Spiga

Site Hacked!

I have a self hosted blog on wordpress, on Friday I opened it as usual, to write a post, and what I found? Instead of my homepage, I was looking at a Photo of Bush on a black background. Bush's forehead was marked and some graphics were targeting as if he was on gun point. Owned, this site is hacked by CEM111. I can't even explain the shock I got. It was like I was robbed in broad daylight. It was as if I was being watched.
I called my husband, who had went out in the park with my daughter. He told me to be calm, but how could I be? My first independent blog was hacked by some pervert. I couldn't understand why someone would hack a non business, google PR-zero blog which has only a few ordinary posts written in it? My blog doesn't have any financial activity, so it couldn't have been for money. I am not a political bigwig or religious fanatic, so it couldn't be an act of hate too.
While waiting for my husband to return, I looked into my site's stats, and found that a visitor from Turkey had spent 40 minutes at my blog. I emailed the server support, posted on digital points forum for help and did some research on CEM111. I found that CEM111 are Turkish Islamic hackers, who target anti Islamic and pro- American sites. I don't understand why these idiots hacked mine. I am not a Bush fan, you can even count me in as anti-Bush, and I don't have any problems with Islam, though this stupid type of Islamic fanaticism irritates me no end. So why was I targeted?
My husband answered that question, he said that such hackers don't single out minor sites, they just hack the server and then deface all sites which are hosted on it.
We contacted the support at server and they promptly responded. I was too exhausted to follow, I went to sleep and my husband remained on the net trying to find out the corrupted files.
Next day my husband told me that the database was intact, the hackers didn't touch anything( their was nothing for them to change or deface), they had only altered the php file. I was relieved that I had my blog back. But I was again distressed to find out that my stats showed two visits from a site which is apparently run by CEM111 , and keeps a track of the sites they hacked. It is frightening. It is as if I am being watched!
Should I have written this post? I don't know. The idiots may hack my blog again, but I had to get it off my chest too. There is no or little info available on sites being hacked by Islamic Morons.What would they get out of it? They have certainly made me less sympathetic towards Islam, that's for sure. I used to love Pakistani Serials and I have written a post about it on my other blog, but Now I am not sure I can watch anything related to Muslims. Or may be its just temporary and I will be watching another of my favorite Pakistani serials, Tanhaiyaan on you tube.

6 comments:

  Flora

11 May 2008 at 18:26

I got hacked too, but in a different way. I started my Blog for money site with a load of HTML pages before I moved on to Wordpress. Last week I found that I had been de-indexed by Google. The reason: someone got acces to the control panel and placed a load of obscne hidden text links on my pages. Fortunately the blog pages were OK but it took a long time to remove all the spammy links. My advice - change your password regularly. I know how you feel, it is really creepy when you discover someoen has invaded your web space!

  Rohit

13 May 2008 at 16:51

Sad to know 'bout few more targeted people. It's

As for the blog author, sheetalahlawat, I will say that It happens dear. Anything over the internet is watched by someone or the other. But don't feel insecure. Yes it's true that when someone tempers your things, it does raise an alarm. But it's OK! cool down as everything has been restored for you.

I must say that keep your emotions in control and don't start hating a community/religion/language because of such FEW Traits. I know you really didn't mean your angry words but even if 1%, just take it off.

I believe that, If one stray dog bites you it doesn't mean all dogs are bad. There is always a difference between a Stray Dog & a sensible one. ;)

Hope it makes sense.


Anyways, thanks for sharing your experience.

All the best for the future!!!

Cheers,
Rohit

  Sheetal Ahlawat

13 May 2008 at 20:50

Thanks Brilliant, from now onwards I will keep changing my passwords regularly. Though the hackers didn't do any damage, it was very scary for me that anybody can access me, my blog is my world after all.

  Sheetal Ahlawat

13 May 2008 at 21:00

I don't hate Muslims. Funny thing is when I was single, I used dream of marrying some one like Ahmer Ansari ( the hero of famous Pakistani drama Dhoop Kinare), that may sound childish :) But I have been brought up in a very progressive family and I don't make generalized opinions about castes or religions. But at the same time it is also true that Islamic fanatics are giving a bad name to Islam. Ordinary people don't know what Prophet Mohamed preached, and what they hear or listen about Al Qaeda or such groups is not very positive. Increasingly such Islamic Terrorist organizations are becoming the face of Islam., which is a worrying trend.

  Anonymous

13 June 2008 at 22:18

Hello-

They didn't know your password. They broke in because your WordPress was out of date, with a backdoor security flaw. CEM111 got me also. So I bought him a web page : CEM111.com ha ha.

  Anonymous

24 September 2008 at 19:54

It'd be nice to see the picture the hacker posted.