I used to run a photo server out of my basement using an old PC and freeware. My clients loved it.
Unless my wife was using the central vac that was on the same circuit for a while.
I have a little experience with my own web server. Probably more knowlege than 95% of the people in the country, but nowhere near enough to do what she did.
One morning I woke up with some Chinese crap on my server. I was pissed...but then I wondered why the hell anyone would hack MY server with nothing but head shots of Division III college athletes on it.
I worked for a VERY small company whose website got hacked and planted with malware.
I always presumed we were just target practice for somebody.
Because they can.
” I wondered why the hell anyone would hack MY server with nothing but head shots of Division III college athletes on it.”
Because it was a server, that’s why. When hackers want to share stuff, they don’t do it on their own servers, because that can be traced back to them. It’s much better to hack someone else’s insecure server, set up your own hidden fileshare, and enable anonymous ftp access for whatever you want to distribute.