The Hard Work for Our Online Reputation

My Brooklyn Report has been under attack for some time now, threatening to damage our online reputation.

It seems that each time we’ve attempted to launch our short sales e-workbook for download, our site has been found to contain malicious code injected into our database by a pharma hack.

We’ve been aware of this since the summer began, but only recently have found the tools and resources needed to keep this from happening again.

It’s important that we have these measures in place so we can continue bringing you the online real estate guide to Brownstone Brooklyn.

If you would have told me that we’d be battling a sophisticated online hack at My Brooklyn Report, I would have laughed you out of the building.

I couldn’t have imagined our little site being the center of some hacker’s attention in any way possible.

But after seeing our Alexa ranking below, I guess it doesn’t pay to be naive about our place on the Internet.

While our site doesn’t see the kind of traffic others do globally, to be ranked where we are was quite an accomplishment since 2009.

After speaking with a few pros in the web security business, it was explained that our site was exactly the kind targeted by hackers because of how focused the content is on a subject matter and the audience that trusts it.

Right then I knew I hadn’t been as aware as I should have been about our standing on the Internet.  All this time I thought I was writing to a few people a month who happened to be interested in Brooklyn real estate.

It was then that I was pointed to Quantcast that put it all in perspective for me, as you’ll see below:

For the first time I realized there were more people visiting and reading the content we published here than imagined.

After coming to terms with what I had just learned, it was important for me to make sure none of our site visitors would be exposed to any malware, phishing, adware or spyware that could be installed without our knowing.

Here are some of the changes we’ve implemented and others to come:

• Strengthen login passwords for editorial staff
• Identify spam commenters who have links in their remarks carefully
• harden web site database to prevent illegal intrusions
• retain web service to monitor site 24/7 for any unauthorized changes
• join Web Of Trust community to allow user surveys on trust factors for website

We’ve taken great steps to avoid any further hacking episodes here so we can resume delivering the online real estate guide to Brownstone Brooklyn you’ve come to expect from me.

All of the above measures will be fully implemented on October 10th, which will allow us to finally set up the Short Sale E-Book download worry free.

I want to thank you for the trust and confidence you’ve shown our efforts to date and let you know from the bottom of my heart how much I appreciate your readership here.

I don’t plan to take it for granted ever again after having the above bought to my attention.

See you back here soon .