Hackers changing adsense pud id's

[z00pedup]

I just read this article on how hackers get access to your sites code and change the pud ID of your adsense

If you recently had a sudden drop in ad impressions this could be the issue!

advice from article

One could be to use the Google Sitemaps verification process. If I verify my SiteA.com through sitemaps using the same Google ID that I use for Google AdSense, they could then offer a "Only use this AdSense publisher ID on this site" where I could then submit my publisher ID. So if another publisher ID showed up on a page on that site that was not the one I submitted, it could either override it or could raise an alert either in the AdSense control panel or the Sitemaps control panel that another publisher ID was placed on that site. And while a hacker hacking into a website could change the publisher ID appearing on the site, the hacker would still not have access to login using the Google account ID used by that publisher.

Read the entire blog post
http://www.jensense.com/

 

[Stanley]

this wont last long. as soon as google finds out the hacker's id, their accounts will be closed.

these hackers are obviously idiots. the id leaves a trail back to their names, address, and social security numbers.

 

[Jdog]

I guess my paranoia is a good thing. I look at my statcounter stats and adsense way too many times a day.

 

[Elvie]

I had someone attempt to do this - I'm convinced they got in through phpBB and it seemed to work through all the open source php scripts on the server (phpBB, osCommerce, and b2Evolution) and it tried to find Adsense code to change but ended up cutting off the page code at the beginning of an Adsense block which is why I happened to find it - because my blogs were suddenly not loading all the way. It had filled all those php script directories with extra files as well. What a mess.
That was my quick lesson to never attempt to use phpBB again. And to learn that a managed dedicated server was not as secure as I thought.
If anyone has a dedicated server, here is an excellent guide I used to secure it a little more:
A Beginner's Guide to Securing Your Server (Security Inside WHM/CPanel) - http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=327478

 

[wfhnow]

Would thats crazy i must stay on the look out...