Over the last two days, VeloUK has been off line (down) due to having been ‘hacked’ by cyber attacks according to its hosts 34sp.com
The last two evenings (Sunday and Monday), VeloUK.net has failed and not been available to readers due to having been hacked which in turn caused it to fail (crash). With no 24 hour support currently available from its hosts, that meant the site was down for the night. For this, I apologise to readers and advertisers but there was nothing we could do to rectify the problem once it had occurred outside of much huffing and puffing!
Since the second failure on Monday, VeloUK has worked closely with its hosts 34sp.com to identify the problem and to try and avoid it happening again. Running a website comes with many challenges and is a learning experience. After almost two years with no such problems (being hacked), this week saw all that change and we have been busy today (Tuesday) to try and ensure it doesn’t happen again. No promises but we have been busy!
Being ‘hacked’ is a danger that any website (or user on the internet) will face and as VeloUK’s expertise lies in what’s happening in cycling rather than in cyber attacks, we have had to rely on the help of the engineers at 34sp to try and avoid this happening again. For this help, VeloUK thanks 34sp.com for its advice on updating the website to avoid such attacks getting into it again.
Those who know VeloUK, will know we passionately believe in the service we provide and when we are denied the ability to provide that service to readers, we go a little over the top in where we lay that blame! So lessons have been learnt and we apologise to 34sp for the public criticism of them. On one hand, some of the blame lies with us for not understanding the importance of having certain things in place to prevent such infections (of course we have virus checkers on the computers!)
On the other, it was sods law that these failures happened when there was no support from our host available and I am sure those who know us will understand the stress of being so powerless in such a situation. The hosts 34sp.com have explained that they are addressing the issue of 24 hour support and that along with prudent updating of the site, such problems should be avoided in the future.
Let’s hope so because we put our heart and soul into the site and it’s just a little stressful when outside forces (yobs!) crash the site! Hopefully normal service will now resume … time to dive into the bank of interviews we have …
Thanks for your understanding and support!
