Last week as you guys were aware, this website has been hacked. Or cracked, as some calls it. Contacted my Webmaster. She told me she was aware of it and trying to get the blog up online. I told her to contact the hosting provider. She tried but no response the first time. She sent an e-mail through the provider’s login dashboard but no response.

I used to know this provider way back years ago. Then, they were the best known service provider in the region, if not in the world. Call them at anytime of the day for help. Few rings and there will always  be someone there to pick up the call and help and solve your problem with the best security. Now? They sometimes don’t pick up your call, mails sent and still no response. With help from external, finally someone replied.

Later my webmaster called again and somehow got through. They asked whether she had already sent an e-mail. She said yes and they checked whether the fact is true. After verifying that an e-mail has been sent, they told that they will be looking into the matter.

After few hours, they sent an e-mail saying that the blog was already accessible. It was good for few hours only when the hacker got back in and hacked this blog again. This happened for few days, it was up for few good hours, then down again. Up, down, up, down…

Some of our files were gone. Reason being: I was doing my work online and when connection is lost, the files is lost for good. Does that means that I have to save all my pictures on cd, mail them home and someone from your office will update that for me?

I have updated my blog from up in the mountains in Leh, India,with 33.6 modem, disconnected god know how many times but still, the files are there. WordPress saved my posts automatically. I can always log in later and continue writing.

And some guy thinks I am a fool to buy his reason for missing all my files.

The provider told me that they are sorry that they could only recover the files until 25 Sept; the last date that they backed up our files.

But in the login dashboard, the message received was somehow admitting that it was their mistake:

Dear Hadi,
Your website has been successful accessible but it was on the latest which is on 25th September 2010 due we facing some issue. Do let us know if need further assistance. Thank you and have a nice journey.

So, ok, our files are gone. Kapish. Hilang, Tiada. Nada.

And guess what? The provider is compensating by giving theirr Embuzz email marketing EM15K package worth RM899 free for a year. With this package, I can use it to manage my fans/clients emails and send newsletter or marketing emails up to 15000/month complete with detailed report.

But really, what good does e-mail marketing do to me?

They promised to send a report within a week. Still no sign. We managed to get two of our files back but then our website has been hacked again. The two posts we’re just uploaded had gone missing.

Contacted them and still no reply. No response. We had to contact someone from external to get to them. And again, sorry is just the word.

We tried again to recover and posted what has been deleted but again, our posts has been deleted. I wonder what’s really going on in there. The provider migrated our files to a new server but didn’t back up our two latest posts we had just added. Or was it, it has to be a week before they can back up the two posts?

Imagine banks, public listed companies, goverment files. Oh, not to forget that our Prime Minister blog and website is hosted there too. Just so you know, they back it up everyday. But for those you have small budget, you only get your data updated once a week.

What security measures do they have for us? The rest of the clients? Too easy to be hacked? cracked?

Anyway, after waiting and complaining and getting the top person from the company to look into the matter, finally I got a reply from this guy. E-mailed back and forth and the best part is, he wants to call me here on my roaming Malaysia mobile phone number to explain and tell me what is going on. Who will pay for my roaming bill? And he sent me an e-mail telling me how much effort he and the team has put up to put back my blog online.

Hmm, it’s hosted in your server. Isn’t that is your job? You lost my files and your server is infected and hacked by someone out there. Why tell me you are wasting your time to get it back online. It’s your job. Tell that to our prime minister lah that he is wasting your time,  if it’s his blog has been hacked.

How about our time lost recovering and putting it back and bringing it up to speed? Free?

And the best part is, I dont know this guy, never met him, never heard of his name, he told me that he has been paying for my trip. His organisation has been paying for this event. Eh, brother, wake up lah. How on earth you pay for my trip and for this event? Trying to declare that you are the funder and the man behind the scene? With one year sponsored vulnerable hosting of RM399? You lost all my files and you offered me free e-mail marketing program and said that it’s worth all my missing pictures and stories.

Hello brother. You can never get the missing files and missing pictures again. A moment gone is gone forever. Writing another post for the same story wouldn’t be the same. And claiming that you pay for everything for this trip is the biggest joke I have ever heard.

If you really want to be famous pon, not this way la brother. Lembu punya susu, lembu punya susu lah. Bukan lu punya susu.

But I guess u sound like the sheperd lah now, claiming to be the origin for the milk. I am not sure if you are the fan of P. Ramlee’s movie, but it reminds me of you.

Which one?