European Fish Forum Hacked

[The Rockster]

Hi,

Just got notification that the largest European Fish forum, members database, has been hacked.
Also it is happening to a few small American Aquarium forums. All personal information may be at risk.
All thought we really don't have much personal information exposed, this could be a sign of the times.



We aren't giving out any forum's addresses.

 

[Gerryd]

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[oheresy]

This forum seems to have been taken over by spam. At least most of the posts on the RSS feed are spam.

 

[Gerryd]

There certainly has been increased activity lately.

Greg says that the spambots get more intelligent daily and as Tom says, folks still get paid to actually sign on and spam websites for pay....

I sign on several times a day to remove spam and whatnot.....

Almost seems to be shoveling s**t against the tide, but every little bit helps.......

I have not used the RSS feed but will check it out and see.

 

[jonny_ftm]

Why not block new subscriptions for a while and remove all the actual spamming users. Waiting for the spammers to move away, the forum can be invite only or requieres PM to a moderator

 

[admin_old]

Why not block new subscriptions for a while and remove all the actual spamming users. Waiting for the spammers to move away, the forum can be invite only or requieres PM to a moderator

99% of the problem will be addressed with the current software upgrades to the forum that are occurring ... so if you can be a little patient with us, the problem with the automated software spambots should be resolved within a few days ...

In the meantime ... our moderators are deleting most of the spam before anyone sees it ... it is just flooding in ...

The reality is that this is mostly coming from automated software spambots.

I completed the third phase of a software upgrade today which should block most of the new spam sources --- which will leave us cleaning up the residual from spammer accounts that are already registered. So while most of the problem has been addressed for the long term, we will have some short term "clean up" work for the short-term ...

I have two more phases of software updates that I will be rolling out over the next week or so ... which should bring added protections as well as some neat new features for subscribers ...

Thanks,
Greg Watson

 

[admin_old]

This forum seems to have been taken over by spam. At least most of the posts on the RSS feed are spam.

The RSS feeds don't get updated "immediately" ... so even if a spam thread has already been deleted by our Moderators, they may still show up in the RSS feed for "a little while" ...

For example, if you click on what you think is a spam post in an RSS feed, there is a decent chance that you will land on an error page stating that it is an invalid thread ...

We are killing the spam as fast as we possibly can ... and I have completed several software updates which seem to have killed 99% of it in the last few hours ...

Thanks,
Greg Watson

 

[The Rockster]

Will the "upgrades", also address the email notification, issue of sporadically malfunctioning lately or the slow page loading?

Not complaining just wondering and hoping.

 

[admin_old]

Will the "upgrades", also address the email notification, issue of sporadically malfunctioning lately or the slow page loading?

Not complaining just wondering and hoping.

Those are pretty vague - but let me try :

1. Email notifications work - I get all kinds of them averaging about 1 every 10 minutes or less. To the extent that they are not working for an individual person, that is normally a function of their ISP's spam filters or their personal spam filters and what they are flagging and/or blocking. And also whether they are blocking the email or simply routing it into a spam filter folder like a Junk Mail or Spam folder - it is different for every individual and ISP.

2. Sporadically malfunctioning - I've never seen it, but if you get an error page, I get an email letting me know about it. So I am aware of what has been happening, and yes, supposedly the new version of the forum software should reduce that (I won't say eliminate because there will always be software bugs).

3. Slow page load times. That is not a function of the website or the webserver it is on, but rather a function of the internet latency between the webserver and the person trying to load a page. Sometimes parts of the internet bottle up - it's like a big pipeline with lots of junctions between you and the server. For example, Tom just posted a new thread with lots of pictures, it loaded essentially instantly for me - of course, I'm only two timezones away from the server !!!

So I think the answer to your questions are --- hopefully! For most people!

Thanks,
Greg Watson