This is a very personal Christmas message exclusive to malicious hackers, phishers, scammers, spammers and every amoral species of low life that inhabit cyber space.
Thank you so much for selecting my sites for your attention. I’ve no idea what you expected to find but I hope you enjoyed the tour of my very boring databases before trashing my sites.
Clearing up after you is about as pleasant as hosing off the wellies after walking in something particularly nasty. I know that if I add all the available security bells and whistles to my sites that you can still break-in. This does not deter me, it is just a pity that you have nothing better to do.
In appreciation of your Christmas gift I can think of nothing better to send you than the latest emoji which signifies universal contempt, you can even chose whether you prefer the one or two-fingered version. I won’t publish them as I have no desire to be blacklisted by WordPress. Happy Christmas!
Oh dear. Sorry to hear you have had problems. Did you manage to get it all back OK?
Thank you Annette. Fortunately it was all backed-up and restoration was simple if time consuming.
Oh no. It leaves a bad taste doesn’t it. Which is why it was a real pleasure to scroll through past posts and read your Christmas pottage post and to see the fruits of your baking – pine nut crust sounds delicious. And I see you have more recipes. You obviously cook as beautifully as you write. I hope the weather is quiet and peaceful for you this Christmas.
Just another tick in the list of experiences on the life list, but I could do without this one.
However, a little Christmas cooking is very therapeutic. It doesn’t need a recipe but try poaching some sliced pears in perry and half a cinnamon stick (or a star anise), remove the pears from the liquid and then reduce the liquid with a tablespoon or so of syrup from a jar of preserved ginger and spoon over the pears with some of the chopped preserved ginger. Serve with amaretti biscuits and double cream!
I started replying to this some days ago but was thwarted at the time – can’ t remember why. I was pleased to read that you were able to restore everything but it must still have been an awful experience. I trust it hasn’t left any security issues to be dealt with and of course it is a reminder to all of us about backing up – where do you back up yours too?
Thanks Cathy. I’ve still no idea why anyone would hack a natural history website. I really was very angry at the time, but now I’m just sad that someone should waste their time and talent in malevolence. I’ve always used top level website security, but it is never enough to keep out a determined hacker. My websites are all backed-up to an external hard-drive, which I think is probably the safest option. I’m not too sure about using a cloud, but a second copy is always a good idea.
oh poor you! I find computers hard enough without someone deliberately trashing your site. (I managed to trash my own all by myself ). 🙁
Hope you are surviving this weather – the wind presently scouring the garden!
Lets hope spring arrives soon!
I’m trying to be philiopical about it all. I’d been planning to up-date the Outer Hebrides Biological Recording website, so the hackers gave me a shove in the right direction.
It’s calmed down a little now and the rain is turning sleaty. Ever optimistic I’m already starting to think about gardening, after all the days are getting a little longer now.