This month has brought record number of hacking attempts on the websites we manage (over 7000). This is not terribly unusual in the wild-wild-west world of the world-wide-web, but we really beefed up our anti-hacking efforts this month. We want you to know that we work hard behind-the-scenes to keep your website up and running for your business.
One of the most common methods we see hackers use is called brute force hacking. Brute force hacking is when someone tries to access the “behind the scenes” stuff of a website by literally attempting several username and password combinations (usually hundreds every second) to try and see the super-secret insides of websites.
It often goes something like this:
Your Website: Oh, good morning! Would you like into the admin areas of this website?
Hacker: Um, yes….please.
Your Website: Sure! The first thing I need to know is your username.
Hacker: Admin
Your Website: Okay, now what is your password?
Hacker: “password”?
Your Website: no
Hacker: “password1”?
Your Website: no
[some time later, usually after trying out each password on lists like this one…]
Hacker: “123456”?
Your Website: (*sigh*) no
Your Website: Wait. You don’t look like Frutke to me. Are you really supposed to be in here?
Hacker: Yessssh. I mean Yes! Here, let me try again.
You get the idea. We’ve helped our clients’ websites out by giving them ways to say “No, and get outta here!” a whole lot sooner.
If you have any questions about hacking, don’t hesitate to ask. We love to answer questions.