Website Hacked on the 31st of Dec, restored on the 1st of Jan- An interesting start to my New Year

On a regular day

It was a lovely end to the New Year and a great morning on the 1st of Jan. As I've done for many years before, I managed to click the last sunset of 2013 and the first sunrise of 2014 as well.

No appointments on the 1st morning meant that I could  actually de-clutter, so I tackled my phone, laptop, I pad and camera, ensuring that only the 'must have' files and pics were retained on those devices and  the rest filed away methodically or deleted entirely.

So far so good. 

Lunch , followed by groceries, stopping at my favourite spot  on a hill overlooking the sea to click the first sunset of the New Year as well.   

Later that evening, I settled down to answer e mails and review a few things that I wanted to add to my  website 

http://www.sunainasernaahluwalia.com/

which I've had for the last three years.

Dealing with that on the first day of the New Year seemed to be a good thing and so I clicked on the link. To my shock, this is what I found on the page. It had been hacked and the hacker had even left his name on it. A strange, hysterical thought arose in my mind as I recalled a particular scene in the James Bond movie 'Skyfall' where M  played by Judi Dench returns to her office and sees her computer, looking really odd. A hacker had taken over and had left his calling card- a joker's face....



And here's what my website looked like...

The hacked page 

The video with Arabic music playing as a backdrop against a black page

I  thought about it for just over a minute and then 'Whats app'd' Mohit Bhalla of X Pert Net Technologies, New Delhi, who had built this website for me  in 2010 when he was at Webcommerce. 

It was about 8 pm my time which would make it 930 pm IST and he could have been doing anything but he responded within seconds. In fact as soon as he had understood  the situation,  he offered to tackle it with me right away. 

Looking for help and finding it via 'Whats app' in another country, I really couldn't have asked for more!

We then worked on it non stop from our individual locations- Muscat and New Delhi respectively for about 45 minutes and I felt a huge sense of relief when I saw it back up and running. 

Restored after we worked on it for 45 minutes.Thank You Mohit!

So you see, there's really no way one can tell what lies around the very next corner.On that note, here's wishing all of you a very Happy New Year!