Good morning!
Over the past weekend, I received an e-mail from our hosting vendor and the news was that 3 pages or files were creating a strain on their servers.
At first glance, I encountered technical problems accessing the files and could not see the usual folder directory to tell what was going on.
After a couple of back and forth rounds, I tried another method (WS-FTP and old school technology still works in many cases) and have gained access to everything.
The quick and dirty moral of the story is "Don't think because you are not creating content on a regular basis for different sites that no one is noticing because the spammers have already noticed and are filling those web houses like rats!"
Spammers worldwide were in and through one site like cockroaches and rats:(
I already had the files on an external hard drive for easy, offline editing before loading the files online, but none of this would indicate otherwise how deep and wide the problem really was on THE ACTUAL SERVER!
The real entry point were the various forms that were used to receive information from the online visitors!
The forms that leave content trails like the old school guest book forms will open a hole to your site that will be flooded by crazy advertisements if you are not consistently watching for it.
Right now, I am going through the server folder directory to delete and remove any files that have a size outside of the norm.
But I have already seen that it is easier to tear a three-dimensional building because when you have the visitors' responses that could be flipped into spam, there are a whole lot more files and folders that contain the same information in multiple places and ways.
I'm burning down the house and watching the rats and cockroaches run for cover!
Believe me, this job is just as ugly as it sounds right now:(
But I hope to save someone else from doing the digital, dirty work that I am having to do this morning. I thank God for the appropriate tools too!
Peace!
Over the past weekend, I received an e-mail from our hosting vendor and the news was that 3 pages or files were creating a strain on their servers.
At first glance, I encountered technical problems accessing the files and could not see the usual folder directory to tell what was going on.
After a couple of back and forth rounds, I tried another method (WS-FTP and old school technology still works in many cases) and have gained access to everything.
The quick and dirty moral of the story is "Don't think because you are not creating content on a regular basis for different sites that no one is noticing because the spammers have already noticed and are filling those web houses like rats!"
Spammers worldwide were in and through one site like cockroaches and rats:(
I already had the files on an external hard drive for easy, offline editing before loading the files online, but none of this would indicate otherwise how deep and wide the problem really was on THE ACTUAL SERVER!
The real entry point were the various forms that were used to receive information from the online visitors!
The forms that leave content trails like the old school guest book forms will open a hole to your site that will be flooded by crazy advertisements if you are not consistently watching for it.
Right now, I am going through the server folder directory to delete and remove any files that have a size outside of the norm.
But I have already seen that it is easier to tear a three-dimensional building because when you have the visitors' responses that could be flipped into spam, there are a whole lot more files and folders that contain the same information in multiple places and ways.
I'm burning down the house and watching the rats and cockroaches run for cover!
Believe me, this job is just as ugly as it sounds right now:(
But I hope to save someone else from doing the digital, dirty work that I am having to do this morning. I thank God for the appropriate tools too!
Peace!
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