Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Hackers Hit Brennan Where it Counts

This CAN happen to you.

Author Sarah Rees Brennan recently underwent quite an ordeal (and right before the release of her first novel “The Demon’s Lexicon”). Someone hacked into her e-mail account and from there her live journal. They deleted all her e-mail, contact list, and every post on her blog (seven years worth). The worst part was the timing of the attack. Six days before the release of her novel. Gone were the posts about her book deal and everything she’d gone through until now. The first e-mail from her publisher was lost forever. And all the pertinent information on people she needed to contact before her release date was deleted. Devastating for any writer. I feel for her.

We’ve all heard we should save our stories (and some of us have learned the hard way that we should do this in multiple places… oops!), but somehow, e-mail and blogs seemed safe. What an eye-opener! Check out Kristin Nelson’s blog where Sarah Rees Brennan tells the whole story as well as offers tips on how to protect ourselves.

Have you been backing up your blog posts, e-mails, and contact lists? Better start now.
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21 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 2, 2009 at 11:27 AM

    That is so scary. Thanks for this info.

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  2. UnknownJune 2, 2009 at 11:42 AM

    That is absolutely awful. I am possibly not doing enough to make my info safe. I just can't believe that happened!

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  3. Amanda BonillaJune 2, 2009 at 12:20 PM

    I'm always worried about losing my work! I double back up now! Thanks for posting on my blog The Keyboard this morning :D To answer your question, I write paranormal/romance (people with 'unusal' abilities mainly and Urban Fantasy) Thanks for the follow!

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  4. TanaJune 2, 2009 at 12:25 PM

    Wow, don't like that at al. So sorry for her.

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  5. Danyelle L.June 2, 2009 at 12:37 PM

    Ack! Thanks for the warning!

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  6. Angie LedbetterJune 2, 2009 at 12:58 PM

    I wish they could find and punish the hacker! My heart goes out to the author and her years of loss. I've got an external hard drive add-on, so hope that helps protect my stuff.

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  7. AnonymousJune 2, 2009 at 2:11 PM

    I back up everything but the contact list. Now I've got to go do that! Good post!

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  8. Tara MayaJune 2, 2009 at 2:20 PM

    Yeah, I read about that, it was so creepy and horrid. I can just imagine how terrible that would be. :(

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  9. amberargyleJune 2, 2009 at 2:37 PM

    That's so awful! Hackers are just vandals. And vandalism benefits no one. It's just hurting to hurt.

    Sad.

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  10. TessJune 2, 2009 at 3:27 PM

    wow - great post and link. I never thought about changing passwords for public wifi. excellent idea.

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  11. CrystalJune 2, 2009 at 3:49 PM

    How awful! She must have been devastated! And angry. I know I would be. Thanks for posting this, Lynnette! I thought email was safe to use as a back-up, too. Now I've got to rethink this.

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  12. SultanJune 2, 2009 at 3:54 PM

    Wow, how scary. It is amazing that someone who do this to another person.

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  13. Michelle D. ArgyleJune 2, 2009 at 4:16 PM

    Do you have any suggestions on how to back up blogs?

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  14. Lynnette LabelleJune 2, 2009 at 4:31 PM

    I agree with everyone. This was just a crazy thing for her to go through.

    Lady Glamis: I'm not a techie kind of person, but as far as I know, you'd have to save your blog post in Word and on your hard drive or USB key. I'm doing both.

    Anyone else have any suggestions?

    Lynnette Labelle

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  15. Krista PhillipsJune 2, 2009 at 6:06 PM

    Not good at all!!! Crazy people to do crud like this!I am horrible at backing up, I need to do this much more often!

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  16. Joyce WolfleyJune 2, 2009 at 6:45 PM

    Wow, that would be awful. I try to back up my novel, but often forget because then it becomes a hassle the next time I open it up. I better go do that now.

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  17. writtenwyrddJune 2, 2009 at 8:08 PM

    rotten luck! I save each month of the blog posts in a file on my backup drive. Should the blog ever implode, I can recover the posts, if not the comments.

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  18. KathyJune 2, 2009 at 9:22 PM

    No, I haven't been. I guess I never thought about backing up blog posts.

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  19. Enid WilsonJune 3, 2009 at 4:07 AM

    That's terrible! I have backed up my blogs and website but how can you back up emails? Will go over to read the link now.

    In Quest of Theta Magic

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  20. Patricia StolteyJune 3, 2009 at 9:47 AM

    What an awful thing to happen. I always back up my novel on diskette as I go, and occasionally print out my e-mail contact list, but hadn't done anything about the blogs. Luckily, I only have about six weeks' worth to worry about. One more thing for the To Do List.

    Patricia

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  21. kahJune 4, 2009 at 9:49 PM

    I wrote a third of my first novel without backing it up. Then my computer got a virus and I couldn't open Word, much less get to my docs.

    I think I aged 10 years from stress until a computer genius fixed the problem and found my files.

    My #1 rule now...Multiple backups.

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