Links got into my page!?

[Deleted member 4320]

Hey, well as some of you may know, I use to have a forum at DJForums.info (that domain), then I moved it to another domain name (Xplozion.co.uk). Now I was just creating a redirecting page to the new site because even though the old page I put up had a link to the new domain, I thought it would be best to have it redirect to the new page anyway.

So I've done that, thing is though back in the day my coding skills were not as good as they are now, so I decided to have a laugh and see what they looked like, I opened up the page in Dreamweaver and had a look at the code, turns out...

There was a massive long list on the old page full of links going to loads of other sites.
The links were in white text, the background was in white as well so you couldn't tell they were there in case you clicked on them. Now that domain is going to expire Jan 10' and I don't want it anyway, one less thing to worry about but I'd like to know for security reasons how the hell 100s of links got into the page.

The weird thing is;

<!-- google -->

Appeared before and after all of the text links. I don't think it was harmful though, they were just links but the actual sites they lead to I don't know. I just have no idea how they got in, any help on this?

Thanks.

 

[MissTake]

Hey, well as some of you may know, I use to have a forum at DJForums.info (that domain), then I moved it to another domain name (Xplozion.co.uk). Now I was just creating a redirecting page to the new site because even though the old page I put up had a link to the new domain, I thought it would be best to have it redirect to the new page anyway.

So I've done that, thing is though back in the day my coding skills were not as good as they are now, so I decided to have a laugh and see what they looked like, I opened up the page in Dreamweaver and had a look at the code, turns out...

There was a massive long list on the old page full of links going to loads of other sites.
The links were in white text, the background was in white as well so you couldn't tell they were there in case you clicked on them. Now that domain is going to expire Jan 10' and I don't want it anyway, one less thing to worry about but I'd like to know for security reasons how the hell 100s of links got into the page.

The weird thing is;

<!-- google -->

Appeared before and after all of the text links. I don't think it was harmful though, they were just links but the actual sites they lead to I don't know. I just have no idea how they got in, any help on this?

Thanks.

Is that date right because if so it already expired? :shrug:

 

[Deleted member 4320]

Yeah your right I meant 2011 😛 🙂

 

[OscarG]

Maybe Google hacked you? They're always after money. XD

 

[Zaborg]

I'm not so sure, Oscar...Google is a nice company imo.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

I know your wrong Oscar because first of all, why on earth would it pick my DJForums domain over any other site and how? I don't have anything to do with them in terms of personal and sensitive information. They didn't hack me but I think it might have had something to do with the CHMOD setting, not sure 😛

 

[Acorn]

You were hacked. This is the most common thing a hacker will do to a site. They won't tear it down, instead they "SEO" your site by sticking lots of links into it.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

Thanks for the answer, +Rep.

 

[Acorn]

Thanks. I don't know the extent of the links or how long they've been sitting there, but if you have a backup copy of your board from before they appeared, keep it on hand you may need it. Go to your forum's software support board, free or not free, there should be one. Let them know the problem and what steps you can take to erase the infection. If you're lucky the hacker installed the links manually and it is just a matter of cleaning up your main index files. If you're not as lucky, there was malware installed that may continue to regenerate the links. Run cleanup software on your server {making a backup beforehand} just to be certain.

 

[Jonathan]

I'm not so sure, Oscar...Google is a nice company imo.

You won't say that when they ban your AdSense account for no reason.