Category Archives: Site Updates

I checked my email yesterday to see a notice from my host about how one of my websites, Lyrical Musings, was acting as a phishing scam. It seems that someone gained access, changed a bit of code in my main theme and uploaded a couple dozen directories to use my website as part of their phishing activities. I hadn’t noticed, because I don’t often update it. In fact, WordPress came out with a pretty recent security update, and I was on the ball with my other three websites that use it, but totally forgot to update my writing blog.

Someone must have fallen for the phishing scam and then reported it to the actual website, who then took the time to contact my host and myself. My host immediately shut down the website, and I went to work, because I was at the computer right when I received the email. Although they didn’t touch my WordPress database, they’d uploaded a bunch of files, so I logged into FTP to delete those. I then manually updated WordPress and reinstated the website, so that I could update any plug-ins, all of which were up to date.

I was receiving an odd error, so I ran through all my WordPress files that I hadn’t updated to see if that was any inappropriate code, and I found a single line in the beginning of the index for my main theme. I deleted it, and everything is safe now. In the grand scheme of things, I’ve only personally been “hacked once” in over ten years, so I’m doing okay. The hack was also pretty weak. They accessed no passwords, and didn’t lock me out. I didn’t need to do a complete roll back; although, I could have.

There were a few lessons to be learned anyway:

• Just because you don’t frequently update a website doesn’t mean it’s less of a target. In fact, that may very well be the reason it is a target.
• This is why it’s so important to update all your scripts.
• Scripts as popular as WordPress take security seriously, but can only do so much if you don’t update your stuff.
• You may not necessarily notice that you’ve been hacked. It could take several weeks, if you don’t frequently check the website.
• Every single anti-virus company has a tool to check websites for compromises (although, efficacy varies).

Have you ever been hacked?

So I’m not super rich, bitchy or dumb–well, maybe bitchy–but you can keep up with me in a variety of ways, you know.

• Grab my feed and stick it into your RSS reader, Google home page or feed app on your phone.
• Subscribe to my blog on your Kindle. It’s just $.99!
• Go mobile. Her Realm now uses an awesome mobile app that should autodetect your phone, tablet or other devices.

It’s been a long time since I’ve changed themes here at Her Realm. It’s been even longer since I made one myself. The previous theme was premade, and it served me well. However, I got an idea in my head, and it actually came to fruition. This layout actually progressed in a natural and easy way. The changes in HTML and CSS since I last made a layout made me squee in a nerdy way. It’s so much easier to do some things.

Quite a few hours went into this layout, although it might look quite simple. I spent 45 minutes looking for one specific shade of green, for example. In the end, I’m quite pleased with it. I think it even fits my content better.

As I updated pages, I fixed a few broken links, re-organized the sections and updated information–especially information about me. There are still a few quirks. For example, I need to fix up the 404 page.

Unfortunately, if you’re viewing this on a mobile device, you don’t get to see the new layout. HTML5 just isn’t mobile friendly, it seems.

The resources used include Peacock palette, Retro flower brushes and Bulb social media icons.

I’ve been doing some clean up ’round these parts. I’ve deleted a couple dozen pages and even more files that were unnecessary. I’m going to be consolidating some sections and re-organizing some of the content to highlight the focus of this site. As much as it is my blog, I have also always wanted it to be a resource and I’ve had some dated and unnecessary clutter that covered up some of the usefulness of the site. I’ve held on to some stuff for too long, mostly because it’s hard for me to let go of things I’ve worked so hard on, but what I want the site to be now isn’t the same as what it was and I’m excited to redefine it a bit.

There’s been some minor modifications to some pages. A typo here, a broken link there. I’ve gone through many of the pages of the site in the process and I’ve rediscovered things I’ve forgotten and perhaps a little bit about myself. I recently raided the Livejournal icons pages to upload a new avatar to Daydreamz, for example.

Anyway, it’s not exciting or anything but it feels good to dive back behind the scenes.

I’ve been making tons of shop items and banners lately. I don’t know why but I made this batch for Her Realm and The Scrolls (the blog). I haven’t added them to the site pages yet but feel free to use them to link me!