Hackers Part 2 (check this out nwheat!)

[Dee]

Nancy, you've got company -- our site, saltwaterreptiles.com, was hacked twice in the last week, and finally hacked to death yesterday.

We had no problems with getting straightened out from the first two attacks, but trying to recover from yesterday's completely corrupted the database for our site. We lost two years of hard work due to some idiot's destructive excuse for a hobby. :furious2: Unfortunately, we were using an older content management system which left us not quite as well protected (or backed up ) as we should have been. Oh well, live and learn, the site is back under construction and we'll be installing whatever security measures we can get our hands on this time!

The funny thing is, like tangerinegecko.com, we had an extra page added to our site, and I don't think our two sites were the only ones hacked lately. Didn't Dan Lubinsky's site get hit not long ago? Any others? Considering how much business and communication we all do over the internet in this hobby, it's more than just a nuisance. Personally, I find it pretty strange for two sites within our close-knit community to be damaged in less than a week...

 

[BalloonzForU]

Sorry to hear that! Hope all works out, and your site up and run real soon.

 

[marula]

...i'm so sorry for you..
..and sure..is strage the number of the web sites damaged, web sites of people from the same community..
..i hope you can replace as soon is possible your web site.....

 

[nwheat]

:furious3: HACKERS :furious3:

Sorry to hear that Dee! I hope you get back up & running soon! I just don't understand why someone would think it is fun to mess with people's sites like that.:main_angry:

 

[Dee]

Thanks guys. Cory and I are already halfway thru the rebuild, and with the new php system, we're hoping to avoid this garbage in the future!! Some moron really needs a kick in the teeth! :freak: :rifle:

*edit -- violent emoticons, can ya TELL I'm mad?!? LOL!

 

[Arconna]

Did you have a backup for it? Usually when I have a website I have a copy server side and a copy on my side that isn't connected to the site. But maybe that's not what is the problem.

Either way that is complete and total CRAP! Stupid hackers...

 

[Milwaukee Reptiles]

Out of curiosity... no reasons to suspect anything at all... but did you guys use the same password for your site admin as you did on fauna... or another forum that could have been hacked/viewed by admins? I ask because a site admin might be able to view your password and try the same one for your site, or, someone hacked a site (such as this), got your password from this site's database, your website from your signature, and tried them together.

Even if the password is encrypted into a MD5 hash if you use a password that can be found in a dictionary or is common, it can be cracked in a matter of minutes. http://lastbit.com/rm_bruteforce.asp

I would recommend to ALL website owners to change your website password now to a password that cannot be found in a dictionary, is not common, includes both numbers and letters of multiple cases, and is not used on any other site/place. If this really is an attack against gecko site owners we may want to send out some type of notification as well...

 

[Milwaukee Reptiles]

Did you have a backup for it? Usually when I have a website I have a copy server side and a copy on my side that isn't connected to the site. But maybe that's not what is the problem.

I think they said it was the database that was hacked... so unless they did a recent export of the database manually it wouldn't be FTP'd like regular html/php files.

 

[gko reptiles]

ooooh that's scary!! We JUST got our website up!! ahhhhh!!!!!! Good Luck getting yours back together!; and wish us luck that ours doesn't get hit!

 

[Dee]

Passwords -- don't think it was anything they could have gotten from another site, but point taken. I think we've both chosen more secure passwords this time.

We've actually tried to reinstate and had to take it back down again for a couple of days. We were having too many glitches with the new cms, so Cory found a solid security patch for the one we were using and we're going to try again. Here's hoping!