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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Back on home ground.

Some of you may know that this blog was hijacked a few days ago, while we were in California, while my computer was in the shop for repairs. By the time we returned home and I discovered the coup, trying to get on board from my husband's computer, waiting to boot up a new computer we purchased, while all that was going on, we were recuperating from a nasty cold that made us curt and irritable.

The whole thing was very upsetting. I felt shut out, isolated, violated. These things happen all the time, to someone or other. Well, it happened to me, and I don't know how to prevent this.

Well, I'm turning this page and I'm moving forward. I started a new blog called anatomy of old age to dissect what happens to old folks during their last decades.  Not that I'm abandoning this home. I'm creating other spaces to expand my interests.  Have you visited my fiction blog? If you are a writer, you might want to see what I'm creating, called  http://schoolnotes-rosaria.blogspot.com

Of course, if you hunger for real food, you'll drop by my non-cookbook cooking at .http://lovingrealfood.blogspot.com

Glad to be among the living!
Now, off to visit my friends and colleagues.
Have a great day!

47 comments:

the walking man said...

So now I am confused where do I go to find the Rosaria I have come to know?

erin said...

i'm glad you're back, rosaria. deep breaths, right?

xo
erin

Rosaria Williams said...

Marc, I'm still here, cranky as always.

Grandmother Mary said...

Oh, yuck! Is there a way to prevent this? Sorry you're having to deal with such an ugly thing.

Anonymous said...

I guess I thought you'd totally lost this blog. But I see you didn't. So what happened? I'm confused.

But glad you're back. Life (including one's blog life) can get one down. But we do bounce back. We have to, don't we!!

Rosaria Williams said...

For five days the blog was being administered by someone else. They changed the password and I was no longer allowed in. I went to blogger and had to prove that this blog had been mine and had slipped off my hands, proving how and how often I blogged, when I started, etc, After a few days, I got help from Blogger and the blog is mine again. Ouch!

Carolyn Lackey said...

So sorry about your highjacking!!! Any tips on how to prevent that?

NitWit1 said...

You are the third person hijacked this month that I know. All with much larger followings than I. In fact I got one from a trusted blogger claiming to stranded in London, asking for money.

That one was a hoot, because the man was a writer, journalist and photojournalist who could buy me out of house and home.

All I know is to go private and invite those you trust.

One person who was hijacked had materials she was writing for a novel plus paintings is going private and inviting those of us she trusts. The thing is it is hard to remember to check. She thinks if you list on the Reading list in Blogger in Draft instead of your "Bloglist" front page, it is safer,....maybe. Now she has some artist using her first name.

What About The Girl? said...

I am very upset to hear this hijacking incident!

Arkansas Patti said...

I am confused also. Surely there is a way to prevent this from happening. Think I will do some research also.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

I once had my world of warcraft account stolen so I know how frustrating it is to discover your blog had been hijacked. Cyber criminals are everywhere.

Miss Sadie said...

Glad to know you're "back home," rosaria. We all had a bit of a scare, there — especially you.

ellen abbott said...

what a nightmare but I don't think they posted anything. Why would anyone want to do that anyway? Hijack someone's blog when all they have to do is start their own.

Rosaria Williams said...

Answering Ellen:

They (whoever that person was) posted three posts, one a repost, and two other from the internet. The biggest change was the advertising splayed all over. My son commented in one of his emails to me and that got me thinking that these folks hijack a blot with lots of followers, add advertising and begin to make money.

Remember the saying for the Watergate investigation? "Follow the money!"

Blogger does what it can to help us help ourselves, by asking for strong passwords, etc.

I guess we can change our password often and keep the wolves wondering.

Kathryn Magendie said...

Ugh! Awful, Rosaria! I'm so sorry that happened to you but glad you recoved your blog and all your posts, etc.

I swear - sometimes *shaking my head*

Unknown said...

I never heard of a blog hi-jacking! Glad you're back. I decided I can only follow so many blogs, so I'm dropping Loving Real Food to follow Schoolnotes. You already have me intrigued and wondering what happened to her husband!

Brian Miller said...

ugh what a nightmare..hope you are feeling better...off to check out your writing space...

Eleonora Baldwin said...

Ew, blog-jacking for commercial purposes sounds horrible. I've had that awful feeling when our house was been burgled and it felt like my private space had been raped!
Terribile!!

There has to be a way to prevent this, if nothing else Blogger should provide protection.

Off to visit the new blog now.

Cloudia said...

how did you solve it?

SO glad you are back where you belong (with us :)



Aloha from Honolulu


Comfort Spiral

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Velva said...

We always grow and evolve and so must our blogs. I will be checking out your new blog.

Velva

Natalie said...

OMG! I thought you just had a bad virus in your computer. :/ xx♥

Rosaria Williams said...

I solved the problem by contacting blogger when my access was denied because my password was no longer viable. I asked for assistance with the password and they took me through a couple of questions to verify who I was. I then set another password and the blog was mine again.

Kathryn Magendie said...

Rosaria - you know, I don't have a nonna- I was lacking in enough grandmother-love growing up, so I guess I either search for it in my characters, or I make the grandmother distant but loving, or completely crazy like my Maw Maw *laugh*.

The funny thing is - my son married an italian girl with a big italian family and she has a nonna - her nonna lives in california, just as Melissa's GM did! And her nonnna recently passed away. I didn't know about her, her family, or her nonna when I wrote the draft, and I didn't know her nonna would pass away soon after the book was finished and set to be released.

yaya said...

Geez, is nothing sacred anymore? I'm so sorry this has happened. This is very disturbing, almost making me want to not blog anymore. Hope it all stays good..I will check out your new site! Welcome back!

dianefaith said...

Very confusing. You said that there were three posts, one a re-post and two from the internet. Were those two from the internet your work?

potsoc said...

I thought you had gone commercial and the post had an air of "déjà vu". Glad it was not you.

Amanda Summer said...

rosaria,

i'm so happy to hear that you have your blog back. thanks for posting details in your comments about what happened and how you got it back -- very enlightening.

yes, as erin said: deep breaths now!!

xoxo

Patricia said...

Is nothing sacred!! Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again!

Marguerite said...

Welcome back! Wow, that's unreal! Do you know how they managed to change the password? And how did you contact Blogger? Can't wait to check out your new site! Cheers!

Nancy said...

I'm so sorry this happened to you, too. It happened to a friend of mine and I deleted my blog for over a week because I wasn't sure what was going on. Wow, I wonder what is happening??? Blogs under attack!

#1Nana said...

I think I'll head on over to my blog and upgrade my password! Thanks for the pointers...although I don't think I have enough followers for any sleezy blog thief to bother with.

ds said...

Glad to have you back. Hope you feel better soon (nasty colds going around this year). Now to check out that new blog of yours...

quilterliz said...

G'day Rosaria. That's a scary thought that a blog can be hijacked. I would never have thought of that happening. I don't think pinching my blog would benefit anyone, but there are some funny folks out there. Take care.

LindyLouMac said...

Oh my goodness this sounds awful I had no idea, I hope I did not visit this interloper!?

Maggie May said...

slyGlad you are back. What a terrible thing to happen.
Lets hope that the end of the problem.
Maggie X

Nuts in May

Maggie May said...

I had a problem with that comment and I didn't write SLY I wrote SO.
Wouldn't accept the comment for ages.
Maggie X

Nuts in May

Eddie Bluelights said...

I was very disturbed to see hackers have violated your blog. How dare they!! Alas several of our friends are experiencing intrusions into their blogs. Can blogger introduce a further layer or two of security to prevent this occuring?
Glad you have it safely back and up and running again ~ Eddie

An English Shepherd said...

Sorry to hear this, glad you are back :-)

Wizz

rjerdee said...

Hope you're staying safe...we're hearing that a tsunami may come your way...

Forrest Seale said...

I pray your home ground is firm, and that all the tsunami did was wave hello.

Man of Roma said...

Rosaria, I don’t know if someone said this here already, but having been a computer security expert one good weapon are strong passwords.

1) The longer they are the better (at least 10)
2) totally random and meaningless (no words or dates in them)
3) composed of these 3 elements, no one excluded:
3.1) letters (AbcDEfg) always both uppercase and lowercase
3.2) numbers (no dates tho we had said)
3.3) meta-characters, ie those characters that are neither numbers nor letters: *@£&# and so forth.

A password like that, say of 12 characters, is so long to break - since they can access also via web – that they’ll pass to another computer.

Your hard disk must also be encrypted with another of such super passwords, so even if they steal the computer ... (too long to explain though), but there are forums on the web for that.

Also watch out for the keyboard cable. In shops etc. they can stick on it small objects that send (or record in a small memory inside) data in clear text before encryption occurs (since Wordpress and Blogspot encrypt passwords I hope, I didn’t check)

Hope all is ok with the waves out there. I heard of the horrible earthquake in Japan.

Hugs from Roma Rosaria!

Giorgio Giovanni

Simon said...

I did not know that a blog site could be hijacked. Never considered this a possibility, like someone commented earlier, why not just start their own.

Hmmmm ...will have to strengthen my own password.

Glad that you got your site back.

Hope all is well at your end with what's happening in Japan. Just read that the tsunami hit California and Oregon.

Do let us know.

Rosaria Williams said...

The tsunami waves hit us around 7:30 this morning. We had received door to door calls at 4:30 a.m and evacuated soon after, moving in our SUV, coffee and blankets to higher ground.

The waves moved back and forth on the beach as though the low tide and high tide took only five-ten minutes. Waves never got too high here, but I heard that waves 8 feet high hit Crescent City, two hours south of us.

Port Orford has a strange port; boats are hoisted down into the water. So, no boats were lost.

Nothing else to report.
Thanks for your thoughts.

dianefaith said...

I'm glad to hear you're safe and that the situation seems OK in Port Orford.

Donna said...

How strange...blog-jacking!! Who knew??
I guess you could be very flattered...it IS THAT popular!! Blog envy!

Unknown said...

I thought I had posted a comment of sympathy but don't see it so it may have gone on to who knows...what an exasperating experience...glad you recovered..I've heard of this happening and it is jsut not any fun...glad you are back & the tsunami waves have not gotten to you!

Dimple said...

I'm glad you got your blog back, and it sounds as though it wasn't too difficult. But why people have to prey on others is beyond me...

I'm also glad you were spared the destruction that some have experienced. The ocean is a powerful force!