21 replies to this topic

[stewart]

Anybody know what's going on over there? I try to access and the site just ain't there.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

[scheming]Excellent, my plan has worked perfectly! Their web host is now gone! Muhahahahah![/scheme]

Seriously though? I don't know.

[j'ordos]

Site Update

Please note that due to two recent consecutive hacking incidents, both ufoaftermath.co.uk and x-com.co.uk will be offline completely whilst I review the security of certain scripts in use on the site.

Furthermore, all users with email accounts will find that they will no longer work as of 2100 hours GMT as the attacker was meddling with email accounts as well. Please note that if anyone received spam in the past 24-48 hours, it was likely an attacker assuming the identity of a member of site staff. If anyone has such an email, please keep hold of it and I will set up an email account when we are back to normal to collect the evidence and notify the offending person's internet service provider.

Once the sites are re-opened, I urge everyone to change their forum passwords and for email account users to send me a different password after I've got the email accounts up and running once more simply because we are not sure as to the extent to which the attacker had access. It is unlikely that they were able to crack the forum passwords or the email passwords as both are heavily encrypted with the industry standard in hashing algorithms, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Finally, apologies for the disruption, but we are hard at work resolving this situation and taking the neccesary precautions to ensure it doesn't happen again. Thanks for your patience.

Pete

[Blehm 98]

sooo, do we need knew passwords or something? (mutters something about hackers)

[j'ordos]

sooo, do we need knew passwords or something?  (mutters something about hackers)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

this occured at x-com.co.uk, not here, but you might want to update your account there once the site is back up, yes. Since they run the same forum software (not sure if they also had the update), it might occur here too... :whatwhat: Unless I'm mistaken

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Nah, I have complete faith in Micah and Iblis. They'll keep us safe from any malevolent kids in their parents' basement. Or rather, any who don't use the standard registration procedures.

[Micah]

There were some security updates released over the last few months for the version of IPB they were running at x-com.co.uk. If the admins didn't happen to install them, then they were certainly vulnerable at least through the forums. They did seem rather slow to update their forum software over the last couple of years...

However, my uneducated guess would be that the admins installed a script for a good purpose, but that that script contained maliscious code they did not notice. That's an uneducated guess from the description of their problem

[stewart]

Nah, I have complete faith in Micah and Iblis. They'll keep us safe from any malevolent kids in their parents' basement. Or rather, any who don't use the standard registration procedures.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hmm? You know it's pretty impossible to keep a determined and skilled hacker out. At least Micah backs-up frequently. So we can turn disaster to annoyance anyway.

[stewart]

I just tried now. My browser says it doesn't recognize the URL; I don't even get the note about the hacker. What's going on?

[DaiShiva]

It's up again

[Blehm 98]

oh goodie. NOw the problem is, i'm to lazy to go on now

[Slaughter]

There were some security updates released over the last few months for the version of IPB they were running at x-com.co.uk. If the admins didn't happen to install them, then they were certainly vulnerable at least through the forums. They did seem rather slow to update their forum software over the last couple of years...

However, my uneducated guess would be that the admins installed a script for a good purpose, but that that script contained maliscious code they did not notice. That's an uneducated guess from the description of their problem

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pretty spot on for an uneducated guess . It was a combination of some bad scripts and people that seems determined to attack us. I think that was the third time we've been attacked over the last year or so, and I'd really like to get alone in a room with one of the crackers...

Anyway, once the new site is up it should add up for the down time. We are now a merge of UFOAftermath.co.uk, X-Com.co.uk and S2HQ.com. Thus we have a lot of good content on offer, and a large community. Activity have been somewhat low since the trouble started, but it should improve once the site is up. There's a screenshot of what the site will look like (at least something like it) when it's ready here. Estimate is the middle of this month, but no promises!

[stewart]

Glad to hear it. XTC (I guess it's not that anymore) is a great site!

BTW slaughter and other folks from there I'd like to direct your attention to this thread.

[Slaughter]

I will look into it closer tonight stewart. We should get a closer cooperation between the sites in the time to come. More on that later

[stewart]

Sounds good but as you know that is really up to Pete and Micah

[Slaughter]

Pete and me are partners in crime with StrategyCore . I've contacted Micah with another matter though, so we'll see what he says once he's online again.

[stewart]

What do you have in mind?

[Slaughter]

I'll get back to you on it. Exam this Tuesday so I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment

[Zombie]

As a quick heads-up, Pete is doing some work on the StrategyCore server today, so the site may be down for a while longer. Please bear with him.

- Zombie

[Gimli]

Oh, I'll bear with him when I send him the bear cavalry.

[Zombie]

Note to self: don't get on Gimli's bad side.

Anyhow, looks like the site is back up for business.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

StrategyCore is moving to a new server this weekend so logging in may be impossible or spotty. I'll let everyone know when it's back up.

Edit: should be up now.

- Zombie

Edited by Zombie, 07 March 2009 - 08:40 AM.