Early To Rise: An Attack Site Or Not?

[Michael Lee]

Hi Warriors,

I've been a loyal reader of Early to Rise Newsletter. But when I clicked on their issue in their email, it says the site was blocked because it's been reported as an attack site.

I searched earlytorise.com in Google and it says "This site may harm your computer."

Is this true or not? I don't believe it since I've always known it to be trustworthy and reputable. Hopefully, they'll see this message and resolve this. I'll be sending them an email too.

Thanks,
Michael

[Martin Luxton]

Yup,

Just got the same message. Google said it had quite a few instances of malicious downloads from various pages.

Wonder what happened?

Martin

[Jillian Slack]

Very strange.

I've been receiving their ezine for quite a while and never noticed this problem until you brought it up.

I just opened up another tab and went directly to their site (without clicking on the link in the newsletter) and it took me to their site just fine.

Jill

[johnpetrov]

It seems that someone hacked their website.

[Dave777]

Just in case it happens to any of your web businesses...
Yes, You’re An Attack Site That Contains Malware, Now Here’s What To Do About It

Dave

[Ravenaven]

Thank you so much Dave! Well - today my site - through no knowledge of my own is now labeled and blocked as an attack site. Just found this out!!!!! right this moment! So, my programmers are off on Saturdays.... and I don't have a clue what that 'bad code' may look like... so it looks like I'll be dealing with this for a few days (hopefully not longer).

I do not use a CMS (which previously placed me vulnerable to a different kind of hacker), and I don't know how to protect my site moving forward (after we get the fix)... any advice?

Thank you!
Anisa

[Tsnyder]

Originally Posted by Ravenaven

Thank you so much Dave! Well - today my site - through no knowledge of my own is now labeled and blocked as an attack site. Just found this out!!!!! right this moment! So, my programmers are off on Saturdays.... and I don't have a clue what that 'bad code' may look like... so it looks like I'll be dealing with this for a few days (hopefully not longer).

I do not use a CMS (which previously placed me vulnerable to a different kind of hacker), and I don't know how to protect my site moving forward (after we get the fix)... any advice?

Thank you!
Anisa

This happened to me about 2 months ago. In the end I had to delete
all files from the server, institute a new, much more complicated, password,
and re-upload the files. I've been fine since... so far.

Tsnyder

[Ravenaven]

I wanted to post an update so that if anyone else gets hacked maybe they can learn from my experience.
Problem: My site was hacked; malware code was placed on the site and the tech-criminals used my pages to spy on users/download malware to their computers. Our normal scans did not detect any problems until it was too late.
We are unsure about the exact vulnerable entry point, but suspect it was one of the following:
- my forum, wordpress blog, CHMOD settings, my host’s server, old files no longer in use
What we did wrong:
- failed to delete older developer ftp accounts
- we received an email from someone about a month ago telling us our site was hosting malware, we submitted it to our host asking what we needed to do about this - he said it was a 'scam and we should ignore it' and we believed it.
- failed to evaluate unused files on the site and delete
- did not scan our 'open-source' scripts for vulnerabilities and our overall site for bad code
- failed to stay abreast of the scripts that we do use to be knowledgeable of when others have experienced security breeches
What we did to correct:
- backed-up the entire site
- replaced the bad code
- deleted all old developer accts, changed passwords
- resubmitted to google for review

What we intend to do moving forward:
- Edit passwords at least quarterly
- Find a way to systematically scan the site for bad code (still looking for a solution to this)
- Stay abreast of other solutions and security issues w/in the scripts we use

Fortunately, we are back online with the search engines. However, hotmail is still rejecting my server’s emails because ‘this site is bad’. Not sure how to correct that, or have them update their records or how to find out what other servers/ISPs still have the bad data.

I hope others find this helpful!
Thanks,
Anisa