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Went Hot: April 8, 2008 - 8:59 am
Posted By: onreact 88 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.deepjiveinterests.com)
Category: Blogging
And yes, one of my blogs was hacked too in a similar stealthy way a few weeks ago. They even inserted their own Adsense on my page.
21 Comments
Comments
In my opinion, SEOs aren't doing this...criminal %^$#@s are doing this. This is becoming a huge issue, and not enough people are realizing it. I really wish every one of these %^$#@s would be locked away in some dungeon for the rest of their miserable lives. And if anyone in our community is doing this type of despicable thing, I denounce you as an SEO, and call you a %^$#@.
Couldn't of said it better myself :)
It's not SEO it's hacking. No sure who the idiots are that get confused by this.
No one will get confused by this.
But as Google cracks down on other tactics, I would expect it to get more common.
I am with Patrick, why are we calling out SEOs here and not hackers/crackers? Once you cross the line U are no longer simply an SEO.
I have had to deal with these risks on a wide variety of sites (varied markets) from a number of different exploits. It is certainly not limited to some form of SEO espionage.
This is NOT about SEO... this is illegal
(I think.... where'd I put my 'SEO Standards' handbook?)
Of course people get confused by this. This is a perfectly web-savvy blogger writing about it calling it SEO. He's of course not the only one. Given the bad rep SEO has in the general public it just enforces wide spread prejudice against the trade. It's not me calling it SEO. It's everyone else out there.
I know you aren't calling it SEO, tad. I realize it's the non-SEOs who think this, and I wasn't trying to call you out on it. But I was trying to evoke a strong reaction with my comment, simply because I believe this is an EXTREMELY important issue that not enough people are really paying attention to. So, in order to make people stand up and listen, I wrote the comment, and then started promoting this particular sphinn post (via twitter, forums, etc.). I don't want people to focus on the seo vs. non-seo aspect of it, btw. That was just my tactic for getting people to read this post.
The hacking issue is a HUGE ONE right now, folks. Everyone should be totally focused on finding ways to stop the insanity. It's only going to get worse, otherwise.
Actually DD, as I mentioned a few times, the missus runs a web development co and this is a constant battle/concern and has been for a while. It seems more prevaltent likely because open source and other apps gained popularity among bloggers..... which attracts the bad guys. I assure you it is constantly going on (think of valuable sites such as ecommerce). This is simply being noticed/publicized more because blogs are being hit...
There is no such thing as a FREE lunch. If you have 'free' software for your site, diligence should be used maintaining patches and ensuring stability of 3rd part add-ons. If you don't have security immediate alerts via email, then set up a Google alert or RSS from the product update page of the app..... there is always a cost ;0)
I would also suggest removing footprints from them where ever possible to avoid the Ghackers random walk ;0)
..but this isn't about SEO, even if it is used for such...it crosses a line and is now hacking/cracking. If they crack U and load up an IRC bot... it is the same as SEO espionage... it is now in the land of the crackers and hackers.
My 2c
If it is targeted link building then it is per defenition SEO, however tactics like these are probably illegal.
Sorv is right... if targeted link building were the objective then yes, it would be hackers using SEO methods. He never says that SEO's hacked his site, and any confusion by anyone thinking that (sry onreact, but I mean you as well) comes from not reading his post. This is his exact quote where the term is used:
It clearly states that hackers are using SEO (the skill set), not that SEO's (the industry) are hacking sites. I think this submission title and description are both more than a tad bit misleading.
However... the issue is still a very important one, as this and the incident I reported on 2 weeks ago both clearly indicate that this behavior is rampant at the moment. We all do need to keep on our toes.
This process has been going on for months. Just do a search for 'WordPress Blog Hacked' and you'll see multiple instances. The solution since the hackers won't be persuaded to mend their ways:
1. Be continually vigilant.
2. Make sure your security is as good as it can be, so that other websites are easier targets than yours.
Yep, this is a discussion that's been going on for a while:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-isnt-hacking-and-data-security-tips
Bottomo line? It's hacking, but done for SEO purposes. We're not going to be able to separate the method from the aim very easily as an industry.
I just got hacked recently -- thought my blog was fairly secure ... boy was I wrong.
Now I'm thinking it was in the last 4 - 7 days ago and if it wasn't for a fellow SEO pointing it out to me I would not have noticed, Google has visited a couple of times since the hack and now today I'm tumbling drastically down the serps -- total freefall.
Happy Times eh!
@Mvandemar -- thanks for setting the records straight.
I'm Tony Hung, author of said article. Thanks to all who have Sphunn it.
Just to clarify:
I'm not accusing SEO's (people who do this for a living), merely saying that hackers are using SEO tactics, and are hacking WP installs with a *purpose*. It is to inject 'invisible' code (hidden by CSS tags etc) with tons of links on dozens (hundreds?) of different blogs to prop up one or two specific pages on other blogs -- by linking to those pages with keywords and the URL.
What happens in turn is that those specific pages -- say, on credit cards or loans, begin to rank even higher, riding on the pagerank of the links of those original blogs ... both the ones which have had those invisible links, *and* the blogs which unknowingly host said pages.
Presumably the hackers are profiting off the affiliate links that are on those pages.
The real downside? Its that your blog can get delisted from Google if you have too many (any?) of those hidden links. And it can take a long while (took me several weeks), even after you've cleaned up your blog (and upgraded it etc etc) for it to get re-enlisted.
Put another way for SEO's out there -- can you imagine if your client's site / blog was dropped from Google for this reason?
Thanks for the conversation, guys! (and gals)
Tony Hung.
To make anybody aware that is interested you can check the google cache of what they done to my site
http://tinyurl.com/6z6hvz
Look under the body tag and also right at the bottom of the page
Now Google has me stamped as a bad neighbourhood with my rankings in freefall
I understand the need to be vigilant now -- but to be honest I never really seen the need before (to my error) -- hopefully Google will be understanding and can quickly come to my rescue.
I have ripped everything out - and I am currently in the process of rebuilding everything, please check your blogs and that of your clients and also friends make them aware of what is happening.
Yes, I agree with Barry, this has been happening for almost a year now. After one of my sites got hacked on Christmas Eve, I researched and found evidence of similar activity on a wide scale going back to early summer 2007. Probably happening before that in smaller numbers, too.
It's not legitimate SEOs doing this, either. Check your logs -- most likely coming from China or South Korea.
My 2 cents... this is -not- SEO. It may use some the processes related to SEO, but it is not seo in and of itself. It would be like some thieving group stealing hubcaps, windows, door handles, etc. from various cars, trucks, etc. and putting together a finished product. These are not "car manufacturers" but some thing else, which uses parts of an established trade/process. I know some one has a word for it... but it isn't "car manufacturers" and in the case of SEO, these are not SEO services...
mvandemar: There is no need to offend me here. I did read the article and I read the SEO part at least twice. I wrote a title from the average Joe perspective. A person who can not really distinguish SEO and spam like most internet users probably will hardly follow your agument. So next time you better think twice about your own limited perspective before accusing me of not reading my own submissions.
Thanks Tony for showing up here. I never intended to make you feel guilty of being anti-SEO. My intention was to highlight that a normal user or blogger will not be able to view SEO and hacking/cracking as two seperate things. Anybody reading this will assume that the "SEO spammers" now also hack blogs. Of course we're all SEO apmmers for such people. Thus it is our task to make the difference known also among our own "slightly shady" ranks
Thanks Donna for the support, I appreciated your comment and understood it right from the start.
onreact, that is just flat out wrong. Most internet users have never even heard of SEO, and I promise you that when I tell normal people what SEO is I have never, ever, had one of them reply with "Oh, it's spamming?".
I didn't read it as someone with a limitted perspective, I read it as someone who understands the English langauge. Tony never said that he felt guilty, nor should he have, and nothing he wrote was anti-SEO. There was nothing misleading about what he wrote. The misleading part was in how you titled your submission, period. You basically accused Tony of claiming that people in the SEO industry hacked his site, which isn't even close to what he said.
Btw, you're taking some sort of stand that it would be above SEO black hatters that normally participate in this community to do this? People who are willing to create massive armies of splogs and pound our honest blogs with comment spam, hijack .edu pages just to gain better rankings, inject links into open .gov sites they find, and steal our content with scrapers... but somehow are stopped dead in their tracks by some sort of moral wall they hit when it comes to actually hacking our WP installs? Whatever bro. I'm not saying that every black hatter indulges in this kind of behavior by any means, but the people who are engaging in this type of activity definitely know something about SEO.
mvandemar: I don't know what exactly your problem is, but it seems you have somehow a personal problem with myself, I remember disrespectful remarks from you from other threads.
I do not think (hopefully) that I have to teach you how social media and social news sites are used so I guess there is another motivation behind talking in this manner.
I added my personal perspective to this post like I often do writing completely different titles and descriptions for my submissions.
I assume that if you feel personally attacked by my post to the point of wild accusations you must be one of those who advocate the "anything goes" paradigm. I don't care for that. Do what you like. But as long as you make other people associate myself and SEO as a whole with spamming and cracking techniques I will say NO, stop that, and I will raise awareness about that problem.
If you have a personal problem with me contact me personally to sort it out instead of presenting yourself in front of the community as the righteous teacher of SEO.
I don't see Michael's original comment as being a personal attack, Tad - he just said he thought the title and description was inaccurate.