Yeah.  That’s I right, I said it.  Yes, this is a family oriented website, but from time to time I do say things that are little explicit and straight to the point.  Hackers Suck.

On Saturday night, it was brought to my attention that my site may have been compromised.  Two huge shout-outs here: 1. To all my Facebook/Blogging community colleagues and friends who immediately tried to help me solve the problem, and 2. To the most rocking-est “web guy” I know…Mr. Joey Hall.  He designed my entire blog for me, set up my email account, my analytics, my security.  The guy is awesome.  And he is even more awesome because he was in the middle of working on a huge project and with a few cries for help on Twitter, FaceBook and Text, he responded quicker than you can say, “Hackers Suck.”

I would like to apologize to any vendors, companies, contacts who stopped by to check out my site via my request and found nothing but a, “You’ve been hacked,” site.  I lost a few opportunities because of this, but I learned a few quick lessons.

1.  Change your passwords often.  Even if you think they are strong and unbreakable, this is the hacker’s job.  There are programs and insane, unimaginable ways for them to break your site.  And, if they compromise one site, it’s not that hard to compromise the rest.

2.  Update, Update, Update!!  I may have been told this by the Amazing Joey Hall, but with two babies hanging on me, kids running around and screaming, it went in one ear and out the other.  Update whenever your site sends you notifications to do so.  I didn’t know I was to physically go in and click on the update link to actually update my site.  So, I never did.  This weakens the security system of your site and leaves you vulnerable and exposed to those deviant viruses that can turn your life upside down.

My fist post back was supposed to be about my daunting move and how I was never, ever going to move 6 people again!!  But, alas, I guess the universe had bigger things for me to discuss and share with you all.

Again, thank you friends and colleagues for your support.  And thank you, the Amazing Joey Hall for saving my ass!!

If you are looking for your own amazing “Web Guy” check out Joey’s business at DeadMan Productions.  He’s an expert in web, graphics, illustration and video production.  I cannot even begin to tell you…he took the reins, dealt with my host company, re-installed my entire site and it is like brand-new (minus a few broken links, but seriously, whatever, I have my site again!!)  I know he didn’t get much sleep trying to get this done because he had to move right back into a new project today.  Joey is super polite, honest, and listens.  He works with you to get you exactly what you are looking for (and I’m quite picky and opinionated).  It’s hard to work with art guys sometimes because they have a vision and you have a vision, but Joey is awesome.  He did exactly what I wanted and took it to the next level and made it even better.  Very talented and professional.  And, the Southern accent and laid back personality is just a bonus!  Check him out…I swear you will be happy you did!

Have you ever been hacked?  What were some of the lessons you learned from it?