Disgruntled ex employee ransom

  • So here is a head scratcher and a valuable lesson at the same time!

    About a year ago, an employee who had created our public work website was let go. Something that was overlooked was that he still had access to the wordpress domain. He has now shut down the website, and locked everyone out. He’s literally holding the website hostage and demanding money.

    Is there anything that can be done? I would rather just get the domain back and fix this stupid lapse in judgment and restore an old site, but I don’t know if that’s possible. Police aren’t going to get too worked up and we are a small business. Any help would be much appreciated. And yes, this was an upgraded account, I just have no way to log in for support.

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  • Andrew Nevins

    (@anevins)

    WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support

    Contact your hosting providers of the issue and they’ll be able to deal with it, they have much more power than this employee currently has over your site.

    Thread Starter jleelowrey

    (@jleelowrey)

    Thanks, if you couldn’t tell, I literally had no idea where to start.

    jleelowrey is quite correct and this is the best way to go.

    However for the record, in the UK and potentially other jurisdictions your former employee has committed a criminal act (https://www.out-law.com/page-405)which is potentially punishable with jail time. I suspect he would hand over the password after a quick phone call from the police.

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