It's been a tricky week for a number of reasons - while Inspectors stalk the corridors of my office and I wrestle with seemingly deliberately obtuse bureaucracy at home and at work, someone decided that I was good for a few Bitcoins of ransom for my data. Linux ransomware is rare - but does exist in the wild. It's also been fairly primitive up to now, with attackers using predictable keys to encrypt data, and generally showing a lot less knowledge of the underlying system than the Windows based machines they're used to hobbling. However, as much of the world's larger-scale server architecture lives on some form of Unix derivative, they're going to get better at this.

My first question was why?, or more specifically why me? This is a completely non-commercial site, with relatively low traffic and which really only a few people would notice the absence of should it fall off the net - albeit after nearly eighteen years online! Anyone who knows me would know I'm certainly not good for the kind of ransom proposed. I cycled back through the various political disputes I've been involved in around the last election - none felt nearly sharp or potent enough to inspire this, in fact the whole campaign passed in a sort of stunned blur for both sides I think. I thought about other rivalries - I don't have many, and the one work-related matter which came to mind seemed unlikely. So perhaps it was just completely random after all? Just a chance attempt to extract a bit of cash from someone who rambles about roads and railways. Maybe. I think I'll have to accept this explanation.

The next step was recovery - and at first this didn't look remotely good. Hosting my own server has many advantages, but it means that anything which goes wrong is mine to fix in my own spare time - and that has been in short supply this week with all that's happening. It also appeared that the way the attack had progressed may have meant that the encrypted files had been backed up over the good ones. It was hard to say. In the end I decided that the best course of action was to completely reinstall a clean server and hope that the off-site backup was still good. Thankfully, the fact you're reading this shows that this strategy worked out - but not without some tribulations on the way. A lot of us keep servers running to the configurations we painstakingly worked out years back - and while they keep working because kind developers tend to value backward compatibility, a fresh install brings a new world of changed ways of doing things. I think, almost a week later, things work largely as they used to - with a few minor exceptions I'm still tweaking. Will they try again? Surely - but I hope if that happens, I'm ready.

Finally, I had to consider how my regime of backups worked - and the answer was actually, pretty well - I had a good, very recent, clean backup which was very easy to restore once I knew things were safe. But it could have been better - slicker, cleaner, more efficient - and the itch to polish and improve, to shave a few steps off there and make something work just a little better was suddenly back. In short, it's proved an interesting intellectual exercise which has distracted me a little from the rest of the week in generally positive ways. It seems likely that the vector of attack was a Wordpress installation which hosted my old Songs Heard on Fast Trains music blog. Certainly this has been attacked before, being used to relay spam via the injection of some malicious code. I've long disliked this blog being separate from the rest of the site, so it was time to extract the data and make it part of Lost::MikeGTN proper - some external links to SHOFT might break, but it was a small price to pay for closing a potential door. So, that's done too - and while this might need some tweaking and changing to make it look and feel right, at least it's here and you can still read my thoughts on obscure Scottish music of the early 2010s!

The loss of data to attackers from outside is always going to feel like an insult or an invasion, and as more of our life is lived virtually it will begin to feel more and more like a physical intrusion or loss. For me, the loss of a great deal of recent writing about my excursions felt potentially like a depressing enforced ending to a meandering project which I wasn't ready to give up on just yet. The older stuff, the diary entries from the late 90s for instance, perhaps only have any great relevance to me - but even so, the fact some of this digital archaeology survives makes it feel worthy of keeping. I almost lost a lot, but I learned a great deal more. And so to more turgid posts about long walks, observations on the rail network, and generally to more of the same...

It seems like a while since I was heading for a railtour, and this week kicked off a series of three, all of which mostly focus on what I consider to be fairly local haunts. Today though was an annual event - Spitfire Railtours' dash to Penzance for Mazey Day. This year a total of three trains ran once again, with Pathfinder running from Tame Bridge with Class 31's, whilst Spitfire covered the West Midlands with Class 37's. However, making good the unfortunate omission from last year, I elected to travel on the Class 20 hauled train from Gloucester. The day started with a run up to Bristol on the early train. With a fair few locals heading for the various trips, it was a bit of a carnival atmosphere on board despite the early hour. At Temple Meads, breakfasted and had good coffee while checking the timings - reports from all trains were positive, with ours arriving first as planned. It was with some relief and a fair amount of excitement that 20308 and 20309 were greeted as they chugged noisily into the platform.

Once on board, we made a swift dash over the levels to Taunton where the remainder of the local crew boarded. With bucks fizz served as per tradition and the early haze and mist giving way to bright sunshine, we sped south west. Meanwhile, a series of Facebook messages from the previous evening which I'd all but dismissed were proved to be right - and another friend confirmed she was speeding ahead on a service train in front of us. It was going to be a typical Mazey Day in the pub it seemed!

On arrival, I left my enthusiast friends and we headed off to pick up our additional traveller and head for the pub. Via the Longboat first, then a series of others we followed the crowds and made a circuit towards the harbour. Tomorrow a world record attempt was being held for the most people in one place dressed as pirates, and one among our number had designs on a place in this record. So, we visited a strange pirate gear shop housed in a boat. Food and more beer followed before heading back to the station. Noted our stock was already in the platform, having not in fact left. Wandered over to chat with a friend from Spitfire and noted there was trouble - thankfully not for us, but for the Pathfinder trip. It seems that an incident at Long Rock had left the train impounded whilst checks were made on the stock and of course the staff. Plans were being made by Network Rail and Pathfinder for a possible cancellation. Watched the strange situation unfold for a little while, mildly amused that some of the very people who seem to unfairly lash out at Spitfire from behind their keyboards were now trying to negotiate some sort of joint effort.

We left Penzance on time, with Pathfinder following about 45 minutes late. A brief stop outside Long Rock as a cable popped off our coach, then a storming run north. The damp misty start had now turned into a glorious evening sunset. Content, full of beer and having had a great day I dozed my way back to Taunton. Another fantastic Mazey Day trip, and more trains to look forward to in the coming couple of weeks. Summer has perhaps finally arrived.

I posted recently about the ability of the GBRf-operated diagram to produce unexpected treats, with the frustrating turn of events that saw 66721 out on a day I just didn't have the flexibility to get to the train. However, this morning, rather unexpectedly the other locomotive which had been lurking in the area turned up on my morning commute.

Rumour has it that the tendency to frequent failure has this contract hanging in the balance. With the short time left, it's doubtful that another locomotive supplier would be sorted. Until then however, there is time to enjoy both travel in style and comfort, along with the occasional surprise visitor!

With everything that has been happening around me lately, I'd almost forgotten this trip until this week. The tickets arrived on Wednesday, with a much earlier than planned start time - but since this tour picked up from my doorstep I wasn't too concerned. Did feel sorry for the Exeter contingent of SWRG who had a 04:17 kick off however! So at a little after 05:00, I stumbled rather sleepily onto the platform at Weston, soon to be joined by quite a group of others. Bang on time, D1015 Western Champion rolled quietly and rather majestically into view.

Found myself seated with an acquaintance from Bridgwater and a veteran of Coach C on the recent Whistling Slater tour. We discussed the feeling that you should almost always book on a tour from your hometown, for fear they won't stop them there anymore. Soon afterwards, with all our pick-up stops complete we turned our attention to the Lickey. Despite a sudden loss of speed (unusual as we had a clear road) near Bromsgrove and a load of thirteen coaches, D1015 made slow but remarkably steady progress. On arrival at Birmingham however, we were notified that there was a slight problem with D1015 and that we would be diverted via Bescot Yard with a short delay necessary for an examination to take place. It turned out that a slight crack in one of the turbochargers was leaking coolant. For insurance on the isolated Heart of Wales line, we were to have 37427 tucked inside our train. Not a problem for me - all adding to the novelty of the day, including some unusual track at Bescot and a chance to thoroughly check the numbers in the scrap line!

Very good progress from here, despite our lateness. A crew change at Wolverhampton and a swift flypast of Oxley Depot, then some fast running as far as Shrewsbury where we were stopped for some time at Abbey Foregate.

Timing now became an issue, with a limited range of passing places on the Heart of Wales, many were speculating where we would stop and for how long. I'm ashamed to say that an early start, a relatively late night and a stressful week caught up with me and I dozed off several times between Shrewsbury and Llandridnod Wells, but as originally planned an extended break for food and leg-stretching was welcome. As ever local fish and chip shops struggled to cope. The town itself is a quiet and attractive Victorian spa with some fascinating buildings. I can't help thinking that an improved rail service would increase the number of visitors here greatly.

Off at our revised departure time of 13:30, and through some of the most remarkable scenery in the British Isles, south towards Swansea. More snoozing from me however! We took the rare curve from Hendy Junction to Morlais East Junction and onto the District Line. Once on the mainline we started to run at speed again - despite a faulty barrier at St. George's Crossing. Through Cardiff on the avoiding line, and to our next stop at Newport. Noted 37408 dumped near ADJ yard - rumour has it that 37427 was due down here to replace it following some accident damage. In any case, D1015 disappeared to East Usk for fuel, and to drop off 37427.

No problems at all for D1015 solo on its return trip. First, up to Gloucester via Lydney and then back via Standish and Westerleigh to Bristol. A little weak sunlight, the first of the day as we left Bristol for Weston. Lots of sleepy but very happy people from the South West aboard for the final fling. Left them at Weston, and dashed down the ramp for a final shot of D1015 leaving. Despite the problems early on, a successful day.