Bad News Everyone…

Virus!

So as you notice, a lot of my posts here are contaminated with random links to “cialis” or “accomplia” or some other random enhancement drug. I did not put these links here. My host server confirmed that I caught a malware infestation on my domain possibly from uploading a malicious plugin, and recommended I purge and recreate my account from scratch! Don’t worry, as a reader, you won’t get infected by visiting or using this site.

As aucscope.com, now used regularly by the SGA, is also on the same hosting account, it too caught the malware, and has random “cialis” links on there. Although my host server backsup websites weekly, the only backup they have is my site already with the malware.

There’s 71 registered users on The Scope, which is a site that is now being visited more than 100 times a day. There’s 238 posts on Caribbean Med Student, with around 200-300 visits a day depending on the season. I’d hate to just purge everything I’ve created at www.caribbeanmedstudent.com and www.aucscope.com.

My future plans had been to separate AUC Scope’s hosting account from Diary of a Caribbean Med Student so that the SGA can directly manage it. One thing’s for certain… when both sites are restored (or recreated) to its original state, both sites will have to make regular SAVED backups and scans, and employ better security.

It’s unfortunate this had to happen at this moment. I have block exams for Pharm II and Behavioral II on Monday and I really don’t want to think about this at the moment. Anyone have any suggestions on what to do?

**UPDATES**

I’ve transferred my websites over to a new hosting company, bought SSL, SHH, Website Protection Scanner, and implemented other methods to make my site as secure as it can be. I’ve learned how to make backups of the database as well as uploaded files, and now regularly do backups. As the virus infected every post on my sites, I had to clean up every one of my posts from malicious code and rebuild my site from scratch. It was a hassle, but I’m now more confident my site is a lot safer now.