Home : Blogs : Roberta Murphy - Carlsbad Real Estate North County San Diego Realtor : The Real View

Near-Death at the Hand of Hackers

I have found myself publicly and privately apologizing to those who have been unable to access either Luxury Home Digest or San Diego Previews this past week. It was embarrassing. It was costly. It was something that should never happen in a civilized or honorable world.

You see, we along with a dozen or so other Active Rain bloggers were hit with a malevolent hacking attack last Sunday night, whereby all of our blog and website content was deleted.

Nothing was left: Not comments, not stories, not a database--nor even a remnant of what was there before.

It was as if an identity had been stolen--along with its history, historical concerns and countless hours of thought and labor. We initally hoped it was a minor glitch that could be quickly repaired.

That was not to be the case.

But thanks to the tireless work of blogging gurus at the Real Estate Tomato, we have been able to restore most of our material.

And thanks to those who brought these web and blogsites down, I am now musing about the consequences for such actions.

Is attacking a website and deleting its content a crime? And if more than one attacker, a conspiracy?

Could such activity constitute a “restraint of trade” as defined by the Federal Trade Commission? Google definitions, as usual, provide some clues.

These are answers that should give pause to anyone even thinking of taking down the website of another.

To read the rest of this article, please click on over to the resurrected Luxury Home Digest:

Posted by Roberta Murphy - Carlsbad Real Estate North County San Diego Realtor on 04/19/2008 08:46 PM

Comments (27)

hackers, websites, blogs

This post has been included in California Information San Diego County, CA Information San Diego, CA Information
Post is included in group: Active Rain Newbies
Post is included in group: The Lounge at Active Rain
Post is included in group: Selling Soulfully

27 Comments on Near-Death at the Hand of Hackers

APR

2008

Roberta, Fabulous article.

Couldn't have said it better.

If this happened in China, they may be facing the death penalty.

Hi Roberta,

So sorry to hear about this. I originally read about it last week on a Rainer post, maybe Gena's? I'm apalled to hear what's going on out there...what can you say about someone who is so vicious.

Glad to hear you were able to restore the majority of all your hard work!

WOW.....I'd be beside myself....there would be two of me!

Gena:

I don't know what the penalties would be if this emanated from Eastern Europe or Africa. I have also heard that China is merciless with hackers.

As for me, I'd just put them before a firing squad--or sentence them to spend the rest of their lives connected to an old-school modem.

Lynda: I could use a lot of four-letter words....

Donna:

I kept peeling myself off the ceiling. There are stacks of me all over the place.

Roberta - so glad to see you back but so sorry to hear of your problems. There are no words to adequately convey how I feel...and I'm sure you do as well. Is there anything that we can do to protect ourselves against such an onslaught? I can certainly think of some interesting penalties for such folks and such dispicable behavior.

Jeff

I had a database with 15,000 companies get infected by a virus or whatever else they have out there in fantasma world. That cost me $8,000 cold hard cash I spent on having telemarketers verifying all the data by telephone and a half year of work!

These hackers do serious and broad damage to American business every year...huge losses!

Jeff: I don't know how we can protect ourselves from such malevolent behavior. I assumed the blogging community would be immune from internet sociopaths simply because we don't hold bank account or credit card numbers. Go figure....

Richard: Ouch! Did you ever catch the creeps who did the damage?

Sorry to hear about. Hopefully the "effects" of the bad guys will not be long lasting. Thanks for keeping everyone up to date on your ordeal.

Roberta, destroying other people's work isn't sick - it's evil. Some hackers get their jollies from making others miserable. Is Real Estate Tomato a blogging platform?

Roberta- Some things are senseless.. the hacking was definitely one of those things that truly make little to no sense..

Brian Luce: It's the loss of trust that will last the longest.

Brian Schulman: Real Estate Tomato provides training, blog hosting, blogging advice and blogging community. Not sure why their blogs were targeted.

Kaye: I am still baffled--and saddened.

Roberta, did I mention how great your background looks?

Gena: I'm still playing around with it. Need some of your Photoshop talent!

APR

2008

Roberta, terrible, are you sure someone hacked it? Very disturbing if so. It hit a lot of my friends here.

Hello Roberta,
Oh my gosh! I had not heard about this. This is pretty scary. Happy to hear you were able to get most everything back.

Missy: It appears to have been deliberate destruction.

Cynthia: We are still assessing and repairing the damage....

Roberta,

I'm glad to hear the Real Estate Tomato has been able to salvage the blogsites. It's such a sad state of affairs when Nasty People have to do damage to innocent folks. I'm sure there is a special place in the after life reserved just for them!

Roberta - It is a shame that there are people out there that want to violate our personal possessions. It is like someone robbing your home when you are not there. Hope all is not lost.

APR

2008

Roberta, I really feel for you...this is terrible someone did this to you...all that hard work!! Welcome back.

Kristal: Kudos to the Tomato and rotten tomatoes to the Nasties.

Chuck: It felt and feels like such a personal attack--especially since it wasn't a technical glitch. It is good to be back. Thank you!

Debra: Thanks so much. I feel for all the bloggers who were struck. It probably couldn't have happened at a worse time.

APR

2008

That's fine, delete my comment but all you have accomplished is hiding helpful information from people that have been hacked and may well be hacked in the future. You should be ashamed of yourself! Education is prevention but I guess that you would have to read in order to discover this truth. Best of luck to you, your clients and the people you associate with - you will need it.

By the way... Just do a search for my name and server security and you will see that I am the real deal. Instead of defending the inactions of your service provider, you should be helping people avoid the same devastating experience that you had!

All and "Jim Hunter"

I deleted (but saved) your original comment because it was more inflammatory than informative. Nothing, however, is set in stone. If you will provide a link to your real identity, I will gladly repost your response in its entirety.

You see, I've heard several reports lately that if I and others don't take down our posts about being hacked, we would be subjected to more of the same. Somehow, I take that as a threat and after what we've been through the past ten days, it just doesn't sit right.

I can find a plethora of Jim Hunter's on the net. Why not just provide a link or phone number. Or better yet, feel free to give me a call at either 760-942-9100 or my cell: 760-402-9101. I'll be more than to discuss this deliberate hacking and attack of my sites.

And by the way, this wasn't the case of a virus, a worn out server or anything of the sort.

It was a deliberate massacre.

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?

Roberta Murphy - Carlsbad Real Estate North County San Diego Realtor

San Diego, CA

More about me…

San Diego Previews * Previews Luxury Real Estate

Office Phone: (877) 818-8197

Cell Phone: (760) 402-9101

Email Me

LinkedIn Profile

By: Twitter Buttons

Links

Archives

Find CA real estate agents and San Diego real estate on ActiveRain.

Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.