Hackers 1, Jeff 0

[Jeff Westover]

The hackers got to me last night. About 3am I was just about to give up when all of a sudden I could not access Christmas Classifieds.com. Turns out, all the sites I had on that particular server were gone -- Christmasology tests didn't work, Merry Network.com was offline -- in all more than 8 sites were affected.

I have spent 13 hours now in this chair fixing them.

I don't know how we escaped trouble here. I'm still trying to find the vulnerability.

Just wanted to let you all know that bad guys are about and for you to be on your toes for anything suspicious.

Jeff

 

[Ervserver]

Nothing like spending a Sunday fixing a mess some creep some where did. I've noticed nothing other than the Snoopy message after submitting a test.

 

[elfworks]

(((((((jeff)))))))

xo

 

[dvdelf]

I could vent my anger here about hese goobs but I'll bite my tongue & hope they get theirs

 

[mrshfromjersey]

There is a special place in the afterlife for SPAMMERS!!!

Thanks Jeff for all your hard work

 

[Michael Rielly]

We'll be on the look out boss!

What do you think about purging a few of these accounts that have no posts but have been opened for years?

 

[dvdelf]

not a bad idea

 

[Ervserver]

What's the point of hacking into a Christmas site.

 

[dvdelf]

just to be a......forget it

 

[Christy Carol]

Because they are scrooges with no spirit and they are trying to break ours.

And more than likely it was some young kid with no parental attention with nothing better to do.

 

[sheepsnot]

When you say to be on our toes for anything suspicious, what should we be looking for? Changes in functionality? Spammers? What's the response if we notice something?

 

[dvdelf]

swift beatings

 

[Ervserver]

if the background of the board is suddenly pink we may have been hacked by a group of female teenagers

 

[RadioJonD]

They don't want me to take a car antenna to them! :???:

 

[Jeff Westover]

We'll be on the look out boss!

What do you think about purging a few of these accounts that have no posts but have been opened for years?

Not too sure I want to do that because they are still getting the newsletters...the emails don't bounce, so they stay on the member list. We will get a lot of signups this fall who never post on the forums -- but they like the newsletters and visit the site.

Jeff

 

[Jeff Westover]

When you say to be on our toes for anything suspicious, what should we be looking for? Changes in functionality? Spammers? What's the response if we notice something?

well, first of all, be on the look out for the drive by poster. Last week we had a few who just registered by hand, then posted some bad links and then took off. THOSE are hackers. They don't post to get hits to the link...they post because they are looking for holes in the setup. There are now two and only two scripts I use on MMC -- the forums and the link directory. Both are current and I'm religious about staying on top of any security updates. The rest of our pages are hard-coded and the only way to do damage is to wipe them off the server.

The server itself is what I worry about because I don't personally have control over it. I pay for a dedicated server to be monitored 24/7. They are very communicative with me concerning hacking attempts, which happens on the order of about a dozen times a day. Because our site doesn't handle money we most get pranksters...those who just want to stir up a little entertainment for themselves rather than cause real damage. At worst, I'd think we'd see the site wiped out and replace with a nasty picture or message, just so they can get their jollies.

The biggest thing you all can do is to report something out of the ordinary that you see-- some sort of weird functionality, strange links, etc.

Other than that, think good thoughts, I guess.

Jeff

 

[sheepsnot]

if the background of the board is suddenly pink we may have been hacked by a group of female teenagers

I told you this is the wrong forum for your fantasies.