The webcode on our site has been heavily hacked. Each web page, whether in the Forum, Showcase, or anywhere – contains a hidden link that issues a “click” to a viagra website. There’s no possibility of infection for your home computer; it’s just a way for the perpetrator to collect revenue based on the number of clicks his advertisement receives.
I had my service provider restore a prior version of the webcode, thinking that version lacked the hack; not only does that version have the hack too, but my service provider screwed up the restore. That’s why you couldn’t get in.
I have a real mess on my hands. I have to package up all the code on the website, download it, write a program to scrub it of the hack, upload it again and depackage it. Maybe I can get to this on Labor Day – there’s just too much stuff going on right now.
Life is too short to deal with this bull****. But I will, because your cars – and my friends – are too precious to me.
Little do I realise how MUCH effort Dan puts in to keep this site afloat-many people would NOT endure the continual assaults from hackers worldwide, and I applaud Dan for his temerity and perserverance and computer talent.
Dan, is it so bad to leave the hidden promo’s where they are? Kind of like leaving the beehive in the tree as long as they don’t bother anyone?
I visit only one other site with any regularity..Dave Stragand’s FL. Do you suppose he deals with all these annoyances with similar frequency? Is this a question of acquiring a more expensive firewall or program or whatever?
Roger
No, the hacks have to go. More importantly, the barn door needs to be closed – else, the number of ongoing hacks will compound the problem, and bring the website to its knees. I’m afraid I have to eliminate them; I don’t know what else to do.
It may very well be that Dave has a more secure provider; but then, I pay about $150 a year to mine, and I suspect he pays much more to his – which he underwrites with contributions from members; he has to; and, I myself am a contributor. But I’d prefer to underwrite the cost of my website myself. No, I just have to better educate myself about potential holes that allow exploits (e.g., the guestbook software is one such exploit I’ve recently learned about) and close them up.
I can’t even imagine what it is like to run a website such as this. Dan, keep up the good work, we all appreciate it!
I, personally, have not been able to get on the forum for close to two months, I would log in, and the page would refresh, and I would find myself logged out. This is the first time I have been able to stay logged in.
Hackers can go straight to hell as far as I am concerned! This world would be a much better place if these idiots used their talents constructively. —John
I’ve identified all the corrupted files – over 1000 of them. I’ve built a script to replace them, now I just have to execute it – perhaps tonight. And then I’ve got to go about closing barn doors…
Well, all of the static web pages are scrubbed; so are the dynamic webpages of the Forum. Also, the database was hacked! I’ve removed that hack as well…
But there’s still a #@(!*#$@!!! hack somewhere, and I can’t find it. I’ve submitted an incident report to the phpBB folks (who write this Forum software), in the hopes they can help me find it.
Meanwhile, my home computer is flaking out. And my DVD burner crapped out, and work is hell, and…
Enough about me…
I’ll get back on my feet again. It’s just that right now, I’m having a heckuva time.
Dan - Sounds like you need to take Faulkner out of the garage, crank er up, take a slow leaisurly drive to KFC. It always soothes me when I get stressed out. Four pieces dark, original, slaw, biscuit with extra honey. Damn, that shounds so good I think I’ll go myself.
Dick.
Well – maybe a better service provider, Roger. If you read this rather boring thread below, you’ll see that they were aware of potential exploits – but did nothing about it. I discovered the failure point, and only when I pressed them on it did they volunteer to move me to a more secure environment.
(sigh) it’s going to be a lot of work for me, but perhaps I’ll do it…
