again searched online to see if there are ways to remove the virus and luckily, I found a few sites that taught how to remove it. I followed the steps and after a while, I checked this web site and I was quite relieved when the results showed that it’s now clean. The WordPress dashboard was back to normal and it was loading normally now.
End of story? No, not yet. Actually, the interesting part has just begun.
When I checked my email the following day, I received an email from GoDaddy’s support staff and the message was:
Thank you for contacting Online Support. A WhoIs lookup of this domain name indicates that this domain name is neither registered nor hosted with us. If you are experiencing errors with this website, you will need to contact your current hosting provider. We appreciate your understanding on this matter.
Please let us know if we can assist you in any other way.
My first reaction was, “what?!!!”. Aren’t they my current hosting provider? What kind of reply was that?! I am really thankful for a lot of valuable information is just a few seconds away with Google or else, you probably won’t be reading this post right now.
I’m thinking of a host provider switch. Any recommendations?
I hope that hasn’t started again. That hacker got to me about 10 times last spring – what a pain. It is very easy to fix by restoring your site to the previous day through godaddy. Just make sure you load your site every morning that way you won’t lose out on traffic because your site is redirecting.
Thanks for the suggestion Sheila. I’ll keep that in mind the next time (I hope though it won’t happen again).
oh my…what the heck…yung reply nila is generated…kakainis…transfer ka kaya kay Ruby…don din kasi yung WP ko…ehhehehe!
hehe.. sinusulit ko pa ung hosting ko sa kanila kasi till next year pa un. sayang naman. pero nagtitingin-tingin na rin ako ng mga other hosts. thanks sa suggestion (ruby).
ohhh, those hacker don’t have a life eh 😛
mismo!!!
Hello Gee… well it’s hard to know when these hackers will attacked your site and I’m talking about my experience.
The best thing you can do is to always have a back-up of your site, that way you can upload it when worse thing happens.
Just consider it a learning the basics… hehehe!:=)
i always forget to back-up my site then worry a lot when problems such as this pops up. i’ll try to back-up it regularly (like everytime I remember? hehehe).
Hi Gee! phew~ Lucky everything back to normal now! 😉
yes caroline. thanks for the reply to my twitter status. I really was so worried at that time and somehow, your concern was reassuring. regards!
tsk tsk glad you got everything fixed..
yes mere… no thanks to GoDaddy. I was really worried at that time. just glad that there are a lot of tutorials online on how to fix it.
Write an email to GoDaddy confirming your account number. You should have insisted by providing them with proof that you have an account with them —such as attaching the email document that confirms your payment and transaction with them.
That’s the only thing I don’t like about WP and Blogspot—-prone to hacking. That’s why I chose Typepad.
thanks bingkee. I did as you suggested. they sent me a new email saying they confirmed that the account is really registered with them and apologized for the previous email. oh well…
Glad that you had everything fixed, well except GoDaddy. Bingkee’s right, slap them the email that they sent you..uber…
Good thing, you fixed it agad. and thx for this post, because you just reminded me to back up my blogs.. 🙂
I did that eihdra, hehehe. Anyway, I received three emails about their promo (discounts) since the incident but not a reply on how to fix the problem.
Go go go!!! Back up your blogs now… I have to do that too. hehehe….
This is why I’ve stuck with blogspot and wordpress! I know of other bloggers who have had problems similar to yours and got ZERO help from GoDaddy and other hosts. Remember, all the hosts want is your BUCK$!
That’s one of the advantages of blogspot, it’s free and less prone to virus. After my experience with my disabled blogspot blog though, I’m not sure about blogspot anymore.
Sorry to hear about that. I am with bluehost. So far so good.
I’m planning to transfer there when my hosting at GoDaddy expires. I just hope I’ll have no problem with the transfer.
Sorry to hear about your predicament. I am with BlueHost and so far so good.
oh, im sorry to hear about the hacking. i’m so glad you were able to resolve it, on your own, that is. congrats for that. well, if that is how your provider replied, you have to switch. it only means, that they cant help you if it will happen again. they cannot even prevent it from happening again.
Aha, that’s the problem with WP. Good thing that you are a computer savvy, if that happened to me, I wouldn’t know what to do lol..
My domains are all from google as I don’t know how to install things so with blogger/google, they are the one doing it lol.
Thanks for posting it was interesting reading, what a damn cheek these people have got it’s a good thing you were able to find out what to do because your host was not much help at all.
I am with Nethosted its a good company with excellent support they always respond within ten minutes even at weekends so if you decide to try another host check their site.
anyway sorry to hear about this.
hi steve. i’ll check them out later. i’m really planning to transfer to another host but still have another six months left in my hosting account at godaddy.
Oh that’s a shame after what happened, i am glad to see your back to normal now anyway:-)
Came here to check out your WW post and saw the story of your site problems. I used to have the same host you do but did a bunch of research and, several years ago, changed. I have been very happy with the new host ever since, using them on at least 10 sites. You can read the story of my headaches and the hosting change at the following link. Now over to see your WW!
It is a good thing you are back now. Anyways, there are a lot of cheaper hosting sites their with free domain and hosting.
di ko pa na experience yan and i am crossing my fingers na sana wag mangyari. ehehehe ako din ke ruby ako 😀