Reinstallation - Feb 16, 2009

[John]

I received two messages from members saying that the board was acting
strangely. One said that there may be a virus.

So I downloaded the latest version of PhpBb, and completely
reinstalled the software, preserving only the posted messages and
associated files.

If anyone experiences any problems, please let me know immediately.

I'm not a "PhpBb guru," but I did follow all the instructions
carefully, and this should solve any problems.

I'll take this opportunity to mention some general advice. As
always, take precautions that you would take when visiting any site.
Do NOT EVER answer "yes" to a question about downloading software to
your computer, unless you know exactly what the software is, and you
trust the provider. Please note that there is no downloadable
software whatsoever on this web site. Also, make sure that your virus
protection is always up to date.

I apologize if anyone was inconvenienced.

Sincerely,

John

[John]

Crossing my fingers, knocking on wood, the nightmare may be over.

Last night, my web site was not hacked.

It had been hacked each of the preceding four nights, and when your
web site is as much a part of your life as mine is for me, this can
be a very disquieting experience.

Yesterday morning, I discovered the problem and fixed it. Last night
I wasn't hacked, and I'm thrilled that I beat the f--cking bastard
that was trying to screw me.

During the last four days I've learned a very great deal about how
web sites get hacked. It's unbelievably easy to make a setup mistake
that creates a hole that someone can exploit.

And there are armies of people who probe every web site, looking for
such holes.

I thank the people who wrote to me to warn me what was happening, and
I apologize to everyone who was inconvenienced.

Sincerely,

John

... Who is still crossing my fingers, knocking on wood.

[John]

It's now been two weeks since this web site was hacked, and I think I
can be pretty certain that situation has ended. It took me four days
to figure it out, but I finally figured out exactly how they were able
to hack my web site, and what they did when they hacked it.

Incidently, the problem was with my own web site Perl code. There
was no problem whatsoever with the PhpBb code. So if anyone is
worried about that, don't be.

One person wrote to me wondering if my web site might have infected
his computer. In case anyone is worried about that, I can absolutely
assure you that you didn't download any spyware or anything similar
from my web site. The only thing that happened that would affect a
user is being redirected to other web sites. There is no possibility
that any executable was transmitted from my web site.

That leaves the question of who did it. It's possible that it was
simply a random attack by people who try to attack every web site. On
the other hand, it's possible it was a targeted attack by someone who
hates this particular web site -- and there are actually enough people
in that category.

I once ran a fathers' rights group on Yahoo Groups that had as many
as 3200 members. The entire group simply vanished one day, because
one bitterly angry man from an anti-American hate group in Australia
contacted Yahoo and told them that it was an abusive group. The
Yahoo people, who are the stupidest bunch of a--holes imaginable,
simply deleted the group without even looking at it.

The reason I mention that is because I did eventually find out
exactly who did it to me, and I may yet find out who attacked this
web site. I have my suspicions already, but no proof. We'll see.

Finally, I apologize again to anyone who might have been
inconvenienced by this episode, and hopefully it won't happen again.

Sincerely,

John

[Laustim]

This update fixes the operation or warn us about data loss or even show the messages that belong to the reserve when we started installing Windows. We must be cautious and proactive to take full backup of your data and prevent data loss due to panic later.

Data loss can occur under three conditions:

- When a user updates the computer system is Windows XP Home Edition on Windows XP Professional preinstalled.
- When a user repair Windows XP by following these steps:
- Start the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM
- Press Enter to install Windows XP
- Press R to repair the selected installation
- When a user reinstalls Windows XP to the same folder, click the Refresh button after running Winnt32.exe.