Today is a sad day. My ENTIRE website (html, css, graphics, design-down-to-the-last-detail) has been hijacked by an Indonesian company called Terminal Pulsa (http://www.tp-makassar.co.cc/home.htm). I found out about this hijack after sifting through my Google Analytic results. I saw that I’ve been getting about 28 hits a day from an Indonesian website as well as Google Search hits from keyword phrases such as, “Terminal” and “Terminal Pulsa”. Thankfully, I’m curious by nature and investigated this odd behavior.

My first string of thoughts went something like this, “How dare them! I worked hard on this site! It’s dedicated to my grandma, who I loved with all my heart. AND I’m even in the process of giving to charities! Why would someone think this is okay to do?!” Quickly followed by, “Great, this place is overseas and surely they do not hold to the same legal standards as the United States.”

Please note that I am NOT a lawyer (thank God), but the following information below should really help you out if you ever have this happen to you!

Crap, I was hijacked. What do I do now?

1. Chill out. This is obviously easier said than done as I always thought when someone copied my work I’d be flattered. Sadly, I wasn’t.

2. Find their contact information. Use http://www.iptools.com or your favorite WHOIS tool to find out who the heck owns your website’s evil twin. I had some trouble finding mine because it didn’t have a “.com” address; my hijacked website contained a “.co.cc”. If you have one of these oddities, you can check the WHOIS at this website: https://www.co.cc/whois/whois.php. Along with finding contact information, you can also find out who their web host is. Once you find out this information, you can send a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter to them as well as contact their hosting provider if you are so inclined.

3.  Send a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter. Once you have the appropriate contact information you can send a Cease and Desist letter. The Cease and Desist letter I used is located here. It’s not pretty looking, but it did the job. There are lots of other Cease and Desist templates out there, so have a look around for one that fits your needs. The purpose of a letter like this is to establish professionalism rather than the very vocal ‘take-my-website-down-now-you-jerk-wad’ kinda email (which will probably not prompt an intelligent response anyway). The Cease and Desist letter also uses legal jargon as well as a perceived valued fine, both which will probably scare the bejesus out of your website hijacker.

4. Ask for help! This blog post is only one of hundreds of resources available online. When I was hacked today, I reached out to my twitter friends and my AMAZING Link Queen, Angie. Everyone was super helpful.

Oh noes! The hijackers didn’t listen to me! Now what can I do?!

1. Tell all the search engines how much of a big jerk they are (aka REPORT THEM!) You MUST try a Cease and Desist letter first. I repeat: try a Cease and Desist letter first! This usually fixes the problem within 24 hours, and it’s a helluva lot easier than contacting search engines one by one by one. If this doesn’t work, then you can report them (see below!).

As we all know, copyright laws in India, China, or even the UK are not the same as the laws here in the United States. Thankfully for us, almost all search engines will recognize rip-offs and fakes. The only catch is that you have to provide proof… but that should obviously be easy. The downside is that Google doesn’t make it easy (or quick) to report this type of activity. This was disheartening to me, considering almost all of my keyword search traffic comes from Google. Almost all the other search engines allow you to report these cases via email. Google forces you go through a third-party company, which makes you either fax (that’s so 1990) or snail mail (are you serious?!) your claim to them.

But… I’m STILL really mad!

1. Don’t be stupid! It’s alright to be mad, but beyond calling attention to this matter in your personal blog (as I did) do not go plastering the hijacking all over the internet. Oddly enough, you can get sued for what I call slander. Weird, right? So be careful.

Prevention.

1. Hide that code! If being hijacked has left a nasty taste in your mouth or if you are scared of this happening to you, there are things you can do to try to prevent this from happening. One thing you can do is encrypt your code. Have a look at this website for more information on code protection.

Other helpful links!

What to do when someone steals your content
Tutorial: How to hide your CSS files
Protecting your website from theft
The webmaster’s theft resource by SitePoint
302 Redirect hijacking prevention

Posted in Internet Safety, Freelance, News |

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