IRIS Forums Hacked...grrr

[Smudge]

Guys, I'm posting here because a. lots of our customers frequent SOH and b. I don't know how long our forums and/or site will be available today.

A heads up that about 5.20pm Atlanta time (where the server is) the IRIS forums where hit by a nasty person. We got just over 350,000 hits onto the viewforum.php page, compared to 76 hits the same time previous day!

Needless to say this has caused some minor damage to the forum, which we are addressing at the moment.

The site may be down for the next few hours whilst our server admins run the necessary scans of the server logs and all the other servery black arts they do to help track down the individuals responsible.

We're doing our best to get things back to normal ASAP.

Thanks for your understanding.

[Smudge]

Further to my last, we now know that there was a brute force attack attempted on irissimulations.com at 17.19(5:19) june 10 2009

Good news is that the site is confirmed clear of all Trojans and Viruses.

More updates as I get them.

[Roger]

Hackers are like Idiot Savants. They think they're clever but their global view of the world is non-existent. They're like termites and fungi, causing damage without conscience as they're barely conscious. Maybe DDT would do the job?

[BananaBob]

I'm forming a posse if anyone is interested, I even have a couple of extra horses and a rope.

[Kiwikat]

I'm forming a posse if anyone is interested, I even have a couple of extra horses and a rope.

I'll join in...

What is it with flight sim related sites getting nailed? Did we all do something wrong? :isadizzy:

[Henry]

I'll join in...

What is it with flight sim related sites getting nailed? Did we all do something wrong? :isadizzy:

yup we have fun
H

[Rezabrya]

I'll join in...

What is it with flight sim related sites getting nailed? Did we all do something wrong? :isadizzy:

It is all one big conspiracy.

[BananaBob]

yup we have fun
H

That's all it takes sadly for these morons, they have no fun so no one else should, that's their mantra.

[Scratch]

It's clobberin' time!!!!!!:violent::violent::tgun2:

[Bjoern]

Look at the bright side. You now know where your website is vulnerable.



Anyways, done any major activites against product pirates lately?

[Smudge]

Well they certainly chewed through my monthly bandwidth in about 2 minutes...lol. fortunately I have a very understanding server host..

The hack attempt only did minor damage, the security we have on the site was enough to stop any significant damage being done. The store and website are both fine, the forums a little worse for wear, but nothing a reinstall of some of the pages won't fix.

None of the databases were accessed or damaged. It was a simple brute force attack on some of the key forum pages.

And nope, we've not done anything significant against pirates lately..certainly not to warrant an attack... ooo, who knows, maybe someone REALLY took offense to a twin seat F-16..lmao!

[Rezabrya]

Well they certainly chewed through my monthly bandwidth in about 2 minutes...lol. fortunately I have a very understanding server host..

The hack attempt only did minor damage, the security we have on the site was enough to stop any significant damage being done. The store and website are both fine, the forums a little worse for wear, but nothing a reinstall of some of the pages won't fix.

None of the databases were accessed or damaged. It was a simple brute force attack on some of the key forum pages.

And nope, we've not done anything significant against pirates lately..certainly not to warrant an attack... ooo, who knows, maybe someone REALLY took offense to a twin seat F-16..lmao!

I don't think the fact that you are putting out a good product would warrent an attack on you.

[Smudge]

Ahh, it was a very tongue in cheek reply..

All is back to normal now.. I've re-uploaded the original files to replace the damaged ones and the forum is back to normal.

I'm just backing up all the databases and might take the opportunity to back up the site and server contents. It's done daily by our server admins, but sometimes it's nice for me to have up to date copies too..

DB.

[MudMarine]

I'm forming a posse if anyone is interested, I even have a couple of extra horses and a rope.

OH YA, VERY INTERESTED!! Beer for the horses and whiskey for the men.:mixedsmi:

[Roadburner440]

This is sad to hear. Don't know why people can't leave our community alone. It's not like we bother anyone.. Do you know if we have to re-register our forum names again David? I know about a week ago when I tried to log on the forums had changed cause some kind of update failed to work. Hopefully they didn't do to much damage.

[BananaBob]

OH YA, VERY INTERESTED!! Beer for the horses and whiskey for the men.:mixedsmi:

Yeehaww!:ernae:

[VFR Alexander]

OH YA, VERY INTERESTED!! Beer for the horses and whiskey for the men.:mixedsmi:

Mr. Willy knows that all too well. :ernae:

[GT182]

It's call jealousy. They can't join in and be constructive so they do what they do. Too bad there isn't a way to tazer them and their computers. Only I'd like to see a 240 volt tazer get em. :d

[Shylock]

Man I always taught never to use the word hate towards another person. But man these hacker guys are just a bunch of losers to sit around and start hacking flight sim sites. Seems as tho somebody is P'd about the recent crack down on pirates.

[Marlin]

I'll throw in a couple cases of ammo

[JayKae]

Hey David,

it does not seem that I can log in any more, it does not recognise my username/email anymore, could you reset my password and that and send me the info at allplease? admin (at) aussiex.org

[Major_Spittle]

It was probably the Chinesse. They did an internet search with military hardware words like F-14, F-16, updated..... and your site popped up so they clobbered it thinking they got the pentagon.

At least that is my completely baseless accusation and I'm sticking with it. :ernae:

[noddy]

Sorry to hear that, The little so and so's should be put against a wall and shot.

[hey_moe]

David, sorry to hear ya going through this mess. Avsim,SOH and your site....seems someone has it in for flight simmers. It's sad in this day and time that these tirds that get there rocks off by destroying something can't use there talent for something to improve themselves. Until our laws take a strong stance with long prison time for these a-holes this will continue.

[Quixoticish]

Didn't a number of rather high profile Flight Sim related pirate sites get shut down by the authorities recently?

I've no evidence whatsoever to support this but it seems a logical avenue to explore.