No Life Like It: I was confident – Until I wasn’t

Above image: My husband and I dressed up for Halloween – a few years ago.

Happy Halloween! It is the day for ghouls, ghosts, witches, and wizards and on that note, this is a shout-out to the wizard or wizards that attacked our website last week.

Each time I schedule the E-Zine, I typically have a slight bout of anxiety. I am terrified something is going wrong. Something I missed. It could be a typo, spelling mistake, wrong image, wrong link, or a cyber attack.

Regarding our last E-Zine, I was going to write about Cloudflare and why you may see a message come up when you visit our site right after the E-Zine is sent out. However, I chose to share my love for Halloween movies, believing I didn’t need to write about Cloudflare. Well, I was wrong. It would have been very appropriate.

If I had just trusted myself. Call it intuition, spidey-sense, fear, or sixth sense. I felt something was wrong, but discounted it because I thought I had done my due diligence. I tested all the links and read through all article titles twice. After that, I believed we were good to go.

Once I sent out the Oct. 26, 2022, E-Zine, my friend, whom I will refer to as they. I don’t know who they are, where they live, or why they don’t like Canadian Military Family Magazine, but they don’t. They started last February, just before the war in Ukraine, and did a few test runs at the end of February and the beginning of March to see what our server could handle in terms of traffic. Then they hit hard on March 28, 2022, and have not stopped. You may remember I sent out an email.

A Malicious Attempt

My 16-year-old son explained that it is a DDoS Attack, which is a malicious attempt to disrupt the regular traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it. This happens every time I send out our weekly email. However, since March 28th, we have been protected. We installed Cloudflare and disabled the website of a charity I volunteer with. I was hosting the charity’s website on the magazine’s server.

I thought we had moved the charity’s website off the server a few weeks ago. The strange part is the charity’s website had been live for almost a month on the cmfmag server, and my cyber friends didn’t hit it. Then, somehow, they discovered it was live again and attacked it last week, taking down the cmfmag site with it.

I apologize. Nothing is worse for me than going to a website that doesn’t load quickly. It drives me crazy, especially when it is your own site.

When the first big attack happened at the end of March, I shared what was happening with my husband. I was pretty emotional, as in angry, frustrated, and embarrassed. He simply said, “Why would someone do that to you? Don’t they know that compared to everyone else, you are a nobody?” Thanks for the support, honey.

I believe the attack on March 28, wad due to an article we published quoting a statement from NATO regarding Russia invading Ukraine. If that was the final straw that unleashed this cyber hell I have been dealing with for the last seven months, I wouldn’t do anything different. Knowledge is power, which is the main reason we write and publish our articles. To pass on information to our community. That being said, my fingers are crossed that we are good to go this week and the website will load for you in a timely manner.

Onward & Upwards

If you are a Veteran, Veteran Affairs Canada is looking for your input regarding the new Veteran National Employment Strategy. You can read more about it here. The last time we checked, they were looking for 200 more people to fill out the survey, which is quick. However, the deadline is today, Oct. 31, 2022.

For those out in the west, don’t miss the 2nd Annual Jasper Veterans Appreciation event. It kicks off on Nov. 4th in Jasper and is a 10-day extravaganza designed to celebrate and honour those who have and are serving in the CAF. The event takes place from Nov. 4-13. You can read more about it here.

Noting Veterans, have you heard of Homes for Heroes? In this issue, meet Dave Howard, a co-founder of the organization. He is on a mission to reach his vision – A Canada without Veteran homelessness. Dave shares how Homes for Heroes came to be and how his relationship with his grandfather, a Veteran, motivated him. Read about Homes for Heroes here.

And for the little ones in the family and romantics at heart, this week’s movie picks feature children’s Halloween-themed cartoons and a few autumn Hallmark romances. And if you are looking for a simple, filling, and yummy soup, look no further. This week we feature Roasted Vegetable Soup.

Wishing you a happy and safe Halloween!

Until Next Time,

Cyndi Mills

View this week’s E-Zine here.