Last Monday was a terrible day for both PinoyRak the author and PinoyRak the blog. Besides having to deal with a splitting headache from last Sunday’s drinking binge, I also had to deal with PinoyRak being hacked. My blog had been shut down between 9:30 PM Monday to 2:00 PM Tuesday. At first, I thought it was only normal that I can’t login to my wp-admin as my internet connection usually fluctuates, but after getting back at my computer the next morning to login again, I still can’t access my wp-admin page and the only thing that’s loading is a page that shows multiple links to pornographic sites, online poker and Viagra ads. LOL!

Next thing I did was type in the URL of PinoyRak, same thing happens. Then, I typed in the address to login to my cpanel and you guessed it right, I get the same results. I almost blew coffee on my 24″ inch iMac from being pissed off. My thoughts was clouded, so the next test I did was switch to Safari (a native Mac browser) since I was using Firefox as my default, and the same annoying site still shows up.

I contacted my hosting provider through email since they don’t have phone support which sucks by the way, to ask what’s going on and I got a reply past 2:00 PM Tuesday when my site is up and running again only to tell me that, “Kindly access it now. It’s working fine now.”

I was like, WTF! I replied, “Yes, it’s working fine now but I think the hacker left some codes or script in my blog. What should I do next? Can you guys clarify more info besides, “It’s working fine now.”? Like how wasn’t I able to access my cpanel and wp-admin?” Then, I got a reply, “Can you please provide the malicious code that you are talking about?” I never bothered to reply back again because their support SUCKS! People over at PhilHosting: How the hell are you going to help me figure things out by asking another question? You have a pretty decent service and affordable hosting plan but I’m sorry your support SUCKS!

Well anyway, I did a research on my own to fix whatever it is to be fixed. PinoyRak looks normal except when I reload my page, I see my Google Ads showing “Mexico Trips” which is not relevant to my blog content, which according to my research is a sign that your blog has been hacked. Hackers insert invisible codes to insert their own affiliate links. I also noticed that when I click the links on the malicious site it takes me to a page that shows Akratz.com. So I Googled what Akratz is all about and the most useful resource I found was at this forum. Akratz.com originates from Netherlands. It appears that the registered domain site is used for hijacking and attacking websites.

My further research shows that the one to be blamed here is my ISP, which is SmartBro. Their DNS is vulnerable to attacks and it seems that only SmartBro users are having these kinds of problems with URL’s being redirected to Akratz.com. I already upgraded my WordPress to 2.5.1 manually. WP 2.5.1 offers security fixes from the previous 2.5 release. I had a hard time upgrading as I’m such a noob with WordPress. But I did it successfully.

Oh, and as for that hacker who accessed my blog – come back when PinoyRak is already making millions. For now PinoyRak is barely a week old, I’m just climbing up the ladder. I can’t blame you if you see great money making potential with PinoyRak. Thanks! I’m actually flattered. LOL!

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