Due to a hacker attack, all data and content on Earok.Net was wiped.

I was not specifically targeted; the target was MakoSolutions, who my hosts (Hole in the Wall) rent a server from. The hacker group apparently had a problem with one of Makosolution's clients, and decided to wipe as much of Makosolution's data as possible. This apparently included every backup that either Makosolutions or Hole in the Wall had ever made.

Fortunately, I had a backup on my laptop from the 15th of June. I normally backup more frequently then this but I have been unable to due to a work visit to the South Island. Also thanks to the suggestion of Guilherme Chirinéa, I was able to recover the four blog posts I had made since then from Googles cache, though the attached comments are more or less lost. So, overall it wasn't a disaster.

I am obviously very frustrated at the malicious actions of the individuals behind the attack. But the more I think about it, the more I get frustrated both at Hole in the Wall Hosting and Makosolutions; neither of which apparently offered adequate backup solutions. Makosolution's website itself advertises "Amazing backups" as one of it's key features; obviously this is an incredible overstatement. Hole in the Wall will now be offering backups as an additional premium service rather then part of it's core package, I felt this was effectively saying "We're sorry that we let this happen, but if you don't want it to happen again, you have to pay us more".

So, I resolved to switch web hosts. The administrator of http://maxpenguinslab.com/ has generously donated some space on his server I can use, and I got around to re-uploading the site today. That's all I have to say at the moment, but I will post some further news soon.