Our TV web server was hacked last Thursday night. It's bound to happen sooner or later. The lesson here is: servers should be patched, monitored and backed up on a regular basis. (Uh, duh)
The HP ProLiant ML330 box that hosts the TV web site was running a flavor of Linux called Debian. When it was hacked, someone from the campus IT Security Office came over to audit the log files. He suggested we wipe the operating system and install either Novell's SuSE Linux or RedHat ES. SuSE would be free because KU has a site license, but RedHat academic version requires a $50/year subscription. We opted for SuSE because it was free, KU could give it to us on CD and KU has a server setup to automatically download OS updates. Then, we had to find someone to help us backup, wipe, rebuild and reconfigure it.
After 24-hours of frantically searching for talent...trying former student employees and their friends, and even my own husband, I finally had some luck. Rory Petty was available. Rory Petty had the necessary skills. Rory Petty came to our rescue. Rory is a computer science student I met last summer. He used to do work on Kansan.com and he is a whiz kid, in my book. He's also very easy to talk to, he can communicate the technical stuff and do it without making me feel dumb.
So Rory started working on the server on Wednesday morning...and I think he's still working on it...stay tuned for the revival of tv.ku.edu.
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