Ugh! Update Plugins... Down Comes Website!

[GoodScout]

That's always an option, but I think I may have finally nailed it -- thanks again to the Wordfence guys. I paid for a premium version, so I get support. At 5:35 this morning, a tech emailed me to send him my .htaccess file (which I learned just a little about over the weekend). As soon as I opened it, I saw the code that tries to redirect all the search engines to the spam-link-generator site.
I've asked him what I need to do to replace the file, he quickly showed me the lines of code the hackers put in. I deleted them and boom, the site now shows on the bing and google crawlers. Now to wait an interminable two weeks for google to get around to saying my site is clean again.
The moral here is clear: Make sure your website has more security than it currently has. Too much is never enough these days. I've been blocking IPs trying to guess my logins and passwords all weekend. Amazing the number of people trying to get in. Oh, and get rid of your admin login and put something else in. And not your name. Can't tell you how many of these weasels know my full name and try to use it as the login.

 

[Arks]

That's always an option, but I think I may have finally nailed it -- thanks again to the Wordfence guys. I paid for a premium version, so I get support. At 5:35 this morning, a tech emailed me to send him my .htaccess file (which I learned just a little about over the weekend). As soon as I opened it, I saw the code that tries to redirect all the search engines to the spam-link-generator site.
I've asked him what I need to do to replace the file, he quickly showed me the lines of code the hackers put in. I deleted them and boom, the site now shows on the bing and google crawlers. Now to wait an interminable two weeks for google to get around to saying my site is clean again.
The moral here is clear: Make sure your website has more security than it currently has. Too much is never enough these days. I've been blocking IPs trying to guess my logins and passwords all weekend. Amazing the number of people trying to get in. Oh, and get rid of your admin login and put something else in. And not your name. Can't tell you how many of these weasels know my full name and try to use it as the login..

Amazing the number of people trying to get in. Oh, and get rid of your admin login and put something else in. And not your name. Can't tell you how many of these weasels know my full name and try to use it as the login.

Most of the bots trying to get into my website are still trying "admin" as the username, or my own name or a variation thereof. The third thing they try is my website's URL, less the .com
Occasionally something else, but just those three are 90% of the tries. That must get them into enough sites to keep them busy doing mischief.

 

[Generic]

That's always an option, but I think I may have finally nailed it -- thanks again to the Wordfence guys. I paid for a premium version, so I get support. At 5:35 this morning, a tech emailed me to send him my .htaccess file (which I learned just a little about over the weekend). As soon as I opened it, I saw the code that tries to redirect all the search engines to the spam-link-generator site.
I've asked him what I need to do to replace the file, he quickly showed me the lines of code the hackers put in. I deleted them and boom, the site now shows on the bing and google crawlers. Now to wait an interminable two weeks for google to get around to saying my site is clean again.
The moral here is clear: Make sure your website has more security than it currently has. Too much is never enough these days. I've been blocking IPs trying to guess my logins and passwords all weekend. Amazing the number of people trying to get in. Oh, and get rid of your admin login and put something else in. And not your name. Can't tell you how many of these weasels know my full name and try to use it as the login..

I'll tell you that I have quite a bit of security installed including Wordfence, BruteProtect, BPS Security and WP Security. Also, there is no user named Admin and the admin directory name has changed. There is also a CAPTCHA on the admin login.

 

[EmptyNest]

That's always an option, but I think I may have finally nailed it -- thanks again to the Wordfence guys. I paid for a premium version, so I get support. At 5:35 this morning, a tech emailed me to send him my .htaccess file (which I learned just a little about over the weekend). As soon as I opened it, I saw the code that tries to redirect all the search engines to the spam-link-generator site.
I've asked him what I need to do to replace the file, he quickly showed me the lines of code the hackers put in. I deleted them and boom, the site now shows on the bing and google crawlers. Now to wait an interminable two weeks for google to get around to saying my site is clean again.
The moral here is clear: Make sure your website has more security than it currently has. Too much is never enough these days. I've been blocking IPs trying to guess my logins and passwords all weekend. Amazing the number of people trying to get in. Oh, and get rid of your admin login and put something else in. And not your name. Can't tell you how many of these weasels know my full name and try to use it as the login..

I'll tell you that I have quite a bit of security installed including Wordfence, BruteProtect, BPS Security and WP Security. Also, there is no user named Admin and the admin directory name has changed. There is also a CAPTCHA on the admin login.
.

SOmetimes security plugins interfere with one another.

 

[Generic]

That's always an option, but I think I may have finally nailed it -- thanks again to the Wordfence guys. I paid for a premium version, so I get support. At 5:35 this morning, a tech emailed me to send him my .htaccess file (which I learned just a little about over the weekend). As soon as I opened it, I saw the code that tries to redirect all the search engines to the spam-link-generator site.
I've asked him what I need to do to replace the file, he quickly showed me the lines of code the hackers put in. I deleted them and boom, the site now shows on the bing and google crawlers. Now to wait an interminable two weeks for google to get around to saying my site is clean again.
The moral here is clear: Make sure your website has more security than it currently has. Too much is never enough these days. I've been blocking IPs trying to guess my logins and passwords all weekend. Amazing the number of people trying to get in. Oh, and get rid of your admin login and put something else in. And not your name. Can't tell you how many of these weasels know my full name and try to use it as the login..

I'll tell you that I have quite a bit of security installed including Wordfence, BruteProtect, BPS Security and WP Security. Also, there is no user named Admin and the admin directory name has changed. There is also a CAPTCHA on the admin login.
.

SOmetimes security plugins interfere with one another.
.

I know. That's why I had an expert configure them for me.

 

[GoodScout]

Well, it appears the nightmare is over. Google has unquarantined my site. There are still a few pages deep in the site that still show that they have potentially been hacked because the google spider hasn't recrawled them yet, but otherwise we're square with them.
It's worth noting that if this happens to you, you can lose a lot of site traffic. I have my browser settings on "moderate" security," so I could continue to see my site, but if you set them higher, your browser won't even let you load the site at all!

 

[Morticia]

Well, it appears the nightmare is over. Google has unquarantined my site. There are still a few pages deep in the site that still show that they have potentially been hacked because the google spider hasn't recrawled them yet, but otherwise we're square with them.
It's worth noting that if this happens to you, you can lose a lot of site traffic. I have my browser settings on "moderate" security," so I could continue to see my site, but if you set them higher, your browser won't even let you load the site at all!.

Thanks for letting us know sort of how the process does/doesn't work.