Crossstitchforum - A FREE forum for Cross Stitchers

Thought it a useful thing to set up a new thread for our current "emergency situation". I'm sure Alex is doing all he can and is frustrated as all get out by our hackers.

To those who wonder why we are a target, the best I can figure out is that the attempts are aimed at stealing personal information: IDs, email addresses, etc. If you wonder why we NEVER allow you to post your personal information up front here in a thread, that's why. Let's not make it too easy for the b******s. I'm sure there are other reasons, too, of which I'm unaware, but I'm fairly sure it's nothing to do with national security!

Anyway, for those of you who have figured out how to get into the forum without going directly through the Board Index page, it's lovely to see you all. Apologies -- and the promise of a huge party -- to all those whose birthdays or forumversaries are passing without mention. Can't see that information at the moment, or the chat box, obviously.

Do try to contact any other members you may be friends with in the 'real world' and let them know how to access the forum.

Well, obviously a forum full of dedicated stitchers is a goldmine for hackers.... all those metallic threads and sparklies!

Thanks to Alex for doing his wonderful invisible-in-the-background-but-hugely-important stuff, and Happy Forymversary/Birthday to all whose celebrations fall within this period of attack!

It always baffles me why people want to break & not make. Maybe it's because it's easier. I don't know.

My website was targeted and somehow they inserted a virus on the server for distribution in late January. Naturally the web host took no responsibility & decided it was my fault for uploading an infected file - despite the fact I hadn't uploaded anything for weeks before the event. Not impressed, but it's all sorted for the moment.

Regards,

Richard.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that some number of forums that are specific to something, like playing tic tac toe or hopscotch, are targets or potential targets of hackers, besides the obvious ones of banks, credit card companies and large retailers.

Mabel Figworthy wrote:obviously a forum full of dedicated stitchers is a goldmine for hackers.... all those metallic threads and sparklies!

I always knew we were valuable to each other just forgot there are those out there who think we spin gold from flax

I made this a sticky thread, Serinde, so its easy for everyone to find and won't get lost in all the updates and new starts and exciting events in members' lives that are shared. Also copied Mabel's post on how to get to the forum into it's own FB thread since it got lost in all the comments there (I'm soo glad that we have our format. I have never and will never complain about trying to find something here)

Richard, it's not surprising that your web host won't take responsibility for your website being attacked. Not taking responsibility seems to have become a worldwide infectious disease.

Thank you Alex for your amazing help.

Carole

It's great to be able to keep up with happenings on this oh so useful web site and a big Thank You to Serinde for passing it on.

Alex, our prayers ware with you and we know you are doing the best you can to beat these nosey ---------- so and so's.

Happy Birthday, Forumversary or other great event in your lives to all those who are missing out.

If you haven't done so for a while, it might be an idea for folk to change password(s) in real-life accounts if they are the same as the one you use here. Precautionary, but passwords are like keys to the house, and you'd not leave them in the door, after all. Just a thought.

I had an email the other day saying that someone was trying to log into my Facebook account. Not sure if that had anything to do with this?

Who knows? At least they notified you. Any suggestions on what action you should take?

It just says they can see I’m having trouble logging into my Facebook account and there is a button to press to log in with one click. Then it says they have sent this message because they can see I have unsuccessfully been trying to log into my account (which I haven’t).

Damn. I'm not sure what I did to find an in in the forum, but I am glad I did!

I had been in touch with Alex recently. I used to do a lot more with computers than I do now, but I decided to google the forum to see what came up. Our forum shows up with Japanese script. I don't know if that will help any, but I figured any help I could provide would be appreciated by Alex and you all alike.

I just can't believe how mean some people are! If they only took that time and energy to do something constructive instead of hurting people... It just doesn't make sense to me...

This is the question to which I cant find a good explanation - why do some Homo Sapiens tend to turn the best achievements /ideas/creations/inventions into a disaster?

It's a 'special skill' some people have

Regards,

Richard.

Wish they'd not use it.

I'm beginning to think its a FB conspiracy. I am never on FB and now it looks like I'm a regular with all my "it's down" "it's back" "it's down" "it's back" posts. I still think Mabel's idea

Mabel Figworthy wrote:Well, obviously a forum full of dedicated stitchers is a goldmine for hackers.... all those metallic threads and sparklies!

is the most reasonable explanation of why anyone would want to attack us.

Carole

Hi,

Just a quick post to (hopefully) set your minds at ease.

The recent problems have been from people trying to use the forum to send out spam to other websites and people, they haven't been looking to collect anyone details or information from the site from what we've seen, and your passwords for the site are all securely encrypted - We can't even see or access your passwords ourselves (hence if you forget one we can only reset it for you, not tell you what it was).

Unfortunately forums are much easier targets for this kind of thing than 'normal' websites due to the fact that they need to be 'open' for members to post and upload files. This same thing that lets you post can lead to people trying to take over the site

I'm hoping things are all secure now and they are locked out... and if nothing else this has been a good exercise in showing us the value of keeping back-ups of the website and its files

Chris (On behalf of Alex)

and Thank you!!!!!
You are both our heroes and I could fill this whole box up with thank yous and and
and a few more

Carole

Thanks so much Chris and Alex. It's interesting to know why we were hacked. We do appreciate all you do.

Thank you so much Chris and Alex, you are both

I had wondered if the latest hack was a bot after seeing that chinese/japanese writing earlier in the week, it's a horrible thing to do and I too wish they wouldn't.

I wonder though if there is any news on why the Gallery images have disappeared, all the comments are there, and the text, but no image and I had to reload my avatar again too.

Thank you again Chris and Alex and we all appreciate all ou do for us.

Thank you to our Forum heroes

Garnet wrote:I wonder though if there is any news on why the Gallery images have disappeared, all the comments are there, and the text, but no image and I had to reload my avatar again too.

I just looked and it seems to me that the images before a certain date are still there, and those afterwards have disappeared. I don't know why and haven't tried reloading my pictures. Glad you were able to reload your avatar.

Carole