The Matt Cutts Blog Gets Hacked


Matt Hacked

The Dark SEO Team has had a bit of a beef with Google’s Matt Cutts from back in 2005 over URL hijacking. Looks like they’ve pulled a prank on him today. Matt’s blog is down, hacked — and archives wiped out as well. Matt has posted previously to this about the site being slow (post gone, but you can see his Twitter comment here) and heading offline through Monday, so you might be seeing the screen above for awhile.

FYI, be sure to check out CuttsCon, that I posted about earlier.



Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series, maintains a personal blog called Daggle and can be followed on Twitter here.

See more articles by Danny Sullivan >


Share, Bookmark & Discuss This Article
More:


Keep Updated: News Via Email | News Via RSS Feed | News Via Twitter


See more stories like this in the Members Library! Check out the Google: Employees, Google: Parodies, Search & Society: April Fool's sections of the Members Library where this story is filed. Members also get access to exclusive video content, a members-only weekly & monthly newsletter, plus more. Check out all the benefits!

18 COMMENTS ON The Matt Cutts Blog Gets Hacked

Marek Wawrzyniak,

They wiped his archives? That is cold. Not cool. My blog was hacked couple of weeks ago by just copying a “Hacked by …” text message as the index.html in my blog’s root, but nothing was deleted, thank God…



nick,

You can access the archives if you use Google Reader. That might be our best option for a few days. Hopefully the database was backed up!



savage,

April fools!



Asia,

That’ll teach him not to upgrade his wordpress… I doubt the archives are gone, wordpress hacks are usually browser based, and I still have rss feed reading correctly and his entire archive as well - hmm I’ll see if I can save it somehow in case he really did lose it (Although, I seriously doubt it - as mysql is a tougher hack.)



Scott Carpenter,

I think the timing is a little bit fishy on this one. First he upgrades to the latest WordPress, and then he’s having some flaky issues with the site, but is going to be away from his computer until Monday so can’t look at it, and then the site is hacked? I think Matt’s just having some fun at our expense. Great joke!



Rose Water,

I think this could be an april fools joke.

Concerning updates on Wordpress, it has an autoupdate plugin now, but that’s still a potential security hole; what if the update files got hacked? You’d have millions of blogs hacked, sending out zombie trojans or spam.



Rose Water,

He even dugg two articles about it :

http://digg.com/rss/mattcutts/index2.xml

Why would he do that without first taking the site down? Brilliant link baiting, matt.



Rose Water,

Heres a clearer view of him digging about his own story:

http://simplepie.org/demo/?feed=http%3A%2F%2Fdigg.com%2Frss%2Fmattcutts%2Findex2.xml



Sandpetra,

Cold indeed….



Seth Finkelstein,

“nous sommes le proprietaire de toi”?

(French for “We are the boss of you”)

No way.

April Fool’s joke.

He should have put april fool in the supposed names somehow.



Mike Empuria,

Some of these names look like well known SEOers…
monkeyboy = webguerilla?
Random Fish = Rand Fishkin?
Shchoeoe = Schoemoney?
davenator = Dave Naylor?
Dan “the man” = not sure about this. Any well known search people called Dan Danny?



Mike Empuria,

lejackalgris = greywolf



David Dalka,

Even if it is an April fools joke, it was posted early, so that would be evil.

Based on other Wordpress security issues recently, it’s not something that I consider very funny if it is a joke.



abadman,

pentazilla = quadszilla (seoblackhat)
Earl+Duke = EarlGrey (syndk8)
boogybonmot = boogybonbon (creator of mygen - i think his name is Levi)
spamhumtress, Zman I believe are the “real” handles of a couple of the SEO Forums Game Show Celebrities
I could figure out the rest but this is teh lame…crappy april fool’s to the rest of you zombies..thanks Internet for ruining a subversive holiday.



wullon,

There is now a cool “answer” on the DST’s website : http://www.darkseoteam.com.



Joe Duck,

Ha-ha, you fool!
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia”



Marek Wawrzyniak,

I admit it, I fell for it… partly because my blog was hacked 3 weeks ago, and THAT was no joke. However they did not wipe my archives. That was a “nice” hacker, which handle I will not mention to not give him credit.

Matt, well done.




RECENT COMMNENTS

  • Webmaster T said " If it was a search engine and not the people who actually benefit from proving this relationship... "
  • Eric Ward said " OK, so I was trying to be ironic/funny with my maniacal idea for aggregating all my personal comment"
  • JohnWEllis said " Greg, Thanks for sharing this data. No good comes from asking people what ads are “helpful”. People "

See All »


FREE DAILY SEARCH NEWS RECAP!

Stay on top of all the search news with our daily summary, the SearchCap newsletter. View a sample ›

STAY CURRENT THROUGHOUT THE DAY

RSS Feeds

The Search Engine Land feed keeps you informed as news happens. SEE ALL FEEDS »

Upcoming Search Engine Land Conferences

Advertise With Us »

Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.


SMX Web Site » | SMX Difference » | SMX News »


Join us at an upcoming SMX event:

Search Marketing Now Learn more about search marketing with our free online webcasts and webinars from our sister site, Search Marketing Now. Upcoming online events include:


See more webcast topics »

TRACK US SOCIALLY
Upcoming Search Engine Land Conferences

Get Your Search Engine Land
Premium Membership!

Become a premium member today and receive:

  • Express commenting privileges & photo.
  • Exclusive videos & newsletters.
  • Discounts to our SMX conferences.
  • Access to "How To" & Other Archives.

Learn More

Upcoming Search Engine Land Conferences
Add to GoogleAdd to My Yahoo!Add to BloglinesAdd to NetvibesAdd to Windows Live