Site Hacked Info

[Stewart]

All,

Apologies for the downtime of the forum today. I don't know how the hacker managed to get into the forum, although it seems they've piggy-backed via my user details. I've taken the following precautions:


Scanned personal computer for all spyware, malware, trojans, and viruses. All that were found were promptly removed.
Reinstalled the whole forum, changing passwords and usernames on the server.
Discovered and deleted a number of files that were slipped somehow onto the server and were feeding information remotely to the hacker.
Disabled all non-essential third-party plug-ins.

Those who had custom avatars will find that they have been lost in all this.

It's been a learning experience. The downtime has also had the positive that I've had a moment to update the forum to the latest software and have finally fixed the issue with flags. When creating threads, huge lists of flags no longer appear, and the appropriate icon can be selected from a dropdown box just under the thread posting area.

[beelzebubbles]

Thanks for your hard work, Stewart.:)

[miercuri]

You're a hero! :) Good to have the forum back!

[kpjayan]

What I liked about the whole hacking was the mail I received from the hacker ;) ( I'm sure all of you would have received). Harmless mail ( wasn't caught under the spam ) with a to reply ID. Nice way of hacking isn't it :p . Must be a book savvy hacker to get into this place for a second time.

Stewart, you ( we) are famous.

[miercuri]

I was amused with it too, he even thanked us.

[A Common Reader]

It will remain a mystery why these people bother - but I suspect that WLF was only one of many targets.

I lost the whole of my site A Common Reader about 18 months ago - it was hacked to badly that Google blocked it from search results with a big warning message - all very embarrassing.

The hackers hadn't just got into my Wordpress installation but had somehow corrupted the hosting facility, so that reinstalling the software made no difference. However when I investigated further I found that the same hack had searched through many Wordpress sites corrupting every site where it found a particular vulnerability. I'm now on Typepad which allows me to let someone else worry about security (but costs me far too much money!).

Many congrats to Stewart for recovering the site so quickly.

Tom

[Stewart]

Thanks all. If it can happen to the Pentagon (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4715612.stm), it can happen to us. It's just a case of vigilance and prevention.

[saliotthomas]

Since the hacking thing,i get the forum right but if i go to general discussion,i get an old version of it and i can't log in.(The last purchase being Liam on the 1th of august,recently finished Miercuri 31th juilly...)
I'm i the only one with having this probleme?

[Flower]

Great job, Stewart!

It has made me wonder though, now this Saudi Arabia guy has all our email adresses, should we worry about that??

Im far from a computer nerd, so I dont know what is possible etc.

[Daniel del Real]

All,

The downtime has also had the positive that I've had a moment to update the forum to the latest software and have finally fixed the issue with flags. When creating threads, huge lists of flags no longer appear, and the appropriate icon can be selected from a dropdown box just under the thread posting area.

I really miss choosing between all the flags Stewart, it was so colorful :(

[Stewart]

It has made me wonder though, now this Saudi Arabia guy has all our email adresses, should we worry about that?
I would doubt that they have your email address. From what I can see, they got access to the system and used the forum's mass mailout feature with the message. The only database activity appears to be changing the main page template.

[Stewart]

I really miss choosing between all the flags Stewart, it was so colorful :(

But it too forever to load. That, and there were so many flags, it's easier to have them listed textually so as to find them rather than hunt around the colours to find a flag.

[pontalba]

I would doubt that they have your email address. From what I can see, they got access to the system and used the forum's mass mailout feature with the message. The only database activity appears to be changing the main page template.

Is that why I show a notification for a p.m., and none is there?

[Stewart]

Is that why I show a notification for a p.m., and none is there?
No. That will be from ages ago, when someone signed up and was sending PMs of rubbish to members. I deleted all PMs sent from that account when I deleted the member. Sounds like you have a notification stuck in limbo. I'll look into it when I get a chance.