Tech help request: My blog has been hijacked. How do I fix this?

Subject: Tech help request: My blog has been hijacked. How do I fix this?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 09:13:48 -0500

Dick Margulis wondered: <<I was alerted yesterday to a problem that apparently has been around for quite some time, although I was unaware of it (I wish folks had told me before). When some users access my blog they are bombarded with popup ads. As I've never seen these, I'm having trouble solving this... The blog is at http:// ampersandvirgule.blogspot.com/. If you do NOT see a popup when you visit it, you probably can't help me.>>

On the contrary: the absence of evidence is sometimes very strong evidence in its own right. Like several others who have tried your site earlier today, I also see no popups -- either with or without my popup blocker enabled. That means the problem almost certainly isn't with your blog or its host.

My best guess is that your correspondents are either unlucky with their antispyware precautions or oblivious to the need for such precautions, and as a result, have had their computers infested with any of the hundreds (possibly thousands) of programs in the adware category of spyware that are floating around for Windows users. So, in terms of troubleshooting, your first step should be to ask these people to find out what antispyware software they're running (if any) before assuming the problem is with your blog.

If they all claim to be running really good software and have updated it frequently, then you need to talk to your blog's host; possibly they've been compromised. WebRoot SpySweeper currently seems to have the best rating; Spybot's Search and Destroy and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware Personal edition don't rate well at all in recent tests, but they're among the most commonly used because they're free.

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Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca

(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)

www.geoff-hart.com

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Coming soon: _Effective onscreen editing_ (http://www.geoff-hart.com/ home/onscreen-book.htm)

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References:
Tech help request: My blog has been hijacked. How do I fix this?: From: Dick Margulis

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