A Libyan hacker exploited a security hole in the code for Simple Machines Forum, and took over our forum for a day.
What he didn't count on was my access to the MySQL database, where I neutralized him.
Unfortunately, I was not able to immediately revert back to the original look and feel of the site. He changed the default language to Arabic, and my access to the administrative panel was not able to be translated, because Google Translate can't decode a page that's beyond a password.
Our hacker was none to pleased that I was fighting back instead of paying his ransom, so he tunneled through to other parts of my hosting account, and took down my business site at
http://positiveposition.comNeedless to say, I was not relishing spending the next few weeks chasing him from database to database.
I called my webhost, and had them do a complete site restore from three days ago. Every html file. Every database.
Then I closed the initial loophole, changed EVERY one of my email passwords, and changed the root admin password for EVERY one of my Wordpress sites.
Happy Holidays.
Unless you are a Libyan hacker. In which case you can eat my shorts.
