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Of Hackers and Heroes
Creative Commons via games.gearlive.com
Last week was pretty interesting in my “virtual life” as I got hacked.
And this wasn’t the easy, “your password needs to be changed” kind of hack, but rather a vicious, replicating code that snuck into my husband’s blog and implanted itself into the index files of 8 different websites that are stored on a shared hosting site.
How did I suspect a hack?
- Earlier in the day, I received a message on Twitter that one of my websites was down. I did what any non-techie does and called my hosting service. They confirmed that there was some malicious code and described it as “your hacker moved around your widgets which is kinda like being burglarized where the burglar just moved your furniture around.” I accepted the explanation with a shrug and thought “that’s a bit creepy” but carried on my day, thankful that everything appeared resolved in under 5 minutes.
- Later that evening, I blogged under a different account and tried to post a link to Facebook. Unfortunately, the link diverted traffic to a website in Poland. I could visit the site directly, but all of my posted links to all of my websites through Facebook and Bing were taking a bit of a detour to a cold, cold land of apparent hackers.
I again called my hosting service and happened to run into one of their less-than-helpful technical assistants, who bemoaned the late hour of my call (nevermind that their tech support is supposed to be 24-7) and told me to “gear up because I was in a battle against Poland.” No joke. I was terrified. Who wants to battle Poland near midnight on a school night? Not me!
After 30 minutes, my technician ended our call by telling me that he was now “off shift” and he hoped that I “would have a nice day.” I was less than thrilled. But that’s when I resorted to Twitter….
I tweeted out “It appears that my life as a blogger has officially ended” and that’s when my hero arrived on-scene in the form of friend I had met briefly around the holidays. He messaged me immediately and offered to help. We emailed back and forth and he quickly diagnosed the issue and spent the following day rooting out the malicious code out of each of my websites.
The key moral to this story is that relationships matter! Had I simply been a blogger who was not engaging in social media, I would likely have either started over from scratch on new blogs or paid through the nose to return all 8 of my sites to a workable new normal. I’m not even sure I would have known where to begin. But today, I’m thankful to have my sites working just a few days later due to the skillful work of Andy Hayes (AKA @andrewghayes on Twitter).
Cyber threats are real and here are a few things that you should do regularly to keep the “doors locked” to your blogs:
- If you are downloading a special theme for your website, consider scanning it first (if you are on WordPress) with the Tim Thumb Vulnerability Scanner. (This link also includes a link into a more technical discussion of the TimThumb hack which is likely what occurred to me. )
- Eliminate any themes that you downloaded, but are no longer using.
- Download/export a backup copy of your blog on a regular basis. While your host may store backup copies, it is a good habit to be into personally before you update.
- Update your themes & plug-ins when updates are available. Often, updates include solutions for security vulnerabilities that have been found in earlier versions.
- Use a plug-in like Secure WordPress or Ultimate Security Checker to add additional layers of mindful blog protection.
Today’s lessons? If you aren’t tech savvy, and even if you are, get out and meet your social media connections. Build the friendships, bridges and get to know what resources exist in your networks. You never know when you’ll be in need of help.
Secondarily, do what you can to secure your websites. We’re all one string of malicious code away from being unable to express ourselves online and share our stories with the world.
The Importance of Elevators
Can you describe the mission of your emergency management program (or any program you manage) in one sentence or less?
When the Department of Homeland Security’s “Target Capability List” which defines all of the emergency response capabilities is 588 pages long and local “strategies” for preparedness range from 30-50 pages, it’s not a huge surprise that this question can pose a challenge for many of us emergency managers.
Earlier in my life, I served on a non-profit board who was working to define its own mission. We struggled for months to determine how to simply describe what we were doing. The concept of creating an “elevator speech” was very new to me at the time and I wondered about its true importance.
Over the past 10 years, I have come to realize that if you cannot quickly define your program, you risk losing the interest of many people. In short,
- You risk losing the broader community, who may not know what you do to begin with.
- You risk losing the interest of your politicians, administrators and those agencies who may be supporting your program financially.
- You may even lose the confidence of your own employees and volunteers if your program feels rudderless.
I have found that when I tell people that I’m an “Emergency Manager,” very few people actually know what that means because, in their mind, the word “emergency” means something different to everyone who hears it. People have mistakenly told others that I rescue animals (aka Humane Society), can direct traffic and hand out welfare vouchers among other interesting things. This failure to understand my job title only reinforces the reason why I feel it is important to communicate simply about our profession.
So, when I talk with other emergency managers who are facing challenges in their programs, I’ll often ask “how would you define your mission in one sentence?” Struggling with the answer to this question often seems to correlate with a confused identity within their programs.
My mission?
I can do it in 3 words. Effective Problem-Solving
What do I do for a living?
Bring people together during crisis conditions to identify problems, set priorities and implement solutions.
Next time you are standing quietly on an elevator, see if you can define the mission of your program in the time it takes to travel to your next floor. If you can’t, I suggest taking some time to reflect on the mission, scope and direction of your program before you lose one of the most important assets to your program, your audience.
D5 Creation