Bud the Teacher » Vandalism

I thought I broke my website. But maybe Google did.

Bud Hunt — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 19:24:51 +0000

On Monday, I installed Elgg .8 over at OldeSchoolSpace. It was a bold thing to do, as the code had just been released. But it worked great. I was really pleased with the way in which the new version handled files — it’s a better interface and we’re about to start uploading lots of digital stories. I tested out the file uploads, created some blog posts in our class community, and added some files. My podcast feeds were working great and all was right with the world.
Then, this morning, I went to the site to show my cooperating teachers how the file uploads work — and the entire class community was gone.
Completely. Absolutely. Gone.
So were three of the four other communities. I was floored, and certain that I mis-installed the software. I’m not so sure that I did.
The wonderful tech support folks at BlueHost helped me through pouring through the databases, looking for data. It wasn’t there — it looked like it was manually deleted.
Turns out it was.
I went through the raw access logs, looking for anything funky. These lines are some of what I found: #

66.249.72.52 – - [24/Apr/2007:20:32:47 -0600] "GET /speech/community/delete HTTP/1.1" 200 471 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
66.249.72.52 – - [24/Apr/2007:20:34:15 -0600] "GET /leadership/community/delete HTTP/1.1" 200 471 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
66.249.72.52 – - [24/Apr/2007:21:09:01 -0600] "GET /digistories/community/delete HTTP/1.1" 200 471 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)" #

I am only learning to speak the language — but it looks to me like Google found and executed the delete command for these communities.
Why’d that happen, and how can I keep it from happening again? My error? A flaw in the code? A malicious attack masquerading as a Google bot?
I’ve restored the old data and we’ve lost a few days of work — nothing too serious. We have backups of the student work. But before I reinstall the .8 code, I’m curious about what happened and would appreciate any response you can send my way. #

Sunday Night Social Subversion . . . postponed to Monday Morning

Bud Hunt — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 14:57:27 +0000

I’m curious to see if this idea works, in spite of the fact that I’m not sure I agree with it. #

(Actually, I wrote this post on Sunday night, but held off on publishing until I could reflect on some of the really good questions asked in the comments to Tom’s idea. Now that I’ve read this follow up by Tom, I’m definitely in, although there’s still much to consider when it comes to treating the web like a special episode of American Idol . . . or the US Congressional elections.) #

Bombs away. #

Martin Luther King Jr.
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Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. #

Moderation Off

Bud Hunt — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 03:49:00 +0000

Okay. Let’s try this again. Comments are now unmoderated. Feel free to comment away. Responsibly, of course. #

Wicked Evil Blog Spam

Bud Hunt — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 03:26:20 +0000

Due to a wickedly sinister, and seemlingly pre-meditated, comment spam attack, I’ve temporarily turned on comment moderation. My apologies for the foolishness of some misguided children. Hopefully, I can restore open commenting shortly. In the meantime, I’m moderating. #