When malware hits your blog, a nasty warning sign appears telling your readers to stay away from your site. It just happened to me and I confess I panicked!
Here's the warning:
Frightening, isn't it?
The warning is still appearing today (February 21) for those of you who use Google Chrome as a browser - on other browsers (like Firefox) it doesn't appear.
I immediately checked what could be done, followed Google's directions and they verified that there was no longer any malware present on my site.
PLEASE NOTE THAT NOW THE PROBLEM IS FIXED!
MY BLOG IS FREE OF ANY MALWARE - YOU CAN PROCEED SAFELY!
I thought I'd share my experience with you so that the same thing doesn't happen to you.
First, as mentioned in the warning, you want to stay away from the incriminated site: www.idealog.com.
Second, don't panic and follow Google's directions to diagnose the problem and remove the malware. Click into the warning sign and indicate you are the owner of the site. That will direct you to a webmaster page where you'll be asked by Google to prove that you are indeed the owner. That can be a little tricky, there are several ways to do this and I had to try each one out until I found the one that worked for me (it involved pasting a metatag provided by Google into my site's HTLM). Sounds complicated but it really isn't.
The diagnostic was then run on my site and it was determined that no malware was present on it. So I didn't need to proceed with the steps to remove it but should you need to do it, even that is easy to do following their very clear directions. I also did a quick check to find what other sites might be helpful in case of malware, and this is one that looks very informative: securelist.com
But for me, the damage was done...In one day I lost about half my regular traffic! Of course, readers run away, rightly scared, and I can understand that.
Yet, recently my traffic had really shot up and I was so pleased... I had been nominated as a candidate for the Kreativ Blogger Award by author Emma Calin whose witty blog is really worth following. And then I was nominated to the Versatile Blogger Award by Kelley on her attractive Call Me Bookish blog. Kelley is very active: she reviews books, writes for fun and produces educational app content for @BallpointNews... All my heartfelt thanks go to my wonderful blogger friends who nominated me!
By the rules governing the Awards, I was supposed to respond by revealing secrets about myself, things that no one on Internet knew about me...7 secrets for each award, 14 in total (or perhaps more, I lost count)! Honestly, now that I've been hit by this cyber attack I feel like the proverbial turtle, pulling my head and arms in my shell... But now, you know something about me that you probably never suspected: that I really hurt when something like this happens! That's because I am very attached to you my readers...
How long will it take my blog to recover? I don't know, but I count on you all to come back and do tell me that you like me, even if I don't reveal dozens of secrets about myself!
Here's the warning:
Frightening, isn't it?
The warning is still appearing today (February 21) for those of you who use Google Chrome as a browser - on other browsers (like Firefox) it doesn't appear.
I immediately checked what could be done, followed Google's directions and they verified that there was no longer any malware present on my site.
PLEASE NOTE THAT NOW THE PROBLEM IS FIXED!
MY BLOG IS FREE OF ANY MALWARE - YOU CAN PROCEED SAFELY!
I thought I'd share my experience with you so that the same thing doesn't happen to you.
First, as mentioned in the warning, you want to stay away from the incriminated site: www.idealog.com.
Second, don't panic and follow Google's directions to diagnose the problem and remove the malware. Click into the warning sign and indicate you are the owner of the site. That will direct you to a webmaster page where you'll be asked by Google to prove that you are indeed the owner. That can be a little tricky, there are several ways to do this and I had to try each one out until I found the one that worked for me (it involved pasting a metatag provided by Google into my site's HTLM). Sounds complicated but it really isn't.
The diagnostic was then run on my site and it was determined that no malware was present on it. So I didn't need to proceed with the steps to remove it but should you need to do it, even that is easy to do following their very clear directions. I also did a quick check to find what other sites might be helpful in case of malware, and this is one that looks very informative: securelist.com
But for me, the damage was done...In one day I lost about half my regular traffic! Of course, readers run away, rightly scared, and I can understand that.
Yet, recently my traffic had really shot up and I was so pleased... I had been nominated as a candidate for the Kreativ Blogger Award by author Emma Calin whose witty blog is really worth following. And then I was nominated to the Versatile Blogger Award by Kelley on her attractive Call Me Bookish blog. Kelley is very active: she reviews books, writes for fun and produces educational app content for @BallpointNews... All my heartfelt thanks go to my wonderful blogger friends who nominated me!
By the rules governing the Awards, I was supposed to respond by revealing secrets about myself, things that no one on Internet knew about me...7 secrets for each award, 14 in total (or perhaps more, I lost count)! Honestly, now that I've been hit by this cyber attack I feel like the proverbial turtle, pulling my head and arms in my shell... But now, you know something about me that you probably never suspected: that I really hurt when something like this happens! That's because I am very attached to you my readers...
How long will it take my blog to recover? I don't know, but I count on you all to come back and do tell me that you like me, even if I don't reveal dozens of secrets about myself!
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