This is a very quick note. A day ago, someone hacked into all 4 of my websites, and took them down totally. He somehow got into my servers, and seized all my databases. He deleted or overwrote the data.

Then he left a note blackmailing me, along with a Bitcoin account to pay the ransom into it.

He has threatened to "leak" the data. I’m not sure to whom. Criminals?

It is possible that the hacker(s) are the ones who were working on hacking my test mail server.

Anyhow, the hacking has been intense and everything was wiped out. My backup methodology has not been good, and I had been slack on it due to other tasks. Anyhow, luckily I have a backup.

I’ve restored the sites but I don’t know how the hacker(s) got in. So the websites can be taken down AT ANY TIME.

I will take what actions I can. There is much more to say about this.

This time it is not malware. This time it was a proper hacking. Programs were destroyed, data was destroyed and seized and "ransom notes" were left for me in the database!

So please be aware I am working on this, but its dodgy stuff and I have no idea how long the sites will be up, and when they can be hacked again.

The following sites were hacked and taken down:
historyreviewed.com
africancrisis.info
white-shop.biz
janlamprecht.com