...and we're back (with a Gawker rant!)

Well, apparently, whether this was fallout from the #gawkerfail fiasco, or if it was plain coincidence, CFJ is back up.

What happened?

From what I could gather, it appeared that my blog (as well as a lot of other legitimate blogs), which is hosted via Google's Blogger service, was deleted...possibly due to an automated 'splog' deletion program.  This being the case, it's very strangely coincidental that it occurred during the Gawker fallout.

The following bit is my conjecture:

While I don't think they "got in" per se, my guess is that the Google services spotted the uptick in unusual activity and marked it as 'suspicious'.  This is where things get fuzzy.  I'm not sure if this in turn placed my blog with a higher score with the automated splog removal tool, or if it was a series of other circumstances, but the direct result was that my blog was completely deleted.  Not only that, but another donation-funded site I maintain for a friend who is hospitalized was also removed (CFJ is obviously a bigger blog, but this really made me mad).  Two others, set up as tests...were fine.  Not sure what that was about.  Could be a page-rank thing, I dunno.

Connect the dot.coms

The problem is, it's not all that hard for someone malicious to link all these things together if you are fairly active on the Internet, whether that be with social sites like Facebook and Twitter or if you run a fairly popular blog or service.
 
Sure, with regards to being "Gawked" (you heard it from me), I've taken some measures and have re-thought my current password scheme.  Obviously, the one I was using was not good enough.  Now each service will have their own independent password.  Harder to maintain?  Certainly.  But it will cause less work in the long haul when the next eventual hack occurs.

Battlefield, Google Earth

Things have definitely changed in Cyperspace -er, the cloud.  What was once seen as an annoyance to some web-sites/companies has now become a vast battlefield filled with soldiers of all ages, nationalities and goals, and everyone is a victim.  Small groups can take down powerful entities with little effort.  As such, it isn't hard for the nefarious coders to utilize openly available API's to link these services together and very quickly perform attacks against them, aggregating and assembling what they find with each subsequent result.

The Internet is becoming like Inception; you won't know where Twitter ends and Facebook begins, and you'll forget exactly how you got there in the first place - when really, all you wanted to do was look up a recipe.

Web 1.0 was so much...simpler.  You remember, don't you?  Remember when the site you visited didn't plug into everything else?

Me?  I'm mad at myself for not backing up my blogs and having them at the ready.  Rest assured, you will see me at least search for and hopefully review such a solution here in the future.

What about being Gawked?

I (presumably we) are mad at Gawker for not notifying us as soon as they found out they had been hacked.  Let's not minimize the fact that they provide so much information about the blogosphere, technology, getting things done, video games, sci-fi (and yes, porn) that someone there would have some sort of inkling that "hey, our system ain't that secure, maybe we should do something about it?"   As it was, a third-party site, hint.io (who?) sent out an email to all of the compromised accounts stating that they should change their passwords immediately.  A THIRD PARTY.  Come on.

As it is, you can't even delete your Gawker account.

I'm irresponsible, but Gawker, you take the cake.

Here's the email from "the Team at Hint":

Hi there,

Hint wanted to let you know that your email address and password that you used to signup for Gawker (or one of its sites) were hacked. Forbes' coverage is here

In situations like this, time is of the essence, which is why we were surprised & shocked to find that Gawker Media hadn't taken the initiative to notify you of this privacy breach immediately. We HIGHLY recommend you change all of your online passwords as a precaution.

-The Team at Hint

Thank you to Hint.io.

"He who controls the information, controls the world." - Source unknown