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Before I tell you what to do if you get hacked - and how to prevent it - here’s a short, funny story.

So there I was, thinking, “I can finish my long-overdue update to my book and then, I can try that thing they call sleep. Then I’ll finish my toolbox tips”.

I went to do a final check on my sites before I continued on my merry way and guess what.

I got hosed, Timmy. Someone with way too much time on their hands hacked my PHP-Nuke section. Oh, the shame of it!

Shame on me for forgetting to do the security updates to my PHP-Nuke installation after the last upgrade.

But, I’m a techie, I knew what to do… I mean come on, I used to work for the IMF. Only my busy schedule kept me from remembering to do something this basic, though I was prepared for the worse case scenario as a back up.

I’m a fanatical back-upper, so even if I hadn’t caught them in the act, I would have been fine, because the only thing that keeps me from using my knowledge for evil is that pesky “conscience” thingee I have. I just couldn’t do that to someone, especially someone who is trying to help people… Hell, I won’t even download from Kazaa anymore.

So, that’s why I was delinquent in my free traffic posting. And here’s your continued tip from yesterday… a whole day late, I’m sorry.

Tool Tip #2 - Backup and Security

The first place you should go for basic study is The Web Host Industry Review’s Security section for webmasters. There are tons of articles there telling you what horrors exist that you probably don’t even know about, and how to recover from them.

Here are some back-up tools from SnapFiles.com - some are free. Doing it on your PC is not enough, you then want to back up your PC to CD.

Snapfiles also has all kinds of Security Tools.

Here’s an article called Seven Ways to Protect Your Site From Hackers - wouldn’t have helped me but I would add to that - change your passwords often. I know we already have a lot to do as webmasters and small business owners, but it’s worth the trouble. I like to use random password generators for this,

Here’s hack help for your PC, from Microsoft.

Got Linux? Try here.

Don’t have one for Mac yet - though no Mac I ever had or was near ever got hacked… coincidence? I think not.

I miss Macintoshes…

If you’re running a network, you might find tips at TechRepublic helpful.

Here’s hack help if you are using PHP - important things to remember.

And if you have PHP-Nuke, 3 things that will save your butt are the instructions for what to do if you’ve been hacked, the security patch files for each release, and a security program called The Protector. They have another article called Lock down your web site and other stuff in their security section.

If you get hacked in any way that relates to the web and you live in the US you can get the government to help you prosecute.

Get IP addresses if you can - I keep mine on record for this purpose solely… I know I’m not supposed to be vengeful.

But I really, really am. Sometimes I wait years for payback. I really need to lighten up.

Think it can’t happen to you? It can. There’s an article up today about the dark side of Google’s powers - unintentional on their part I’m sure - that can tell a good hacker your site’s vulnerabilities.

And you don’t have to get hacked for your web host’s servers to crash and lose your site. Just happened to one of my members. Luckily he found a resolution - if you don’t you can try The Way Back Machine for recovering html pages they way they used to be before you crashed.

At bare minimum, back up your site. I’ll have more tools for you later on…. ta for now…

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