Forum Announcement
Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:05 pm
collectingsnapon.com was down for a few days.
We got hacked, The hacker embedded code in the site to automatically submit “junk” forum postings. The goal is unclear– there is no money to be stolen or information to be gained.
The hack exposed a weakness in the site backend software. Specifically the server security. Transparent to you, we changed servers. This site is now hosted on a more modern server with better backend security.
The security is not 100%. To stop any attack, each post would need to review and approved. This would be a huge inconvenience. The offending posts are in Russian, about sex, pirated software, and drugs – nothing remotely similar to any of your posts. I want to avoid the inconvenience and delay of holding your post hostage to stop these few, obviously bad posts. It is too heavy handed.
So, for the time being, we are running with less than 100% assurance of a repeat problem.
The site is back up. Unfortunately, there is nothing any of you can do to help prevent another attack. It is simply beyond your (and my) control. I did want to provide you with an explanation of what what happened and why
Thanks
Frank
We got hacked, The hacker embedded code in the site to automatically submit “junk” forum postings. The goal is unclear– there is no money to be stolen or information to be gained.
The hack exposed a weakness in the site backend software. Specifically the server security. Transparent to you, we changed servers. This site is now hosted on a more modern server with better backend security.
The security is not 100%. To stop any attack, each post would need to review and approved. This would be a huge inconvenience. The offending posts are in Russian, about sex, pirated software, and drugs – nothing remotely similar to any of your posts. I want to avoid the inconvenience and delay of holding your post hostage to stop these few, obviously bad posts. It is too heavy handed.
So, for the time being, we are running with less than 100% assurance of a repeat problem.
The site is back up. Unfortunately, there is nothing any of you can do to help prevent another attack. It is simply beyond your (and my) control. I did want to provide you with an explanation of what what happened and why
Thanks
Frank