s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

Last week, I spent a couple hours dealing with the piles of spam in our blog comments. I installed some countermeasures, and have a couple more to put in. I thought I was getting on top of it.

So now what’s happened ?

Someone has hacked into the Auroragames site and has been using it to send out typo-ridden, grammatically questionable spam advertising…

…wait for it….

Auroragames.

WTF?! Our web host is now convinced that we are Evil Spammers, and have shut down the site. They want an Explanation, and Assurances that It Won’t Happen Again.

I don’t even know where to start. I don’t know how to hack a site. I don’t know how to prove a site’s been hacked. Beyond changing all the passwords, I wouldn’t have the first idea how to prevent a site from being hacked again. Why would someone hack a site and make it send out advertisements for itself ? For the same reason people write email viruses, I guess. But what am I supposed to tell our web host ?

Do any of y’all have any experience with this ? Any advice ?

Help ?