Post second hack statement -**Updated**

[phasmid]

**Update** 21st June**

 

Hi all.

 

Can we all remain vigilant still please. If you notice anything you think odd, no matter how daft it may seem, please continue to let us know. In the meantime please rest assured that the site Admins and Moderators are working hard to prevent any future hack attempts

 

Thanks

 

 

The Mods

 

 

 

As you are all no doubt aware the forum was subject to a serious hacking attack late on Wednesday night. The attack was spotted, fortunately very quickly, and site admin took the whole forum offline at once. Unlike the first hacking attempt made last Sunday it is believed that the second attack targetted the site specifcally. Naturally the details gained from the second attempt have been sent to the relevant people and investigations into the identity of the person responsible are ongoing.

 

 

Site admin have taken the opportunity of the forum being off-line to upgrade the forum software and consequentlly things may not run as smoothly as usual over the next few hours or possibly days. If the forum goes off-line again it is likely to be due to 'techie matters' and things that need fine tunning rather than anything sinister.

 

 

However, in case of further attempts to attack the forum, please be our eyes and ears. If you notice anything out of the ordinary please alert the Admin and/or Mods at once.

 

 

Thanks everyone.

 

Forum Moderators

Edited June 21, 2006 by phasmid

[lindy-lou]

may sound silly phas,but what sort of things should we be looking out for?

[kirstie]

<'> I'm so glad we are up and running again. I was really worried the Forum would close permanantly because of these spiteful gits!

When i was online at the time of the Hacking things started to disappear and at first i thought it was my computer. I will keep my eyes open!!

Hope the hacker is stopped in his/her tracks asap!

Thanks everyone who got us up and running again!!

[phasmid]

It's difficult to say to be honest with you LL. It's just anything odd...I know that's rather vague but we all know the usual sorts of post we see and so on. Trying NOT to be paranoid or make evryone else feel paranoid eitherit's simply a case of being careful.

 

Hope that makes at least some sense!

[Bagpuss]

I wasn't on forum during second hack, but was for the first. Has made me take a serious look at protecting my pc from virus's etc, and had not even thought about it before. Hopefully now have installed lots of anti virus software etc, and hope I'm protected. What the heck do people get out of hacking sites, we all need the forum, and makes me so Really missed the forum while it was gone, but thankyou so much for taking the time to get it up and running again. Really means alot to me, and many others I'm sure. Will definately keep my eyes out for anything suspicious, although not sure what is or isn't suspicious......but did see row of red crosses during first hack, so I suppose that was something to be aware of.

[tallship]

I use a forum which is frequently hacked and attacked because of its' political content. If you're not used to this kind of abuse then it's possible that my joining your forum has attracted the wrong kind of attention, for which I am truly sorry.

 

I won't visit or post here again. The admin team here will have my email address, if they contact me I'll put them in touch with forum admin from the other site who have 'tools' for dealing with internet vermin.

 

Byeeee.....

 

Pete.

[lisann]

Hi

Thanks to all the forum mods again for sorting the problem out and keeping us safe.There are some truley sad people out there with nothing better to do a**e-h*le*!!!!!!!!!!!!

It really wouldn't have been life without this site

 

Lisa x

[DaisyProudfoot]

I wasn't online during either hack but it saddens me that people would jeapodise a site aimed at specifically helping people and their families.

 

What is it with these people?

 

Would it work by changing the forum address again?

[Zemanski]

Tallship's post worries me - whether or not he attracted attention because of links with other sites is immaterial, any one of us may have links with other sites, political or otherwise, that may attract unwanted attention from malicious people but we should still be free to use this forum as long as we are abiding by its rules and respecting other users

 

I hope a mod can contact him and sort it out, I am sure he is not to blame any more than anyone else

 

Zemanski

[Lufty]

I wasn't online during either hack but it saddens me that people would jeapodise a site aimed at specifically helping people and their families.

 

What is it with these people?

 

Would it work by changing the forum address again?

 

Hi DaisyProudfoot

 

Unfortunately changing the forum address would not really help as hackers use search engines to find sites running particular software and then attempt a hack.

 

The only alternative would be to make this a private site and not publicise it to the wider world which stop ligitimate people from finding the site.

 

Kind regards

 

 

 

Lufty

[Guest flutter]

Z

i use a forum for "womens bits" and because words can be used, we were reguarly attacked by youngsters, who would post, and cause all sorts of issues

the problem with the internet is we can be who we want to be, and change that if we fancy, and i have on many times been on the recieving end of some vicious remarks and attacks because i asked peeps to be "inclusive"

i too was saddened by tallship's post, but in this world ( internet) if u p"iss someone off they go and find u where ever,NOT saying that tallship did warent this, but it is their concept against yours/mine?

it is easier to have a pop online that face to face

X

[Canopus]

Until the hackers are identified nobody can rule out that they were working on behalf of the government. It wouldn't surprise me if some people who work for central government or LEAs view this site as a stain on the face of the nation because it puts too much power and information into the hands of ordinary people and stresses out government officials who pine for the days of the 1980s when they could get away with treating kids with AS like dirt.

 

Tallship is right that political sites, especially anti EU ones, are regularly attacked by hackers and they are very rarely caught, probably because they were working on behalf of the government or the EU as opposed to being private individuals.

[Zemanski]

my problem is that he is blaming himself when any of us could be to blame and in fact it is unlikely that any of us are to blame

 

It is unlikely that a hacker is tailing an individual, it is much more likely to be aimed at the site itself - if a hacker wants to get at a particular person there are much more effective ways to do it, nobody should feel they have to leave the site because of this.

 

If there really is a problem with Tallships being here then I'm sure the mods can look into it and make the decision with him rather than just leaving him feeling it's all his fault - we're not like that here <'>

 

Z

[sesley]

**Update** 21st June**

 

Hi all.

 

Can we all remain vigilant still please. If you notice anything you think odd, no matter how daft it may seem, please continue to let us know. In the meantime please rest assured that the site Admins and Moderators are working hard to prevent any future hack attempts

 

Thanks

The Mods

As you are all no doubt aware the forum was subject to a serious hacking attack late on Wednesday night. The attack was spotted, fortunately very quickly, and site admin took the whole forum offline at once. Unlike the first hacking attempt made last Sunday it is believed that the second attack targetted the site specifcally. Naturally the details gained from the second attempt have been sent to the relevant people and investigations into the identity of the person responsible are ongoing.

Site admin have taken the opportunity of the forum being off-line to upgrade the forum software and consequentlly things may not run as smoothly as usual over the next few hours or possibly days. If the forum goes off-line again it is likely to be due to 'techie matters' and things that need fine tunning rather than anything sinister.

However, in case of further attempts to attack the forum, please be our eyes and ears. If you notice anything out of the ordinary please alert the Admin and/or Mods at once.

Thanks everyone.

 

Forum Moderators

 

 

 

I think its sad that spoilers come on to a message board subject,just to be a nuisence, i asked last year,why the NAS didn,t have message board and its because of the hackers, they can,t put moderators in place to stop the Trolls as the BBC people call them. I hope they don,t destroy this very valuable forum. There is very little places for us carers and those on the spectrum to link and chat about allsorts of lifes challenges.

[TuX]

I think its sad that spoilers come on to a message board subject,just to be a nuisence, i asked last year,why the NAS didn,t have message board and its because of the hackers, they can,t put moderators in place to stop the Trolls as the BBC people call them. I hope they don,t destroy this very valuable forum. There is very little places for us carers and those on the spectrum to link and chat about allsorts of lifes challenges.

why couldn't they use some of their service users or members who would be interested in being moderators? some say they won't allow outsiders to do moderating because it's not as safe,but sky gave am an unofficial admin job a while back [had complete control over site,and got paid for it with non money things to].

 

NAS is one of the places that really should have a message board,they could get an invisionfree forum so they don't have to bother with looking after their own server and stuff,there are many ways to get it to happen.

[Caroline-]

I know it may sound a bit extreme, but would it be worth considering locking the forum, so only members/ managment have access to view message boards etc. That way anyone really interested in joining for what this forum is really for would have to join first before they can look around? I have group which i lock, we have a description for what the group is about & anyone who is interested in reading our threads or post have to be approved first, we get some right types trying to join which we just don't accept the pending membership.

 

Just a thought