Simplydiscus was hacked....

[brewmaster15]

Hi all,
I have to share something with all of you. Many of you are friends of this site, and truly appreciate all we do. Thats is not the case with everyone out there. There are some individuals that do not like this site and its owners very much. I have no probelm with that.. People are free to have their own opinions.. I have enough of mine.

A few weeks ago someone hacked into The Moderator section of this site.. This is the section that moderators and Admin discuss problem posts and potential major issues. Most forums have these areas... They are also a good place for venting when the the politics get too much. The intruder made themselves at home and read every controversial post in there. They then proceeded to take info out of context and send it to other members in order to discredit this site, and its owners. This has been going on as recently as yesterday., where they have gotten bold enough to post under an alias here and use that information.

What was done was a violation of Federal Law, and I will be pursuing All legal action availible to prosecute the individual(s) responsible. We already know who passed on the information to one member here
in the form of an email that used word for word information from one of my posts, as that persons IP address matched a person who posted here. We are currently trying to work with ISP providers as well that may have also been used in the attack on this site.

I am personally outraged by this cowardly attack against the site and me personally by these individual(s), and I ask any of you with information about this to contact me. It is one thing to not like the way things are done here... or to not like a person... But it is wrong and illegal to hack into a website, and then take and use information out of context in an attempt to slander another person, and ruin their reputation. I am going after these individual(s) every way that I can.


I ask all of you that value this site to show that support, this community is very close.. If anyone has come to any of you with information that targets the credibility of this site or its owners, Please contact me. This will allow me to at least defend myself against their attempted character assassination....but it may also give me the evidence I need to legally prosecute those involved. This site and I personally have helped many of you. I am asking for your help and show of support now.


As far as we know, The hacker was only able to access the moderator section...We believe we know how it was done, but had they gained access to admin functions... They could have taken down this whole site.. .. which by their current tactics... I am sure they would have done.

Please help us if you can.

Thank you,
Al

[Ryan Smith]

I personally would just like to add that I am appalled by all of this. It is discouraging to see that there are people among us who are capable of something so immature and ridiculous. This is supposed to be a hobby, people are supposed to come to these forums and enjoy themselves. Instead we are dealing with this senseless mess once again.

Ryan

[ronrca]

Go get him and them Al! ;) More power to you!

It really saddens me to see such politics in such a wonderful hobby! These politics actually hinder the growth of the hobby by tactics Al mentioned, slander, disinformation, ruining reps, discreditation, etc. Instead of working towards a common goal to increase awareness and educate, there are individuals with dishonest motivations, egos, jealousy, etc! This is sick! :sick: :puke:

I do have a sayings for people like this and one that I wish they would remember:

What comes around, goes around!
Do onto others as you want others to do onto you!

As one of the mods here at simplydiscus, I support the owners, Al and Ryan, all the way and stand behind their actions and decisions! ;)

[SLY]

Despicable SOB if u do this kinda stuffs..remember no matter how savvy u are with hacking and etc..u can still be caught..all the best to whoever that did this..I want to see justice done..Go Al.

[Larry Grenier]

I'm sorry to hear what was done and especially that they made it personal. I've been in a similar position >:( . Don't let it get to you Al; it coming from some jerk that needs a life. We all know from experience that you're a stand-up kind of guy.

[CARY_GLdiscus]

YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CANNOT HIDE FOR LONG :o

[susankay1]

I have personally met so many nice people on this site, it pains me to hear that anyone is trying to attack it in any way. You all make such good information available to the rest of us beginners, without pay, sacrificing your time and money to make sure everyone has the opportunity to have a successful experience with Discus. It's such a shame that some people have nothing better to do than to try to tear down what other people work so hard to build up. You go get em Al, if there is anything we can do to help, all you gotta do is ask.

[oodi]

As the recipient of one of these messages Al referred to, let it be known here and now... I DIDN'T APPRECIATE IT!!!

An email from some anonymous "friend"???? Sorry, pal... but NONE of my friends are anonymous!!

This person needs to grow up, and get a life! Anyone that has nothing better to do than to play childish games is a sad sack, for sure!!!

So for anyone else that received one of these messages... don't be foolish enough to think this person is any friend... they are using you as a pawn, for their own sick purposes.

Judi

[Miles]

Run and Hide you will be caught. Just ask Saddam. Get em Al.

[CARY_GLdiscus]

Oodi,
YOU GO GIRL! Well Said ;)

[Paulio]

Cowardly act! Hope they get nailed to the wall!

[aloha_discus]

FRRREEAAAKKKSSS!!!!! >:(

GO GET EM Al.

Ike >:(

[korbi_doc]

??? ??? Wow! This very sad & immature & I agree with everyone that this is an unnecessary attack on us all here at simply. If there was anything I could do to help Al & Ryan, I sure would! I was not a recipient of any email & if I were I'd be on the phone immediately Al. This is truly painful & despicable & I hope you can punish whoever is responsible.

Take heart guys, we're with you!!!!!! Dottie :'( :'(

[OEG]

Hi just my 2 cents first of all I just wanted to say to the person who is doing this, BE A MAN YOU LITTLE BIATCH if you are so mad at this board dont be a girl and hide under skirts. The thing to do is tell that person you dont agree with what you think dont go after the site theres people here who need the info here and who, like me make this site part of our day. Brew if you find that punk persecute his *** to the full extent of the law. JMO
Oscar

P.S this site is like family im sure everyone here will back you in this search for this punk Brew, and I would like to thank all the board members for making this site what it is.

Sick SOB

AL, I know you will, and I really encourage you to go the whole legal distance.
As said before this is just a hobby, but it seems some have a problem with that and as Freud would say:
There are some serious issues !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is more cowardly to attack from the dark hiding behind anonymous.
Have at least the guts to stand for what you believe.

Ronald

[Anna Piranha]

The good news is that there are people like Al and Carol and so many others on this site who by their great giving nature epitomize the concept of altruism. Way back in the day, I did studies on altruism and it was astonishing how rare it was. People wouldn't stop to help a stranger in distress. People wouldn't help a small child they perceived as lost (even though the child was planted there to test the reactions of passers-by). People would behave despicably simply by being negligent of the needs of others, not to mention what people do when they actually intend harm.

Now here's Al and Carol and all these great people who make it their business to help strangers every single day. They check up on us just to make sure our fish - our FISH for goodness sake! - are doing fine. These are really nice people and their collective IQ is way off the charts, besides.

I've studied the personalities of people who share similar traits as exhibited by computer hackers. Bottom line...these folks are losers. If they didn't inflict so much damage on the rest of the world, we would laugh at them for all the things they are not and all the failures they just can't seem to avoid in life and for the loser friends they hang around with... for the apartments they can't pay the rent on and the relationships that just never seem to work out...we would be laughing at them for the million excuses they have for their predatory tendencies . It's gotta be their mother's fault right? Everyone's fault but their own, because they are...say it with me now...LOSERS ;D

[GulfCoastDiscus]

This is sad. To deliberately harm something that does good for a lot of people and ask nothing in return in my opinion this person is a scum of the earth. I hope you catch whoever this this Al.

Dan

[Ardan]

This type of sneaking around is low!

It only goes to show that persons true colors.

It is not needed. There is no place for it here.

[trusty]

i got your back all bunch of haters i love this site i am on it everybody like to read excellent advice to bad the hacker is not in my state keep your head al your a great guy just trying to help people out take care guys your mods are cool.

LOOK AT ALL THESE HATERS RUNNING AROUND SCANLESS

[FishRule]

Al, So sorry to hear that even lovely boards like this one can fall prey to hackers, that stinks. I hope you find out who did it and nail them to the wall. I am sure that if and when court time comes, you will find many supporters here who will help out with legal fees by running fundraiser auctions for Simply Defense! I will, for sure.
Hope you find out who did this.
Best, Fishes

[Dave C]

Post the names when you catch the person(s). No sense letting them continue in anonymity. Are you sure you were hacked? As a mod on DaaH I could simply tell another non-mod member what was going on, or copy/paste entire threads and email them and they could spread rumors, giving the illusion that they had hacked into the Mod section.

Well Dave

That is a pretty heavy attack against the Mods here.

Ronald

[Dave C]

It was not an attack at all. I asked if there was evidence of being hacked, that's all. It's not rocket science to suggest that someone could tell another person about what goes on in the mod section. Don't look for controversy where there is none.

[April]

this is suppose to be a hobby we all love . all i can say. and we all say we are avid discus lovers. think thats the way it should be.
it wasnt just he said she said thing. i believe brew and ryan know for sure that someone got in.

[Ryan Smith]

Post the names when you catch the person(s). No sense letting them continue in anonymity. Are you sure you were hacked? As a mod on DaaH I could simply tell another non-mod member what was going on, or copy/paste entire threads and email them and they could spread rumors, giving the illusion that they had hacked into the Mod section.


I can assure you that I ran through the whole list of possibilities. There are multiple ways things can get out. But with the suspicious email I got, along with some things that went on here at the board, it's clear that someone was actually in the Mod section reading. IP addresses back this up, and I have them logged.

I know who sent the anonymous email to Judi and Tad, as I matched their IP with a member here at Simply. They are now banned, at least under that IP. I am not sure if the most recent problems are from the same person or not, but they also had information from the Mod board, so I wouldn't put it past them. I have that person's hostname and IP as well, so we will see.

Ryan

[jeep]

I wonder... Exactly at what age do these pathetic games stop ???

" As a mod on DaaH I could simply tell another non-mod member what was going on, or copy/paste entire threads and email them and they could spread rumors, giving the illusion that they had hacked into the Mod section"

This scenario can only be done if a Mod (as you rightly noted) would do it.
I would not consider this as asking for evidence.
I would say that this is what it is. A attack on the mods or one mod here.

I for one take AL's word on this and do not suspect foul play from a mod here.
And I am not looking for controversy at all.

Ronald

[limige]

i'm sure they had fun at it, but they need to realize how immature they are being and stupid. obviously immature in the fact that they have to use their knowledge and skills on the computer to mess with a site that is full of friendly people who are here to help one another.

it's an act like stealing from the salvation army or something, we are all here to share our wisdom and experiences so we may all raise our fish healthy and perhaps share amongst eachother.

it's definitely sad to say this person has so little of a life that he takes to messing with people on the computer. usually done by teenagers who feel they have nothing better to do.

why don't they put their skills to some good use, start sites of their own, get a job using their computer skills or something, don't mess with people who are here to help one another.


time to wake them up al!
find them and do what you can, hehe, better yet, post his name and address, maybe some members are nearby ;) ;D

[Dave C]

Ok Ronald, you win. It's not possible for someone to speak to another person, supposedly in confidence about something they read in the Mod section and then have that person use that information for their own personal reasons. I know as a mod that I have to catch myself from speaking to someone else, in chat or IM or in person, about something that I read in the Mod section. Sometimes you forget that not everyone has access to a section, you take it for granted that everyone does, even though you know that they don't. So I guess you're right, there's no possibility that my question was just a question, there had to be another motive, it had to be an attack. I'm definitely sorry I asked. And I'm also sorry your board was hacked. I reiterate my first point, post the name(s), expose the individual(s).

[Paulio]

time to wake them up al!
find them and do what you can, hehe, better yet, post his name and address, maybe some members are nearby ;) ;D


Or ya know....Airfare sure is cheap these days ;D

Sorry, sorry, dont mean to stir the pot but damn!

[Discus_KC]

Sad !!!!!!!!

I Win, I am Right and I even have a Board now.

What a great day

[Jeff]

I agree Jack. It is sad.

[lesley]

May all hackers who are stupid and petty enough to enjoy causing other people stress and damage be banned for life from going near a computer.

Lets bring back the stocks!!! :smash:

[brewmaster15]

Dave ,
Your thoughts on it Possibly being one of the moderators here would be plausible if The hacker hadn't thought themself so smart that they would not get caught. In My opinion they banked on it , thinking that people would look at the moderators if they left no tracks. The way they got in was very ingenious... and highly illegal,but they left some signatures.... I could say more but I won't.

They screwed up, criminals always think they are smarter than those they attack.

I will not say anymore on the subject of who it is that we have identified so far. I did not make this post to speculate on who it was.. I made it to bring to the attention of the board That we feel this site was hacked., and at this point have sufficient cause to do so. I also made this post to ask for the help of people that value this site, both from an administrative point of view and from a personal Point of view as I appear to be a target of the individuals.


I appreciate everyones thoughts on this matter, and will keep everyone updated if possible.


-al

A Chinese saying" Big Tree catches Wind" Congradulations for being a big tree and a target for slander and attack. This is a lesson a successful person have to learn to ignore silly and childish behavior. BUT there's an other saying. "Kill one and Warn hundreds". Thanks for bringing it up to the open. You have my vote.
Jimmy.

[lkleung007]

Hey Al,

Just read through your post...it's a shame that such a thing has happened. I'm sure that the parties responsible will get exactly what they deserve. Keep at it Al, and let me know if there is anything that I can do to help.

We are all behind you and SimplyDiscus 100%!!

Regards, Lester

[GulfCoastDiscus]

I for one would like to know who the person is. This way I can avoid this person. Being publicly known his word will no longer be worth anything. It's like those people that are convicted and are displayed in public wearing a sign showing their crime for everyone to see.

Dan

[henryD]

This is so stupid. Come on people this is a hobby. Yes a hobby. Something that is suppose to give you pleasure and take your mind off of the craziness in the world. Instead it seems we are all thrust into the middle of the politcal bullSh*t.

I will donate money to see this scum get what they deserve.

Oh yeah...

Happy holidays.

[zoids]

Al and the mods of simplydiscus,

I just feel sorry for the guy who did these childish acts.

Roy

This is a breach of security that is Soooo wide spread. Many companies fall into being victim of this AND there are MANY companies that allows this to occur.

Al, Carol, and the other Moderators: Pursue a legal lawsuit, conviction, and find more challenging security walls for protecting this fine forum.

I enjoy reading these posts and learning from you folks. I would hate to see anything bad come between us. Best of luck.

And, yes, please do post the culprit(s).

Oodi (Judi): I hope it didn't take away the faith from you that you can still use the PC without worrying if someone did something to your e-mails (without your knowledge). Up to now, I still feel insecure because I know what programmers are able to do. I don't trust so easily, either. **Angie**

[mikezz]

:'( :'( Thats bad any info you need, all you have to do is ASK.....................FOOLS ACT FOOLISH..

Mike

[stranger_in_rain]

Hi
well this site is a great site ... I can say it's a god damn good one ... alot of users with good experience for learning more ...
Well I do study computer hardware engineering ... I dunno much about networking but something i know is that when u r hacked , then u r hacked ... It means your security level is law ... so dont be alot sure about that they havent had access to other parts ... maybe later on they ruin the whole site ... No one knows... plus the hacker might be from another country and this means federal law wouldnt help you or even if the person who didnt like the owners would be in U.S. , the hacker might not be ... He/She could be from China , Taiwan , Thailand , India , ....
So I just recomand you guys to improve security level :-)
With best wishes
Shahab .

[oodi]

Angie,

I met my husband (Tad) on the internet... if anything would take my faith away from using a PC, that would!!! ;D

Don't worry... I'm a tough cookie! Thanks for the support!

Judi
:)

[Chad]

This is some sad news indeed..... speaking from expereince here.... DAAH was attacked about 6 months ago... they really didnt do much but change the names of the sections and someother stupid things.... I sent all of this to the FBI and never heard back from them.... I think this is where we can ALL come together and work to get these types.... I wish Simply the best and hope they find the people in-volved and prosecute them to the fullest....

As an owner of a forum, its dificult to believe this goes on.... Here we try to provide a free service to better the hobby and we get folks like this trying to bring us down... No doubt this kind of thing raises the cost to Al and myself and makes it more difficult to keep providing this service.... I wish you well Al and hope you get this prick!!

Chad

[goldengatediscus]

Al-
I'm behind you all the way. Don't leave any back doors for hackers to get into the website. There are too many good people at SIMPLY, and we support you and this website.
Brigitte

[Discusgeo]

Al if this person who did this resides in Arizona let me know, I can give him or her a visit.

[Barb Newell]

Hi Al, Ryan, mods....sorry to hear about this bull....t crap that I'm sure none of you have the time or energy for (you're all too busy helping us.... THANKS FOR ALL OF THE SUPPORT, HELP, FRIENDSHIP.

Why doesn't the wimp responsible for this act crawl back in its hole. This really pisses me off, immature fool! What a waste. It makes me wonder, what type of sick satisfaction does this person get out of violating and hurting others.

Al, if there is anything I can do, just ask.

Barb

[jules]

I for one would like to know who the person is. This way I can avoid this person. Being publicly known his word will no longer be worth anything. It's like those people that are convicted and are displayed in public wearing a sign showing their crime for everyone to see.

Dan


I totally agree with Dan.
Keep up the good work Mods....

[Abercrombie6202]

wow...It's weird waking up to "simply Discus was hacked..." I am sorry to hear what happened, I hope this CREEP gets fines and arrested or whatever the punsihment is for this foolish act! Good Job Moderators :)

-That person is just JEALOUS!

[trucdan]

Here is my 2 cents:

1- Whoever caused the problem to simply is really a bad person and he/she has no right to do it, period.

2- However, it's hard to believe that a hacker can made such a basic mistake: leaving the IP address behind. There is no doubt that a hacker can be tracked, but that process will be a lot more complicated than simply looking at the log file. In general, if a hacker can hack to a site, he/she will have enough knowdlegde not to leave the IP address for you to log.

3- What I think of is perhaps the moderator forum has a common, easy to guess password and someone just takes advange of it. He/she just guessed the password and got access into it.

4- Another possibility is perhaps the intruder happens to know the password of one of the mod of this forum and then gain access into that forum.

5- In my opinion, I don't think this site is hacked. If a hacker can hack into one of the forum here, the rest is a piece of cake. And if that intruder has the knowlegde to do that, it will be very hard to track him/her unless he/she wants to leave his/her signature in purpose.

6- No matter what happened, security is the most concern of any Admin. The admin of this site should change the system so it will force admins/mods to change the password after a period of time, let's say every 14 days or so. It is an old saying but always try to choose your password carefully. Don't use an "easy to guess" password so some one who knows you personally can guess the password sucessfully.

Happy discus keepers ;D.

Trucdan

[yippy]

This person/persons is just a simpleton - this site is like a family and anyone here knows the friendship and advice we get from not only the Admin and Mods - they do a great job - but everyone else here too. God, I even talk about people from here to my "real live" friends and family and they dont have any idea who Im talking about. My hubby just says 'Oh theyre her fish friends, just let her prattle on" lol . Myself and some friends used to do the same thing with The Bold & The Beautiful soapie, but now its fish people with me. ;)

I wouldnt even listen to anything said that was bad against anyone here. Something should be done about it, as its not only illegal but also an invasion of privacy and downright stupid.

SICK 'EM BREW :furious:

[jim_shedden]

People do not realize just how close the moderators of Simply are and how passionate we all are in trying to help people and I don't beleive that the individual or individual's who did this had any comprehension as to how close we are. Think about it..............Beth & Tony are getting married........they meet each other here.
The ethics that Al & Ryan have instilled on this site may be considered rigid. Some people do not like that. They feel that it is cramping their "freedom of speech". For anyone that has not read the mission statement please do so.........it is really quite interesting.
By the way.........if it was for people like Al............I'd have goldfish.

Jim

I feel your pain, but as a Systems Admin with more servers connected to the Internet than you have I got a small problem with this thread, and that something is you are not 100% sure if you were hacked or not.

You are right that the law was broken, but it is your responsibility to keep your server secure, and if you can’t do that then you should find someone to do so.

Good luck in catching the culprit.

mattd

[Proteus]

As an Admin of 2 fishy sites, and a mod at another it sickens me to read this...

Although I have only become active in the past 24hrs (posting) I have been using Simply as a resource tool for over 6 months, and at the end of the day, my discus would probably like to thank this site very much.

Whilst my overall fish keeping knowledge is very advanced it will never compete with the combined knowledge of a few thousand who call this place home (online home that is... ) and to know there is some low life scum sucking pig out there doing this, it makes me want to hunt them down and ..... mmmmmm, you can figure the rest...

anyways... justice ALWAYS comes to those that hide... it may take time... but the circle always ends where it starts...

MM

[fshngal]

Dear Al and Simply Members,

As the keeper of several Oracle and SQL Server databases during my normal daytime hours I am aware of the many intrusion problems that can and will occur over the internet and from within.

I applaud you and the other moderators for your openness to everyone on the forum in letting us know of the hacking situation and implore you to take this to the full extent of prosecution. These types of acts are absolutely illegal and with the tracing and tracking capabilities available in today's technologically advanced society, the individual responsible should pay back in some manner.

I am behind you 100% and should you need any DBA assistance, please let me know.

Mary

[iceman_373]

Hope you get them but to be honest...I would not have said anything until I had a solid case against them. From what I read it doesnt sound like there is one individual involved and unfortunately in life those we tend to trust let us down. Sometimes it pays to look in the backyard before you search the neighborhood.....good luck!!

[brewmaster15]

Thank You all, for your concerns and advice here. I am going to lock this post now, and let it just roll of the board into history for now. We will let you all know if anything new turns up on this matter.

In closing I do want to make sure that everyone understands that all the information we posted here is not all the information we have. At this point it is best that we leave it at that.

We wanted to let you all know that we feel very strongly that the site was hacked, and have alot of information as to how it was done. ..Our Moderators are not suspect here. Period.

Thank you again for all your concern, Its been uplifting to see the support shown here for the site. I think we learn the most when things are at their worst.

Thank you again, and please do consider contacting me if you hear anything relevent to this matter.

al