A couple weeks ago, a reader called to alert me that he was automatically redirected to another website when he posted a comment on one of our blogs.

Fortunately, his comment was posted.

Unfortunately, we realized we had a slight problem on our hands.

Within minutes, the Webmaster unmasked the owners of the website.  We tracked them to both North Miami and Wellington, Florida.

We immediately consulted our trademark lawyers to discuss the course of action we should take.

Our second call was to an internet security consultant.  He performed a full security scan and detected malware, which he promptly removed.

He advised us that malware (or malicious software) is designed to harm or secretly access your website or your website visitors without your knowledge.

The good news is that VotersOpinion is now malware-free.

The bad news – for the hacker, anyway – is that our digital forensic specialist knows exactly who did this … and how.

Oops!

The problem was fixed within hours of that first alert from a reader.  To the best of our knowledge, no one else was redirected to the hacker’s website.

However, if this happened to you, we’d appreciate your letting us know.

As you can see, the Webmaster and I take cyber security very, very seriously.  We are also very protective of our trademark and our product.  We will do whatever it takes to guard our website from hackers, spies, and malcontents.

And, no, we are not going divulge the name of the hackers’ website … or their identities.

At least not to our readers.

Suffice it to say, the Webmaster and I didn’t keep this info to ourselves.

Just saying.

Here’s the really cool part, though.

The internet security specialist told us that this type of malware is usually used to hack established, and nationally known media sites, not local bloggers.

Alrighty then.

Consider us flattered.

We must be doing something right.

Stephanie