Scot’s Newsletter Blog

It’s taken a lot of work to get there, but the curtain has raised once again on Scot’s Newsletter Forums after a hiatus of more than three weeks. The closure, like the locking of this blog to comments and new registrations, was caused by hackers who were able to repeatedly access these sites via FTP. Both blog and forums have been moved to a new webhost and their underlying applications have been fully upgraded.

If you’re a frequenter of the forums, drop by and help us beta test the new forum software, configuration, and customizations.

Now that the forums are back open, the migration to the new host is complete. I’ve learned a lot from this less than happy experience. I’ll pass along some of my lessons learned in future blog entries.

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Good news! Scot’s Newsletter Blog is back in business. I have removed the registration block and reinstated the ability for registered readers to comment. Thanks for your patience.

During the hiatus, the blog was moved to a new webhost and was updated to the latest version of WordPress. Those jumps represent a major upgrade to the site, and I’m still working out some minor kinks. Please report any issues you may find by posting a comment to this thread or by sending me an email. Much obliged.

Welcome back. It feels good to be in business again.

– Scot

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All –

Over the last several weeks, the Scot’s Newsletter sites have been fending off attacks by hackers and exploits.

So far as I know, there has been no loss or exposure of private data or permanent damage to any of the sites.

I have temporarily shutdown the forums and closed the blog to all new comments and user registrations until I’m reasonably sure that the visitors and data are safe.

I can’t tell you how long that will take. But I have enlisted the help of security experts to review the situation and advise me.

I’m taking this opportunity to improve security and reliability on the sites.

For now, the blog and Scot’s Newsletter archives are still available.

I hope to reopen quickly, but my priority is safety and security. And that will take as long as it takes.

Please be patient.

– Scot

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