On Friday, the second-to-last day of 2011, I discovered that this blog, Life in Pixels, got hacked. This was the first time in my five years of blogging that this happened to me.
I’ve always kept my WordPress installation updated to the latest version, and constantly update all plugins and themes that power this blog. Yet I was compromised. I still don’t know exactly how this happened; it could’ve been through the database that keeps this blog in sync.
So, after the initial shock when I discovered the issue, I managed to calm my nerves (and temper), and contact my hosting provider. We managed to re-set my site to a backup, and this brings me to the main point of this post:
As we enter this new year, I implore all my blogging friends out there to make sure that your blogs are secure. Make sure you have steel-strong passwords, security walls if possible, and, most importantly: backup your blog regularly.
After what happened to my beloved blog, I’ve made a pact with myself to download a local backup of my blog at least once a month. So, just in case this happens again, I feel safe in purging my site, and easily re-uploading it.
I do apologize to any of my readers who tried to access this blog over the past few days, and discovered rather inappropriate content displayed. I will aim to keep this blog as secure as possible. Thanks for the support you guys have given me over the past few years, and I’m excited to continue publishing quality content on Life in Pixels in 2012. Live Long and Prosper.
Life in Pixels 
Are you able to trace who the hacker is? Where he/she resides? how they know you?
It must have been such a shock for you. Glad it is all over now.
Hi Mrs Pratt
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find out who he/she/it was. I have a suspicion they’re from Saudi Arabia, as I was able to trace a strange site visit from that region when I logged into my Google Analytics account (the service I use to track this blog’s stats). But that’s as far as I’ve got; I’m just glad everything is back to normal and that I was able to salvage all my content prior to the hack. But this has certainly been a lesson learnt; I’m backing up this blog as often as possible!
Thanks for visiting 🙂
Rahul