I was Hacked by association!

Hey Friends!

I am not sure if any of you got a message from Google yesterday regarding my blog being blocked but if so I do apologize.  It said my blog was unsecure and possibly infected with a malware virus because I had linked to Shabby Blogs.  Here's the low down just in case you want to know.

I used them for my background and for a few quotes on my sidebar.  I googled all I could yesterday to see what was going on and how to fix it.  I found several other bloggers who had also been infected.  It appears someone must have hacked Shabby Blogs and therefore anyone using their codes was also infected.  I feel so bad for them!  I read if I got rid of everything from them I would be okay.  I did this and still had the block.  So then I read everything I could about how to get rid of the block.  I read about going to Webmaster tools, then diagnostics, then malware and checking for any virus's.  It showed my blog was clean according to that but for some reason the block was still there for me.

At this point I decided to run my own virus scan on my computer.  I have McAfee so it was time for a complete scan.  It takes several hours so you can plan on not using your computer for awhile.  It detected 2 virus's and deleted them.  They were listed as trojans, whatever that is.  After this test was completed I checked my blog again.  The block was still there!  Mercy!

I had one friend comment on my post yesterday (God Bless you Rondell!) and I emailed her to ask her if  she was seeing the block.  This morning I read her email and she had not seen a block and had even gone back to check again.  Well, this morning it, the warning block, was still there! 

Yall, I was about to give up when I decided to go back one more time through my layouts and see was there anything still on my blog from Shabby Blogs.  Low and behold there was!  Apparently, I had missed deleting a cute little quote on my sidebar that I had got from them.  It's not so cute anymore!  After deleting it and thoroughly checking out the rest of my blog I was able to view my blog without the warning.

So rest assured I do believe my blog to be secure again and you can come visit anytime.  Please excuse the funny background look but I decided to grab one from blogger for now.  I may customize things more later but am leaving it be for a bit.  I am feeling very wary about linking up to anyone now.  Mercy!

Have a beautiful day!