I'm fairly new to website design and development and this, and my other site, www.TravelTipsParis.com, are all part of the learning process.

Despite making pretty good progress on my understanding of XHTML, CSS and the like, I was soon reminded of my "learner" status by a hacker attack on my other site last weekend. 

The hacker - whom I eventually tracked down to an Algerian web forum - had replaced by my homepage with a rather fetching skull and crossbones and a few rather choice expletives, and changed my password.  Cue panic chez Lund!

Thankfully my hosting company, the excellent 34sp.com, managed to sort the password issue and I managed to remove the offending .html files from the back end.

A quick google not only showed me that there was a loophole in the open source CMS I was using, but also showed me plenty of sites giving step-by-step tips on how to exploit it!

This raises a whole other issue about our - as web users / site owners responsibilityto enure we're not spreading malicious rumour or harmful content, but it also taught me a couple of lessons I'll not be forgetting any time soon:

1: research any CMS, plugin, or widget before committing to using it

2: Backup your site on a regular basis

3: You don't have to be a petrochemical giant to be victim to online attacks

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