Portland Webhosting server hacked

16th December 2005

That’s right - our webhosting server was hacked, and I’m not trying to hide it. Instead, I’m writing this to brag about how quickly the problem was discovered, and how quickly it was repaired and locked down again.

It started back in August of 2004, all my personal domain names were on an old hosting account with an insecure password. At that time, a hacker got in and defaced the index page of all of my personal sites.

The way he got in was to exploit a security hole, and to be honest, he did no real damage, and actually did us a favor by pointing it out. We quickly got it patched up, and repaired the pages, and all was well…or so I thought.

Cut to December 2005… it happened again. How? Well, even though we’re more on top of our daily security patches these days, it appears our hacker friend left himself a “back door” program so he could get in again some day, which either he, or someone else used this week.

Even though PDXTC is a web hosting company in Portland, I do not work on or maintain my own server equipment. That would be like me working on my own car or lawnmower engine, which I’ve learned not to do!

Instead, I’ve chosen to colocate those webhosting servers to a company called We Host Webpages, and I have done with complete satisfaction since April of 2002. The business is run by former employees of Cyber Exchange and MPH Computing, named Robert Rolfe and Justin Albrecht, and they are truly masters in their field.

Within 10 minutes of my frantic phone call to them, not only were all of the defaced websites repaired, but the back door program left behind was identified and slammed shut by Rob and Justin.

So…this is a public hats off and thank you to We Host Webpages, whom I consider to be the best web host in Portland, and that’s why they manage my stuff.