We still haven’t been able to figure out the hacker situation. In a wonderful act of kindness, a husband of one of RATTLE’s readers offered to run a vulnerability scan on our web server — he found several major flaws with our web host’s software. When I confronted on it, they swore that it wasn’t them, that there’s a problem with our php, allowing script injections that are taking over our site.

Everyone thinks this is utter BS. I should just switch web hosts, but I’m worried that if it really is our php script, the hackers will just follow us, and all that hassle of changing providers will be for nothing.

So I spent the day building a new layout for the website, using only html. All of the important information is there — guidelines, sample poems, ordering info, etc — but the back issue archives would take far too long to re-code. We’re talking over a thousand pages. If after a few days we don’t get any hacker attacks, I’ll start adding more content back in — starting with the spring e-Issue, which is just about ready for release.

In the meantime, I guess I’m hoping for another hack — which would prove that it’s our host’s fault and not our code. I’d much rather run a pretty php site, obvious, and behind the scenes it will be easier to maintain.

So hackers: I’m counting on you. This time you won’t be a justification for my natural misanthropy…I’m hoping that doesn’t ruin the thrill. Put up something funny, if you could. I liked the couch scene from this afternoon.

_________

ps. I should also emphasize the fact that this hacking has no impact on our orders or the credit card information anyone may have sent us — this kind of thing is exactly why we use a third party vendor, and don’t take one’s credit card information ourselves. New orders are still secure, you just might have to click past two hippos humping to get to the order page.