security | writenowcolumbus

Please Support “Write Now Newsletter”

by Theresa Garee | Jun 2, 2017 | Blog

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill

I hate to ask for money. I cannot remember a time in the fourteen year history of Write Now Newsletter when I directly asked. The newsletter has been my community service, a gift to central Ohio writers since January 2003.

There have always been expenses. I pay for faster internet, jangomail email distribution at $25 a month, site hosting (about $100 a year) and the domain name ($11.99 a year). These costs add up, but I was always able to pay them.

Then my site got hacked.

Fixing it has been astronomically expensive and time-consuming. Here’s a short list of the least costly items we implemented: website firewall and security monitoring system for $199 a year, new web host for an additional $100 this year, moving four related web domains for $50 a year, plus a virtual private network for $39.95 a year.

But I’m not tech savvy. So when I say “we,” I mean my web person. As a consequence, the biggest expense was the incredible amount of time this very well-trained, extremely professional, uber-responsive woman spent investigating what happened, removing all sorts of malware and malicious coding, recovering my data, and getting the site back on its feet.

How much time you ask? SEVENTY-EIGHT HOURS! And I know she did this because we communicated while she worked. The bill was $7,800 including a discounted hourly rate and hours she didn’t bill at all.

It was an awful hack.

If you enjoy receiving the newsletter, please support it by clicking this link. This unusual situation demanded drastic measures which resulted in huge, one-time expenses. I won’t hold out a hat again any time soon. But I am now. A virtual hat.

The link takes you to paypal which allows you to use a credit card or pay from your checking account. You don’t need a paypal account to use it. If you would rather mail a check, email me at nita@nitasweeney.com and I will happily send you my snail mail address. I’m too paranoid to post my address anywhere on-line. It had been on my site, but we took it down.

I value each and every one of you whether you support the newsletter or not. But if you can, I would truly appreciate it.

The Things We Cannot Change

by Theresa Garee | Apr 6, 2017 | Blog

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change/Courage to change the things I can/And wisdom to know the difference.” – Reinhold Niebuhr

Write Now Newsletter, the email monthly listing of central Ohio writing events I publish, is late this month. I’m very sorry. It usually goes out on the third and takes appropriately three days to prepare. I spent most of those three days plus two more in bed with an “unspecified viral infection” aka a really really really bad cold resulting in a hacking cough, sore throat, chills, nasty nasal congestion, a screaming headache, and a fever that made my eyes blurry. (The urgent care doctor ruled out influenza types A and B as well as strep throat even though I thought I was dying.) After four days in bed, tonight I finally took a shower and thought I was ready to finish the newsletter.

That’s when I discovered my website had been hacked.

I’d had a hint something was amiss last Friday when my page went blank for a few hours, but the company that hosts my site said the server had been down and the site came back up looking fine so I wrote it off. But tonight when I tried to log in and post the updated listing of writing events, the dashboard was not functional. Someone (not me and not anyone authorized by me) had been very busy behind the scenes.

Thankfully my trusty web person (and lovely individual) was awake and at her phone. She spent several hours undoing the hacks, setting up more security measures, and translating logs to help me understand what happened. She believes it was random, nothing personal, but it was complicated to undo.

So again, my apologies to my newsletter subscribers (over 1,800 of you!) for the delay. Thankfully I don’t house any email information on that site so none of you are at risk. I hope you find things working properly when you visit.

And with that, I shall go back to bed.

NITA SWEENEY is a writer, creative writing teacher, and editor of Write Now Newsletter. She lives in central Ohio. Follow her on Facebook! Subscribe here to the monthly newsletter!