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hacked 2 times in 1 day – scary story!

A few days ago I received a blackmail email with a claim of 2500 Euros. At first, I thought it was a joke, but the site was really hacked.

I contacted WordPress and they put the page back in order. Thanks again to them.


Of course, I changed my password. But shortly afterward I got another mail from this bastard with the threat of erasing and destroying everything. In fact, not only was the site hacked again, the bastard wanted to kidnap my domain too. Do you think that is not possible?

Not even close! I got a message from WordPress that someone wanted my domain and they would agree with that person.

It struck me as pretty monstrous. I asked my son (a professional) and he explained to me how easy it can be for someone to take over my domain on WordPress.

I am also writing this to all of you who have linked your own domain to the blog. The safest seems to be a 2 step authentication.

My nerves, already weak in themselves, have been strained in the last few days…..

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Comments

25 responses to “hacked 2 times in 1 day – scary story!”

  1. Meighan Maley avatar
    Meighan Maley

    Thank you for the warning.

    Reply
  2. zettl.fr avatar
    zettl.fr

    You are welcome! I thought I’d better tell as it seems I have not been the only one…

    Reply
  3. petrujviljoen avatar
    petrujviljoen

    Scary stuff indeed. You all fixed now? I’ll reblog to soread the warning. Crazy stuff.

    Reply
    1. zettl.fr avatar
      zettl.fr

      Yes, thank you! All secured now. But actually it was the guys from “Jetpack” who helped me to recover it, They are very nice people and very helpful. I cannot say for 100% sure, so I didn’t post it, but it seems the hackers came through “gravatar upload”. I deleted that as well. Sure, shit happens but that they had no problem kidnapping my domain is really scary. Imagine I had been on holiday and had not reacted in that very small time frame…..

      Reply
      1. petrujviljoen avatar
        petrujviljoen

        WP should up their game regarding security.

      2. zettl.fr avatar
        zettl.fr

        Definitely! Today I read in a paper that Gutenberg plugin is a threat. I do not use it but it is automatically installed.

      3. zettl.fr avatar
        zettl.fr

        Here from the article: WordPress Gutenberg Template Library Plugin Vulnerability Affects +1 Million Sites
        Two vulnerabilities in the Gutenberg Template Library & Redux Framework plugin have been discovered to be vulnerable. Over 1 million sites are affected

  4. petrujviljoen avatar
    petrujviljoen

    M signal is gone. Will try tomorrow!

    Reply
  5. artsofmay avatar
    artsofmay

    Wow! Thank you for posting this warning. I’m very glad to hear you got help from Jetpack.

    Reply
    1. zettl.fr avatar
      zettl.fr

      Digging deeper into the matter I found outh that 3 people were involved….if they had been successful with grasping the domain they can even use it for uploading compromising material.

      Reply
      1. artsofmay avatar
        artsofmay

        Yes, the possibilities of what hackers can do are very worrisome.

  6. swabby429 avatar
    swabby429

    Yes. Ransomware is real.

    Reply
  7. Mariana Gouveia avatar
    Mariana Gouveia

    Ainda bem que resolveu… Obrigada pelo aviso! abraço

    Reply
    1. zettl.fr avatar
      zettl.fr

      Obrigado pelas palavras amáveis! Tudo de bom de Viena!

      Reply
  8. Nancy Richy avatar
    Nancy Richy

    This is awful! So sorry you had to experience this. We all need to be aware of these creeps zeroing in on us. Thanks for the heads up! Good luck to you!

    Reply
    1. zettl.fr avatar
      zettl.fr

      Thank you very much! All fine again but a few days of worry and unnecessary work. All the best to you too!

      Reply
  9. Invisibly Me avatar
    Invisibly Me

    Oh my goodness, that’s awful. I’m so angry that such people do these things and they never consider how it affects the victims of the scams, hacks and so on. I’m glad WordPress were able to resolve things but that’s definitely scary. So they hacked into your WP account and essentially held it ransom – you wouldn’t think that could happen without them having access to your emails because they should, in theory, send a message with a link to your email account when there’s a new/unusual sign in so that person has to verify by clicking the link. I

    suppose two step access is verification every time you sign in to prevent this from ever happening if WP don’t initially flag up an unusual log in. What a nuisance that people have to go to these lengths to keep what’s theirs safe. I’m sorry this has happened to you, and twice at that!

    Caz xx

    Reply
    1. zettl.fr avatar
      zettl.fr

      Thank you so much for your kind words! All is safe and secured again. But the mein reason I posted this was becuase we are normally not aware how easy this can happen. I am no newbee, I run a couple of online shops since 20+ years and sure know the basics of PW and such – but still….

      Reply
  10. peter robinson avatar
    peter robinson

    The Internet used to be such a nice place! Now there are so many criminals looking for opportunities to rob and scam their fellow human beings… thanks for posting this.

    Reply
    1. zettl.fr avatar
      zettl.fr

      I was lucky enough to be part of it right from the start. Today I regret not having documented the development – in the form of a blog, for example. Most of us don’t know what the forerunners of social media looked like …

      I have been dealing with stamps from the very early day and belive it or not shipping orders before payment received was very common among stamp collectors. Just an exdample.

      Reply
      1. peter robinson avatar
        peter robinson

        Yes, I remember the days when stamps were sent ‘on approval’. By god, times have changed!

        I’m not sure you could have blogged the development of the Internet… lol… did blogs exist at the outset of the www?

        My first PC was an Atari!

      2. zettl.fr avatar
        zettl.fr

        Haha, Atari! Me too 🙂 frogger….. I still have a letter from a higher-ranking ebay representative in which he congratulates me for my success 🙂 They had some 20-30 pages then with listings….
        Selling was never a problem – lovely honest people. Now 25 years later it is has become a nightmare….

      3. peter robinson avatar
        peter robinson

        Absolutely, one hell of a nightmare too… man’s inhumanity to man manifests itself in many ways… I have had my bank account compromised a couple of times over the past two years… I know the reason why but how do they do it? Well I won’t be here that much longer, shuffling off the old mortal coil and all that! God knows what the future holds!

      4. zettl.fr avatar
        zettl.fr

        Sorry to hear of your bank account troubles! Our social problems have really increased a lot. We as artists are “dreamers” anyway. But what alternative do I have? To close my heart and have to weigh up at every opportunity whether I’m not too carefree?

      5. peter robinson avatar
        peter robinson

        It’s difficult to know what to do for the best… unfortunately our leaders are not statesmen or philosophers but lowly career-minded politicians and warmongers !

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