1.7.9 broke the whitelist, ops file and the player files (inventories, stats...). Good job sigh.
I've decided to let the server run 1.7.2 instead now, put the whitelist and ops files back, I still need to fix the player files which I'll do asap.
Edit: Your inventories and stats have been rolled back about a day, sorry. Chests and the world haven't been rolled back. So if you've stored anything you got back in your inv, please dispose it, and if you've taken anything from chests and then lost it, you can get compensation.
Everything there's to fix has been fixed as much as what is possible so you can play again now.