It is known by most of the followers of this blog that Yours Truly has been on sabbatical from politics since the day after the 2020 General Election. It was my intention to keep this unofficial publication up to date with viewpoints and happenings concerning life and times along the Mother Road’s most conservative stretch. That intention got derailed some two months ago when the website reasonreststop.com was suspended by Microsoft for suspicion of containing potentially malicious files. Other websites on the same server were also blocked with the same “ACCOUNT SUSPENDED” message. Even though I did not collect personal or financial data from site visitors and even though the spam filter seemed to catch every malicious contact, multiple attempts to contact Microsoft in an effort to resolve the issue were never answered and ultimately fruitless. It even vexed the well-seasoned tech savvy owner/administrator of the server who was the one who assisted me in establishing RRS in November 2014. He was the kind soul who, in six and a half years, never charged me for use of webspace. Given there was little that could be done about resolving the impasse, I ultimately opted to pay the money and move the website to a more secure server. For a non-professional poorly versed tech novice like a long time journal keeper with minimum of cyber tech competency, that turned into an ordeal of monumental proportion.
At first when I could not access the website, a feeling of extreme angst descended upon me. Being confronted with the prospect of losing some 251 blog posts dating back to December 2014 really got my attention like no other issue in cyberspace ever had. What’s more, I had nobody to blame for that loss except myself. In all the time I have been a keeping a blog, I had never taken any direct measures to save any website files on my own PC hard drive or elsewhere. The main take-away from this whole cyber security flail-ex is never underestimate the value of backing up one’s work. This cannot possibly be overstated. By whatever means one may choose, valuable things created via writing must be downloaded or transferred or hard copied and saved. I cannot begin to impart my sense of relief when it was discovered that at least the text files of all 251 posts made the transfer to the new server intact! Getting the media library graphics files transferred and uploaded have proven to be a bit more of a tall order. The entire move has taken on the appearance of an extended work in progress. It is however enough for me that when reasonreststop.com is keyed into the browser that an “Account Suspended” message no longer appears.
In the larger scheme of things, the woes visited upon this tiny corner of cyberspace are truly insignificant. Let it be duly noted that no person’s income, livelihood or living needs, not even my own, was or is dependent upon the function and availability of this blog or website. A sound argument can be made that I am also a victim even though my losses were infinitesimal compared many others who were shut down. That said, given the scope and depth of the cyber attacks and data breaches of the more recent episodes, I certainly feel like just an insignificant molecule in the universe. The problem is the threat of the same happening again is only increasing and even maximum preventative action is no guarantee it will not serve an ugly notice yet again. Microsoft is doing their level best to assert countermeasures against hostile hacking efforts and suspending website accounts suspected of containing malicious files include benign sites like this one along with verifiably reported problematic ones.
In hindsight, this was not the first time the life of Yours Truly was visited upon and inconvenienced by a cyber security breach. In the waning months of my work career, one of my erstwhile employers was struck by a facility-wide cyber hack resulting in complete shutdown of all computers in the place. The morning I arrived at work in another city and discovered that all exam room laptops were offline indefinitely due to a successful hostile breach and we were tasked to do our minute to minute recording of data the old school method of pen on paper, I came to the grim realization that we as a society had become too dependent on technology. It seems the entire organization had been hacked and there was no backup for their electronic records other than the manually generated paper trail. Perhaps some day enough of us who are engrossed in the online cyber culture and blogosphere will grasp and internalize the concept that if we value anything we create, a printed hard copy can last a much longer time.
As was stated above, Yours Truly has opted to pay up and move to a more secure server with available 24/7 tech support. No knock on the admin of the original server, but even though he was extremely competent regarding computer science and cyber issues, managing the server was not his primary occupation. Sometimes to resolve issues that only server admin could address required email correspondence. Response to them and resolution of the problem(s) often took a period of days and sometimes weeks if he was working out of town. In line with the rest of the World transitioning out of a pandemic year, I have also chosen to change the site appearance. Yes, all 251 post text files made the move intact. The Media Library files however are a different story, albeit not nearly as important as all graphic material is replaceable. Bear with me as I am still working to get the media files recovered and tweaking for a more optimal site. The larger take home from all this is cyber insecurity can and will adversely impact everyone unless kept a bay. Like everything else that goes with being a responsible adult in the cyber age, we have a duty to ourselves to keep our machines and data safe and secure. We must do what we can to identify and eliminate cyber threats when they present. Staying ahead of those who intend us harm requires multiple daily updates of our anti-virus programs and online security programs. If we lax our posture on cyber security, the hackers and foreign operatives with a vested interest in destroying our nation and our cyber infrastructure will be enabled to do so at will. Such is the bane of our existence in living out the post-pandemic dream. Please everyone, stay safe!
Me too.
Having lost materials myself several times over the years – and I’m referring to entire manuscripts, already compiled and in order – I can certainly empathize with your frustration and chagrin. For many years, long before my concerns with the internet, I’ve been concerned about our many vulnerabilities – specifically, our infrastructure. One of the first college classes I took was an environmental class, and we tested water at numerous sites across the city. Seeing the open ponds and the lack of anyone in attendance didn’t give me much confidence in the safety of our water supply. Same thing with our electrical grid – far too vulnerable to accidents and weather-related losses of power. It goes beyond being an inconvenience – the entire city of New Orleans is without power, and in this heat. Cybersecurity and hackers are especially unique, in that much of the damage can be done from a very remote location, and even the location can be hidden. There’s no accountability when you can’t put a face to the crime. So much private information has been exposed and lost, costing millions of dollars from the effects. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, there will come a day when what should be protected will be protected. Until then, criminals will do what it is they do best – wreak havoc. This is a well-written piece, and a thought piece, at that – it surely made me think, from a variety of angles.