Before I even get started, I will point out that the subject of this report is fully aware of me writing this. Friend to Lockergnome, Mitch Keeler, of the successful podcast ‘The Web Hosting Show’, had his .htaccess file attacked/altered in an effort to steal his site’s ranking. Once this hack took place, it allowed Google to rank the guilty party to manipulate their ranking under Mitch’s umbrella. So when I did a search for The Web Hosting Show, TheFirefox.net was coming up as the number one result. Talk about dirty tricks! By the time this goes live, the skewed search results will have likely been fixed.

Today, Mitch inadvertently reminded us of two things. Many people forget to double check the security of what is most dear to them. That, and always check the permissions on your .htaccess file. Because even if you are not thinking about it, chances are there are dirt bags out there who are.

[tags]spoofing, seo[/tags]