Here is probably one of my most interesting posts, however not fun because it is happening to me. The background is that I noticed the traffic to my site last week spiked in specific areas. Then this week, today, I dropped out of google results and I noticed this as the stats of this site, longest.com, dropped dramatically and the only area decreased was from google search. I have been attacked.

Website Attacked
I was talking to a friend of mine today and mentioned it in passing, as I live right outside Washington DC it seems all my lifelong friends work for one security firm or another. He thought I may be the victim of some sort of website attack. While I have been programming since I was a kid, security was never my forte, I still did not understand half of what he was saying.

My Buddy Loved It
Being in the online security industry this peaked his interest so I sent him the log files, I just got an IM as we are both up late and through the power of skype we had an immediate conference with him and 5 others. He thinks it’s great, he loves to solve a mystery and apparently it’s criminally prosecutable. I have to look that up, as I am an attorney I have not practiced for years but am licensed in VA and in Federal court as I assume this may be a federal court issue. Maybe this will be the catalyst to reinstate my license.

Here We Go!
After I got over the shock of thinking that someone actually did this on purpose, after all it makes sense as I dropped completely out of google rankings instantly, I have to admit this will be a fun mystery. Now that professionals are taking a look at it I feel much better. Let me know if you have had similar attacks on your site, what you did and the outcome.

More to Come
As I have never posted or worked in the security field this will be an eye opener for me and I will continue to post updates as well as ways to attempt to prevent it. Also, if my friend allows me I will let you know when and how we caught the individual(s) involved.