Riya, a travel blogger, had been running her WordPress blog for two years. She posted travel tips, photos, and personal stories. One morning, she noticed her blog was loading slowly, and some pages were showing strange pop-up ads she never added. At first, she thought it was just a hosting problem but in reality, her website had been hacked.

The attacker gained access because her WordPress theme and a couple of plugins were outdated. These old versions had known security weaknesses that hackers often search for. Once inside, the hacker injected malicious code into the site, which redirected visitors to harmful websites. Riya didn’t know this was happening until one of her readers sent her a message saying, “Your website is showing some weird ads.”

Recovering wasn’t easy. She had to take the blog offline for a week, hire a professional to clean it up, update all plugins/themes, and add stronger security measures like two-factor login and daily backups. She also learned to remove unused plugins and keep everything up-to-date.

The biggest takeaway? Even a small personal blog can be a target. Hackers don’t care if you run a travel blog, food blog, or business site if they find a weak spot, they’ll use it. Riya now updates her WordPress site regularly, uses a strong password, and backs up her data so she’s never caught off guard again.