Trouble Down Pit

It’s all true you know.

By the way, I’ve been battling hackers in the background (as usual recently, it seems). I think I’ve cracked it and I believe I’ve also made the comic and my other sites much more secure in the process. It’s taken many hours, but I hope we’re safe in the meantime.

A few people have asked me ‘what do hackers get from attacking you?’. It’s a fair question, and the basic answer is ‘not much’. My sites are pretty secure, with encrypted databases for important information like passwords, but there will be plenty of other sites out there who haven’t taken those precautions. Those sites will, at least, be divulge valid email addresses. Some of them will share more data than that (names, addresses, etc.). This kind of private information is for sale on criminal markets to spammers and identity thieves. At the very least, hacks allow people to get page views for unscrupulous advertisers by opening a tiny window (1 pixel by 1 pixel) onto another page full of adverts. The webpage will think it has been viewed and so those people get money.

The bottom line is that in the modern world it is more profitable to hack computers than to trade drugs, and you are massively less likely to either be caught or harmed during the criminal activities. It’s low risk and, on a big enough scale, very high profit. It’s also pretty easy – most of the attacks are going to be automated rather than specifically targeted at any particular site – so it takes very little effort on the part of the hackers.

I’ve always had a goal to entertain, and occasionally to make people think a little bit. I would hope that hackers would not take offence at this, but I don’t think any of this is specifically targeted at me. I don’t even particularly blame the people doing it: I can really understand that it’s an easy way to make money in what are often difficult times. It’s always a difficult time for someone, somewhere. I would rather this wasn’t the case, but that’s the simple truth of it.

As much as I hate being hacked, I can’t find it in me to be really angry with the hackers either… But I hope they don’t find any new tricks any time soon. If they do then send me a message to let me know and I will always do my best to fix it as soon as possible.

Hope you had a good weekend, and I’ll see you all on Friday.