Hacking Threats

Yes, I've received hacking attempts, and been hacked at least once as well

 

Yea same here, I have been hacked in the past... and that was my host's fault, their security was crap.

 

Our site was hacked in January of last year. Because of that incident, when we reopened in August, we stepped up security by a lot to make sure we don't get hacked again. This meant anti-spam ACP, strict rules regarding signatures, and the like. It's tough on us because we do get a lot of complaints regarding these measurements, but which would you rather have: Someone who has a signature with a link that could possibly harm your computer, or a small restriction as to how many posts you can make before being allowed to have a signature at all? I'd rather have the second one myself. I don't always put in signatures when I first join a forum anymore, anyways, but that's beside the point. Posting so much until you have enough posts to add a signature is a small price to pay compared to what we COULD be doing. If people don't like it, they can join a forum that's not as strict about this. Sure, I'd probably be complaining too, and yes people may think we are being "mean", but when you look at things logically, we're only doing what we do about these measurements because we care about the community and we want everyone to have an enjoyable time. We already have one person complain the house down pretty much because he wanted to link to his forum in his sig, but we put our foot down and said no,as it was obvious that he was only there to advertise his site and had no interest in being active what-so-ever. Yes, having a link in your sig is a good promotion tactic, that I can agree with, but if you're only going to make posts just so you can advertise your site, it's not worth it.

 

I've gone there before and in the end they we're not complaining because they knew how strict I am about spam and shizzle

 

I think it'll be that way with us in the end as well. When they realize that we mean what we're saying when we have anti-spam measurements in place, I'm sure in time people will come to accept these measurements and will come to realize that we truly care about our community and we are not trying to be mean at all.

 

Yes, my forum is currently facing a threat and this person have hacked us before. But the forum's security is pretty tight now, and i hope he doesn't gets in again.

 

Wish you the best, dont worry they probably dont know nothing about hacking, just a poor loser.

 

One word: Script kiddies! These are usually people who don't know a thing about hacking a forum, so they'll probably download some stupid script or tutorial that shows them what to do and how to do it. Some people are so unprofessional with this when they actually hack sites, it makes you wonder if they knew what they were doing at the time.

 

Haha, well, but he did manage to hack us when we were in Forumotion.

 

I remember a person on Forum Promotion who's site got hacked. What's funny is that it took the hacker six hours to destroy the forum, but yet it took the owner/administrator only half an hour to put everything right again. I remember we were all laughing at how long it took the person to hack the forum. And when you stop and think about it, it's pretty hilarious: It took six hours for the person to figure out how to hack the forum and actually follow through with the plan, while it took the administrator 30 minutes to an hour to put everything right again. While I'd still be pissed if my forum were hacked for a third time, I would also find it funny if it took someone six hours just to hack the place to begin with.

 

Haha that is pretty funny, its really easy to restore a forum if you have backups.

 

Yea, doing backups every now and than.

So i ignored his message of threatening me, and he replied again.

"
Okay I gave you long enough Joel... 10 days now. I'll do it myself when I wake up in the morning."

 

Every now and then isn't really good enough, Joel. If you want to prevent your forum from being hacked, or if you want to keep databases up to date in case you do get hacked again, I would advise backing up the database once if not twice a week. Then that way, if you ever DO get hacked again, you'll have posts that are at least somewhat up to date.

 

Actually, Kaiser, while it wasn't hard for this person to restore the forum in a matter of minutes, to me it sounded a bit complicated as far as putting files back in place, because the hacker had overroded some e107 file (the person was using SMF) so the owner had to go back in and try and get the e107 file back to the way it previously was, so that's why it took 30 minutes. I think if there weren't so many file edits, the site would've been restored much sooner than that.

 

Jeeze, most of you guy's have a strong hatred for hacking :\. Don't have a hatred for hacking as hacking will always be there, no matter what you do. Have a hatred for these stupid 13 yr olds who always ask other hackers what to do to hack a website. I mean, I guess I used to be that 13 yr old, but I didn't go around asking other people, I learned on my own. You can make a business off hacking as a WH, and get paid alot of money. Hacking IS PART of the internet, accept it.

In my personal opinion, I think ALL forum owners should be able to have some knowledge of hacking, for security sake. Hack your own forum. Patch up some vulnerabilities. Make sure there's no way of a hacker getting in.

So, Hacking can be a good thing, and a bad thing. I learned under a BH watching me, now my forum is as secure as ever, well, for now.

 

Well said @DarkFX

It is good when the professionals do it and then point out the flaws & exploits, etc. to you and help you fix them, and it is bad when you get the script kiddies who do it because they think it's funny to destroy other peoples work.

Also, I actually think "hacked" is an over used word, as half the time, most "hackings" occur when the administrator has been using easy to guess passwords, etc. as that is called "brute force attacks/cracking passwords"

The best thing to do when/if you ever get "hacked" is to restore your latest clean backup made and show them that the attempt to ruin your work has not caused you to give up, because if you do give up, it means that they have won