Earlier this week, I was hacked. Fortunately, I lost very little data (due to the fact my host seems to do daily back-ups) but I experienced significant amount of downtime.
It was not only my site which was hacked; the whole box was brought down. Even though my site was back-up in no time, my host/the hackers brought the box down for about 24 hours (I guess to restore back-ups and apply patches or to cause more havoc!).
What annoyed me most is the fact my host’s server status tool lied to me by telling me everything was functioning perfectly well. Also, live support would not respond to me and my support ticket took about 48 hours to be answered.
I only managed to figure out what was going on through my host’s forums, and only through what other users said (the host didn’t comment at the time).
When I saw my site was down, I obviously wanted to know what was happening and, rather pathetically, the fact that my website was down distracted me for a whole day! I really do wish they were more transparent <sighs>.
I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of backing up but I strongly urge you to back-up in case your host don’t back up as frequently as mine.
Oh, and by the way, hackers can’t speak English very well. I tried to ask them about what they did on MSN and they gave me very poorly worded responses before blocking me!
Are you still on BlueHost?
Azhar: Yup
I think you and I are on the same server, judging by the date of your post and your response to Azhar.
What annoyed me most was that although I did manage to get through to live support several times, I got a different explanation from every person I spoke with.