Status of the Forum

[Dalfie]

In the aftermath of the hacking we experienced on Friday, our member profiles have been reverted to the way they were on June 29.  If you made any changes since then, you will need to redo them.

Some of our members were totally deleted by the hacker, so their avatars may not appear. Simply reload your avatar.

Also, at this time it appears that all pm's were lost.

Thank you everyone for your patience.

[Raven]

If "pm's" means personal messages, then all mine are intact.  But how sad to see so many threads gone completely.

Is there a way to keep this from happening again? 

[Dalfie]

I should have said, all Pm's (personal messages) of members who were deleted may be lost. All of mine are gone. It probably depends where in the hacking the member was deleted.

There was a vulnerability in the version of the forum we were running. We have upgraded with the new version, which is supposed to have a security patch.

Raven, my heart has been "sunk" since Friday morning when I discovered this attack. It only sunk further as we started to go through what was left and our restoration options. I could have had things up at least partially on Friday night, but we opted to respect the Sabbath hours. I spent a difficult day trying NOT to think about the forum....

Keep on your toes, though. These hacking attempts are a status thing amongst such people, and I have been watching them lurking this morning.

 

[wondering]

Raven, my heart has been "sunk" since Friday morning when I discovered this attack. It only sunk further as we started to go through what was left and our restoration options. I could have had things up at least partially on Friday night, but we opted to respect the Sabbath hours. I spent a difficult day trying NOT to think about the forum....

It looks like you did a phenomenal job, especially in light of the persistence of these types of people! June 29th is great! I remember having to redo a month's worth of work at one job after a computer problem and restore

[Kevin Barrett]

Excellent work Dalfie. Thank you for your efforts in restoring the forums.
Information security is ever changing. There are really are no guarantees that something like this will not happen again.

It is unfortunate that this happens at all,  but it is indicative of times in which we live.

Thanks again for your efforts!

Kevin

[Raven]

The whole idea of computers and what they can do is still amazing to me, since I'm one who still works on the level of the concrete (nuts, bolts, hammer, nails, chainsaw, axe, etc.).  So anytime something goes wrong and someone can fix it, I am dutifully impressed.  Very well done, Dalfie, et. al.      And I'm glad you let it go so you could have a Sabbath day's blessing.  This was a sad ordeal, but not the end of the world, or even the time of trouble.

Maybe this will work out for the better.  Now we can rehash some of these old discussions again.    I'd better be careful, or Larry will polish the BBBB and it'll be curtains for me.

[lily-of-the-field]

I'm useless when it comes to computers, so you have my full admiration, Dalfie.  Have the missing threads been annihilated??  How sad : (

[Dalfie]

Annihilated is a good word. Vaporized would work too!

[Larry Lyons]

During this episode I have been having computer problems. This afternoon has been the first time I have been able to access anthing without some kind of interruption and disconnect. This morning I was trying to do a security scan and even that got hung up. I may need to take my CPU to someone who can troubleshoot. I also saw an ad for ATT DSL for only $20.00 per month. I will check that out and see if they have service in this area.

Dalfie, you have no idea how you are appreciated on this forum!! Many thanks for your work and expertise.

[Ed Sutton]

Since that loss from hackers, till this November 2010, another loss has occurred .

Perhaps it is time to routinely back up the forums using the Terabyte size hard drives now economically available.