Top Academic Hospitalist's Blog Was Hacked

It looks like somebody hacked into Wachter's World -- the blog of Bob Wachter who is one of the leading academic hospitalists and the "inventor" of the term "hospitalist." A nonsense message was posted today with a title ".Net Framework basics" and a publish date of "Tue, Feb 05 2008, 3:31 AM by admin." I emailed Dr. Wachter immediately after I saw the post. See a screenshot and an excerpt below:



"TIP: Consider a Rectangle. You may want to create many Rectangle in your lifetime; but each Rectangle will have certain characteristics and certain functions. For example, each rectangle will have a specific width and color. So now, suppose your friend also wants to create a Rectangle. Why reinvent the Rectangle? You can create a common template and share it with others."

As a common courtesy, I awaited Dr. Wachter response before publishing the post:

"Not sure whether we've been hacked or it's just some strange phase of the moon. But I see that several recent posts (good ones too!) are gone and have been replaced by techno-gibberish. I guess – if we're now popular enough to be worth hacking – this means that the blog has made the big time. Or so they must say on bad days in Redmond, Washington. Anyway, stay tuned. Our tech folks are on it..."

I am a regular reader of Wachter's World and look forward to new posts by Bob Wachter from the SHM Annual Meeting currently underway in San Diego.

Blog tip: It is a good idea to think of a difficult-to-guess password for your blog and to back it up on a regular basis.

References:
A List of Hospitalist Blogs
How to backup your medical blog?