My website was hacked…now what?

Two weeks ago, in the middle of a major business promotion, my website “disappeared” and by that I mean, all links and website extensions attached to it, also went “puff”….And…I didn’t find out until…..:

Just picture this:  You’ve worked hard at creating a sales page, and all that goes with it including autoresponders.  You’ve sent your promotions out with their respective links and you are hooked up to every Social Media platform available to you.  Then the “buy” moment arrives, and your clients land on a page that simply says:  “Error – Page Not Found” – OUCH, Arrrg, OMG, what is happening?

It wasn’t until I started to receive direct messages from these, Oh, so patient folks, that I found out something was dreadfully wrong; and all links have been checked prior to launch so I knew this was something else than met the eye.

My team of experts came to the conclusion that based on the  “symptoms”, my website was hacked.  By all accounts, the symptoms were malicious and pervassive.   Everything related to my site, in an instant, was GONE! or so it seemed.  However, there is an obvious process before coming to that conclusion and that is, verifying that what you think it’s true, indeed it is.  So the “recovery” process begun by addressing the hosting company; which we found out,  had nothing to do with it.  However, this too, took time to get it sorted out.

The person who created my website was not responsive, the ones who thought had a copy of it “didn’t”, and the present team working on this delicate situation did not know where else to turn.  Had it not been for ONE thing which I will tell you in a moment, my entire site, for all intent and purpose was GONE….really, really GONE!  All of it.  Can you feel what I’m feeling, right at the pit of my stomach?  Pretty scary, right?

So what was the ONE thing that saved the day?

When my website was designed, I insisted in all digital data be backed up on “physical” CD’s, yes, “physical” CD’s, and be mailed to me upon completion which the website designer did, in accordance to our “written contract” – (Yes, always have a written contract!!!  This is your cyber real estate investment and property) 

Since I had the hard copy of those files, I was able to “on-line share them with my team”, and everything was restored to its original form, and then some.  However, for all intent and purpose, my site was out of commission for 5 days, and that is totally unacceptable.

In most cases, websites are backed-up on a weekly basis.  Mine wasn’t, and that is my fault, as I did not specify for that to be done while I thought it was.  So this is one lesson to take away, and be sure you follow it; whether you want to do it yourself, or have someone else do it, just get it done on a consistent basis and be very clear that this is your request.

The other thing, get all your websites burned onto a CD in addition to other back-up systems.  This is one instance when you will never have “one too many”.  (And…so what if you do!) – There are also other on-line systems that can back this up for you; however, after this experience, I’m glad I had the CDs.

Communicate clearly to your team where such important files are located, and then assign a systematic way for your files to be backed up on a consisten basis.  Trust your teams to safeguard this important information for you and the obvious….keep a copy for yourself in a very safe place.    And Oh yes, change you passwords!!!!

Your thoughts and feedback? – LOVE hearing from you!