# Hackers



## Sim (Mar 7, 2003)

Need I say more. What f cking ars holes.


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## John C (Jul 5, 2002)

You have to ask why?

I mean hacking into a site for some financial gain, or revenge or something is (albeit wrong) almost understandable but the TT forum.

OFFS


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## moley (May 14, 2002)

Absolute wankin' bastards  Suppose they thought it was a bit of fun [smiley=rifle.gif] [smiley=whip.gif] [smiley=hanged.gif] [smiley=behead.gif]

As has been said, the TT Forum admin team did a sterling job. Well done from me as well.

So we'll pick up the pieces and carry on - we won't let the bastards win.

Moley


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## KevinST (May 6, 2002)

I have a cunning plan... just need to talk to Jae, but am failing. Guess it's possible that he's getting seriously pissed (both angry and drunk).
If anyone talks to him or sees him... TELL HIM TO CALL ME !!!!


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## John C (Jul 5, 2002)

And if the plan works are we going to get to hear about it?

Hope it does!


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## moley (May 14, 2002)

So we're all off to the US to give the fucker a good kickin' . Perhaps we can get EighTT and all the other US'uns involved as well.

Moley


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## ^outt^kast^ (Jun 7, 2002)

[email protected]


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## 55JWB (May 7, 2002)

I just dont get it ???


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## phil (May 7, 2002)

Hacking's very big and clever, but unfortunately doesn't cure acne or get you a girlfriend.

It's actually not that difficult to do. All it involves is trying to find bugs in software, something which I've done a lot of at work. Difference was I was paid to do it. And I've done it with a girl.


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## Sim (Mar 7, 2003)

> Guess it's possible that he's getting seriously pissed


Well my Grolsch fridge pack is getting well down...

I am watching gangs of New York and getting some good ideas for the treatment of the hacker


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## Sim (Mar 7, 2003)

> And I've done it with a girl.


Show off!


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## phil (May 7, 2002)

> Well my Grolsch fridge pack is getting well down...
> 
> I am watching gangs of New York and getting some good ideas for the treatment of the hacker


Best thing to do is put them in a situation where they must socialise with people who don't know what unix is.


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## phil (May 7, 2002)

> Show off!


Well, you're going to be jealous now, because I'm going to brag now and tell you that I've done it more than once. *And* I took my socks off.


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## R6B TT (Feb 25, 2003)

> Hacking's very big and clever, but unfortunately doesn't cure acne or get you a girlfriend.
> 
> It's actually not that difficult to do. All it involves is trying to find bugs in software, something which I've done a lot of at work. Difference was I was paid to do it. And I've done it with a girl.


Finding bugs in girls ?


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## phil (May 7, 2002)

> Finding bugs in girls ?


lol mr. pedantic.


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## R6B TT (Feb 25, 2003)

Well they do have some interesting soft bits - no criticism mate, sounds like it could be fun. Amateur gynaecology is a hobby of mine too.


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## ronin (Sep 6, 2003)

on another note - not sure who runs the site but im in IT and can offer a free dds drive and tapes to the forum guys if needed for back up, if its any help, just IM where you want it sent and itll be on its way


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## Sim (Mar 7, 2003)

I feel violated and I found myself telling my Mum and Dad on the phone that the forum has been hacked as if they are bothered.


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## ronin (Sep 6, 2003)

was my birthday yesterday, could of thought of better presents


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## Sim (Mar 7, 2003)

Happy Birthday for yesterday ;D


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## ^outt^kast^ (Jun 7, 2002)

> I just dont get it


...

have you tried talking to her???

Anyway I don't think this is the best forum to be discussing your personal problems.


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## vlastan (May 6, 2002)

As I was on hols this hacker saved me a lot of time! I don't have to catch up with any threads and I am back to where I left this forum!! ;D


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## Dotti (Mar 9, 2003)

> As I was on hols this hacker saved me a lot of time! I don't have to catch up with any threads and I am back to where I left this forum!! Â ;D


A very typical answer all would expect from you Vlastan ... welcome back Nick :-*


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## jgoodman00 (May 6, 2002)

> As I was on hols this hacker saved me a lot of time! I don't have to catch up with any threads and I am back to where I left this forum!! Â ;D


Lol, we have the real guilty party. So what is we do now? Start a witch-hunt or something...


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## ^outt^kast^ (Jun 7, 2002)

I suspect ........Nick.........


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## BreTT (Oct 30, 2002)

> I suspect ........Nick.........


in the conservatory with the Cisco switch...


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

Hmmmm hackers willl be hackers....

IMHO its also up to site admins and web hosting companies to either protect their users or at least implement some decent sort of backup system. This site, although free for users, gets an enormous amount of hits, and therefore generates a not insignificant amount of advertising revenue for the hosters. I would have thought this would allow them to backup the forum at least every 3 weeks, but this doesn't seem to be the case.....

The forum exists because of (and for) its users. Very few of us comment on topics which are over 24 hours old (unless catching up) and usually we comment on threads which are moments, minutes or hours old. Going back 3 weeks has ripped the heart out of ALL of our recent activity.

This time, like last time, I'm sure it'll pick itself back up again....

Next time? Personally I think we'll grow weary. Whats the point of spending time helping people, or joking with people or simply just keeping in touch, if all your time and effort are wiped out. Yes - wiped by a hacker, but thats what backup solutions defend against......

There were some excellent serious discussions in full flow. Some great Off Topic threads, and also some interesting flames. All lost. In the couple of days since the hack happened, has the forum suddenly burst into life and regenerated a load more interesting topics? Nope.... its very stagnant at the moment.....

Lets hope it improves.

Not a personal attack on anyone - but site security and backups are a serious issue here. If the buck stops with you, I feel sorry for you. I really don't know the relationships or arrangements involved, but if this site is to continue being the prime provider of information and community to the TT Owners of the UK, I just think it needs to buck up its ideas somewhat......

(BTW if running costs aren't covered by advertising revenue, then perhaps now is an ideal time to say so.... but my feeling is that they are (or at least should be) and its on this commercial basis that I'm making these comments. Were this a site run off someone's home computer, stuck in their bedroom, I'd just be happy to have it, and "best endeavours" at keeping it running would be more than sufficient. But thats not my impression. Feel free to correct me......)


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## raven (May 7, 2002)

Aw shite, I've just got back from a weekend away, and was looking forward to catching up on the DSG thread (both main forum and the Flame room), not to mention the "Election tomorrow" thread in Off-topic. Now they've all gone. :'(

What's more, since ordering a new TT a few weeks ago, I've been posting like crazy, the Forum being an outlet for my excitement and anticipation in getting the new car (just like the Forum was in late 2000 when I last ordered a TT). If I look at my last 10 posts now, half of them are about the M3... :-[


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

> Aw shite, I've just got back from a weekend away, and was looking forward to catching up on the DSG thread (both main forum and the Flame room), not to mention the "Election tomorrow" thread in Off-topic. Now they've all gone. :'(
> 
> What's more, since ordering a new TT a few weeks ago, I've been posting like crazy, the Forum being an outlet for my excitement and anticipation in getting the new car (just like the Forum was in late 2000 when I last ordered a TT). If I look at my last 10 posts now, half of them are about the M3... :-[


Thats exactly what I mean..... not great is it?


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## mike_bailey (May 7, 2002)

Luckily I've been posting a load of crap so my loss is minimal ;D


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## jgoodman00 (May 6, 2002)

> Hmmmm hackers willl be hackers....
> 
> IMHO its also up to site admins and web hosting companies to either protect their users or at least implement some decent sort of backup system. This site, although free for users, gets an enormous amount of hits, and therefore generates a not insignificant amount of advertising revenue for the hosters. I would have thought this would allow them to backup the forum at least every 3 weeks, but this doesn't seem to be the case.....
> 
> ...


Also, is there a reason why users passwords are exposed to admin accounts? That seems a little strange to me...

I agree with you Tim, almost word for word...


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## KevinST (May 6, 2002)

<sigh> Tim - I do agree with you. When I found out that 1) we had been "hacked", 2) that we had rolled back to 13 Aug and 3) the backup system had failed I was not happy... Jae was even more unhappy than I was.

No system is secure; OS and applications always have vulnerabilities and it's always a race between those who want to exploit them, and those that want to patch them. With a open source application that has a small number of people developing code for it, but a large number of sites using it, the chances of vulnerabilities being found is high.
We always do our best to keep this site upto date. the site is hosted by Verio and we are protected by their firewalls.

The vulnerability that we were hacked by is apparently well known within a small group of YaBB developers (unfortunatly because I don't spend a great deal of time in the YaBB forums I was not aware of it)... I had to search hard to find details on it, and informed Jae immediatly on how to plug the hole.

Why were we "hacked" ? several reasons... we are very vey successful (hackers want to only go for sites that will have a big impact, no fun hacking a site that only gets 100 hits per day!), we are probably the most heavily used YaBB forum in operation. It has nothing to do with this site being revenue generating

Has leasons been learnt?? definatly. Jae's now ensuring that the backups are happening regularly (as they were before we moved servers in July (IIRC). I'm also looking at possibilities of getting YaBB to back itself up so that I have access to restores (Jae is the only one who has access to the ftp account for the site).

One of Jae's commenst to me was that he thought that the user base would be resliiant to this latest setback of the site... I hope it is, but understand users frustration and accept that the reputation of the site has probably been affected. Hopefully this reputation will be restored to it's pre-hack status in the near future.


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## Jae (May 6, 2002)

I would concur with Tim and Kevin. Caught on the hop!

We are looking at mirroring the site daily onto another directory, and the backups are running daily, and stored in 2 locations as of Saturday.

This was very dissappointing for both Kevin and I, and sincerely hope that we have done everything to ensure continuity in the future.

Thankyou for all of your support.

Jae


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## jampott (Sep 6, 2003)

Jae

Thats great news. I'm sorry you were caught on the hop, and (having been in that situation recently, and had to rebuild 2000 callcentre agents on a Sunday to be ready for a Monday AM because our own support department didn't have a backup, and the client (!) had deleted all the users by mistake) I know exactly what you are going through.....

Great to see it all back up again, and sturdy, secure and stable!! 

If there is anything that I (or maybe any other likeminded forum members) can do to help, I'm sure I/we would only be glad to assist in any way......


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## ChasTT (Oct 17, 2002)

> Posted by: Mike Bailey Posted on: Sep 7th, 2003, 7:54pm
> Luckily I've been posting a load of crap so my loss is minimal


..yeah, but at least it was doing more than 40mph Mike.... 

....and does this mean that more or less than 14% of the forum is now absent....and do I still have to pay it for the time off ???

(Appologies to those of you who haven't been in the Flame Room for a couple of weeks)


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