What if your web site just vanished?
On December 28th, 2015, several of WebGuy's customer's web sites were hacked. The sites suddenly went offline with a ransom note demanding the sum of $310 USD to get the files back. Without a backup, this could have turned out to be a really big deal. Not at WebGuy Communications. We do daily offsite backups — as well as weekly server wide backups — so you will never lose more than 7 days of data on your web site. Usually, only a day or two and that's only if your web site goes down. Host with WebGuy and your site will be up 99.9999% of the time. (that's six freakin' 9s.)
Without a backup, this handful of web site operators would be totally screwed. They would have to pay outlandish ransom demands or start from scratch.
Update, Update, Update!
The key to avoiding issues like this is to BACKUP your site. WebGuy does this for you automatically. You should also UPDATE your site. Hackers and malware innovate all the time. There will always be a 'new threat'. This one has just popped up in November 2015 and it is making its way across the Interwebs. Once the ransomware accessed these sites, it would encrypt web site folders. Their site would be offline. The hackers left a note. A README_FOR_DECRYPT.txt file with a ransom demand. It asked website owners to pay a certain sum in bitcoins to have the site restored.
Here is a live list of sites currently infectedHow they did it
One of the more common and destructive computer crimes to emerge over the past few years involves ransomware. Ransomeware is malicious code that scrambles an infected user’s documents and files with strong encryption. A ransom, to be paid in Bitcoin, is demanded in exchange for a key to unlock the files. It appears fraudsters are developing ransomware that does the same but for Web sites. An attack essentially holds the site’s files, pages and images for ransom.
