Observation:
The date and time retrieved from the server is very different from the date and time when the script actually asked for this information.
What could it mean?
Multiple possibilities.
First possibility:
The server doesn't show the correct time.
But every time you checked before the time was always correct.
Could something happen to the server's clock that only now it stopped working?
Or maybe the program on the server under some circumstances fails to get the correct time and that's what happened tonight?
Unlikely but not impossible.
You will have to investigate this.
Second possibility:
The server shows the correct time but the script writes incorrect value in the log file.
This is much more unlikely.
The script uses some simple regular expression to find the time and literally copies the time text without even knowing that it represents time.
Third possibility:
Some kind of a man-in-the-middle attack.
Something is messing with the communication between the computer and the server.
But what you are doing is so very specific that this would have to be a very targetted attack, with almost no time to prepare.
Who would do it?
And why?
And how?
Fourth possibility:
The times in the log file are correct.
No, this can't be true.
But for a moment you think:
But what if it was?
No, that would not make sense.
Actually, you can verify this by checking the server's logs.
At least for dates which are not in the future.
You think that this is a bit silly but you decide to check this anyway.
When all options are very unlikely,
you can as well start by ruling out the impossible.
