It’s been a very busy month, so a long weekend was definitely a welcome break from a harried schedule. I returned to Manila from Cebu late Saturday night, and a few hours later, got into a car to drive to the beach for a couple of days rest to recharge the batteries. My laptop was intentionally left at home, as I had no intention of blogging or surfing or doing anything electronic. I just wanted to eat and sleep, nap and nosh. The weather was still a bit stormy, wet and overcast, but perfect for vegging. That is, until I received a rapid succession of texts on Sunday afternoon from friends and family that the marketmanila.com site was down, possibly hacked, readers being directed to something called swaab. After the first few texts, I decided to adopt a very zen approach to the whole thing, at one point even thinking if the site and all its contents were gone, que sera, sera. But the other side of me kicked in an hour or so later and I texted the site’s tech guy (read, Marketman has no clue how the technology works at all), who asked me to do some things that were impossible without a computer or internet connection, so I let it go… But brilliant tech guy miraculously managed to get the site back up by late-morning Monday, apparently without permanent damage to the files and archives. Actually, the problem had to do more with dreamhost than anything we did or could do to fix it. Thank You K, I do not know what I would do without you. And apparently, so do thousands of readers who appear to have gone into a minor panic for a brief period of time over what should have been a VERY SLOW weekend of hits to the site. :) So, what would I like to do to the morons who did this, and several other previous attempts to hack, damage, ruin or obliterate the site? I wouldn’t hesitate to cut off your most sensitive private parts and saute them in lard then fed to nearest stray dog who happens by. I suppose there will always be folks up to no good, no matter what, but I have to take comfort that karma will some day come back to bite your gonads off when you least expect it. And why I assume the perpetrators are male, I don’t know, as they could just as easily be female, but you get the picture. :)
54 Responses
i know, i got worried when i was being redirected to swaab site over and over again. one minute, i was contently browsing through your site and next thing you know, it was gone. just glad you’re back MM!!
Yah, cut his swaabs off, chop-chop it and feed it to the flies. Whooooooo!
Yeah noticed that too. It’s happened to other popular food blogs as well. So what do these people have against good food?
” I wouldn’t hesitate to cut off your most sensitive private parts and saute them in lard then fed to nearest stray dog who happens by.”
sounds like a waste of perfectly good lard …. you should use the lower quality stuff….and poor dog in either case.
Hi MM! For a moment there i thought you had discontinued your blog site. i tried several times to access it but was instead directed to swaab, whatever that is. I am really glad that all is well ! : )
gee… for the last three days i thought its my internet browser that broke down. with this long weekend, i badly need the archives of recipes here to come up with dishes to indulge with the whole family.
hope everyone had fun with this long weekend…
I thought my browser was playing tricks on me as well when I repeatedly got redirected to that Swaab site. I wish we can chop, steam and drop them in boiling lard…*evil grin*
Google chrome still redirected me to swaab site but when i transfered to internet explorer i was able to open your web site. Hooray!
Oh I had this happen to me once, we were in Bangkok and apparently someone hacked into our account that was holding 3 sites. The only thing I could do was eat, finish my vacation, come home and worry about it over Christmas. Some people have nothing better to do.
I was in a state of panic marketman! i knew the site was hacked. but i was sure you’ll get it back. To those who tried putting this site down: BEH BEH BEH! it’s still here. If I ever get to know who TRIED doing this, i’ll make you eat your own brain.
Oh! I was one who panicked! But, I know this will be addressed in no time at all.
Off with their ‘GONADS’. They deserve it!!!
hi MM! i’m using mozilla firefox and it still redirects me to swaab when i open your home page.
antsmarching, thanks for that, will have to check with host…
@antsmarching…I tried both Mozilla and Internet Explorer to visit the site and it works for me… You may have to clear cache and cookies or clear recent history on your browser…
MM, i did what kittel suggested. it’s now working fine. thanks kittel!
Oh, I didnt realize something was wrong. I had no trouble accessing the site over the weekend.
chach, problem was from 6pm Sunday night until about 8am Monday morning, Manila time…
At first I thought you took the holiday off and decided to take the site with you. :) Glad it’s back, though feeding fried and shriveled gonads to the dogs might be a PETA issue so I suggest the old fashioned way, cover it in sugar and wait for them pesky ants to come – the big red ones.
They don’t deserve lard. Use something like hydrogenated vegetable oil–more deserving of such lowlifes.
I was clueless until monday morning. I didn’t get to visit this site over the weekend because of hurricane Irene. I was glued to the TV watching the news. Thank God it’s over :)
I concur with Mojow, MM…not only will Peta have issues but SPCA might have issues with it as well…I was going to suggest using them as crab bait but then again DFO might have issues, too?!?
For a while, I thought it was because of the storms: from your end and mine…so Happy you’re back.
MM…pasingit please! Cai…I am no longer using the other e-mail. At any rate, I cannot replicate something I haven’t tasted for I do not have a basis of comparison. It might take awhile since my sister is not due back home till next year maybe. Only then can I ask her to bring me back a sample cake.
I actually wish T-Rex’s or similar carnivores were still around and would eat a few humans I know or know of, PETA or no PETA. I jest, of course. :)
Main thing is: you are well and back, as usual :)
How about hanged, drawn and quartered.
” Cut off your most sensitive private parts and saute them in lard …” hahahahaha… this was just too funny!!!!!
I’d say my state of mind after realizing your site must have been hacked was one of major panic mode MM. I knew you’d be able to put it back up but I was worried about the psossibility of unretrievable archives + comments (oh my, the precious comments)!!! Non-Phil based Pinoys and/or retirees like me rely on this site to get us through the day…
Virtual hyperventilation: checking to see if MM site is back several times every few minutes or so. I hope you have backups of the archives – would be devastated if they were wiped out. Hackers be gone!
I’m so glad your site is back. Me and my friends were in a panic when we couldn’t access your site. I use Firefox at home and was not able to access last nite.
and I thought I was the only one, woohoo… what a relief
Boss MM, in case you want a complete probe, the NBI could be of help. We have our capable Tech Intel Div and Computer Crimes Unit to assist you. Keep on cooking and let us catch the crook.
Glad to see the site back. Don’t think it was a hack on the site. I think it was a hack or glitch on a node and several sites were re-directing to swaab.me. Just so happened that marketmanila.com was one of those sites on the node.
When the redirecting was happening for marketmanila.com, there were also other sites redirecting to swaab.me. The other affected sites can be seen on this page…
https://www.pagesinventory.com/domain/www.marketmanila.com.html#2
…on the IP information tab.
never noticed it. but did in fact see something like “marketman will be back shortly” thought it was part of some grand scheme. anyway, i think it was done by a group of guys yes – not just one…possibly a badge of honor or rite of passage to some techies. great to have u back. cheers
good to have you back! during the height of hurricane irene, we’re having the costco roasted chicken, i made an octo-vin i read from you, and guess what, it was a hit! dapat daw gumawa na ako ng madami for their stock before i leave for the Phils. thank you MM!
Whew! Good thing the damage wasn’t permanent!
so glad you’re back and no damage done! your site’s an indispensable part of my day.
I am still getting directed to Swaab. I have to search an item in google adding Market Manila so I could get here but when I try to go to “Home” to bookmark this site it redirects me to Swaab again.
Lou and others, you need to clear your cache, cookies and recent history to expunge swaab from your computer, then search on google again. Thanks!
Hi Market Man! Glad your site is back. My sister-in-law was in Cebu and will be bringing back Zubuchon for me later today.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when id just see the swaab. So glad you’re back! Market manila is always a part of my day :-)
MM.. don’t punish the poor dog by feeding it someone’s sauteed swaab… :) …just tie the person who owns the swaab to a tree and let the fire ants feed on him…
Cris, wouldn’t that be equally mean to the ants? :)
Hi TheProtector96, I mean no disrespect and I am not questioning your IT crimes investigative capabilities nor the NBI’s but how come they couldn’t be of help to controversial IT-related cases like Hayden Co’s? A lot of women were victimized there and yet the NBI’s tech intel division and computer crimes unit couldn’t identify the crook(s). I am sure all the followers of MM are happy that you are offering to help but I suppose NBI’s time would be well served if the NBI tries to help the victims of Co?
Thank you, it works!
Seen this old National Geographic hardback and it tells about “balls” being tattoo”ed”, and gonads pierced for “earrings”. My american husband said – he now believes that the ancient chinese torture of hanging a man by his “thing” is true after seeing the pictures. The crime of the man? I think he said is adultery.
So got any ideas?
It never really entered my mind that hackers got to you. I was just wondering why I was being redirected to swaab. Now I know, men , I don’t know and don’t understand why some people are so mean. Being mean is not worth it. There are so many problems all over the world why can’t you think of something that will ease the burden of peoples’ life. Just like what I see around here now the motto is DO GOOD…GOOD.
@Mart good sleuthing. To add, the more probable cause was that e-swaab.com a member of the same IP node as MM was redirecting its users to swaab.me for sign-in but accidentally applied it to the whole node. Still it was a grievious offense as it caused a lot of shortness of breath and “what am I to do now” anxiety and to some including myself, extreme panic of losing and never seeing all the great blogs and comments again. So I say in an MM centric way… Off with their GONADS!!!
@Mart / @FestiveRebel
Actually, you got that right, not a hack related issue this time. Just some mis-configuration to the server by some sleepyhead at Dreamhost. :P
I used to be a smoker and going through a couple of days without your blog was like going through cold turkey again.
The sign on banners go like this:
GO
DO
GOOD
These banners are all over downtown.
I was too engrossed with my stormy vacation in Baguio this weekend to notice anything unusual with the site, that’s because electricity was too spotty and we were not able to do much then, but glad to know everything’s OK with our favorite site. Happy vacationing MM, we all need a break….just had mine in stormy, chilly, foggy and utterly fabulous Baguio!
So that was what happened. I think its just that bad side of having an very popular blog.