Forum was hacked

[leopjag]

Forum URL: theworldofanimals.proboards.com/

It's not my forum btw but i'm one of the members there...it was at first apparently hacked and then later the whole board got deleted...is there a chance it can be restored?

thanx in advance

[leopjag]

since i can't edit my posts,, a correction - i'm not the forum owner* btw

[moonbeam]

You can't edit when you post as a guest.

The forum was probably not legitimately "hacked". More likely, it was cracked, meaning the admin didn't have a strong, secure password. Unfortunately, it would be the forum owner who needs to post here, as they are the only ones who can request a restore. If they choose to do so, they will need to create an account on this board, using the same email address that they used to create the forum. That will enable the admins (red names) here to verify ownership.

Admins will be back online tomorrow, around 9 am pacific time.

[Kami]

For what it's worth: support.proboards.com/thread/506292/world-animals

[Vodmeister]

I was online and writing a relatively long post when the forum was hacked (I should've saved a draft). Nonetheless, this was the message which appeared just before the forum went dark;



For what it's worth, "Taipan" was the owner of the old carnivora forum before proboards took that down.

[Apexpredator7]

Also all 3 main wild animal forums the other two on other servers have been hacked


I also think that taipan wouldn't be so stupid as to post that banner or maybe he would


Nonetheless the hacker is most likely to be from a forum on a different server

[moonbeam]

Again, it is unlikely that the forum was truly hacked. The only way someone could gain access to a forum is if they already knew the password, or if the forum owner didn't have a hard to guess password.

It's very likely that the person who did this had some clue as to what the password was, or it had been shared with him previously and then not changed. It also wouldn't matter one bit if the one who cracked the site was on the same server or a different one. Passwords are SITE specific, and have nothing to do with the server at all.

[mmhmm]

It's my guess the main admin(s) from the subject forum(s) will have to post here on Support to get this straightened out, if it can be straightened out. If none of you are the main admin, try to find out how to get in touch with that person about what's going on.

[Megalodon]

Hello,

I am the admin of this forum.

Can anybody confirm what happened?

I have also lost access to my previous account on ProBoards. My older display name is Life on ProBoards.

[David Clark]

Hey Megalodon,

It looks like someone gained access to your admin account and deleted/defaced your forum. Our systems team is looking more closely into the situation right now so they'll have more information for us in time concerning how to proceed.

For now, we can restore your forum if you'd like, since I was able to verify your e-mail against what the forum was created with.

[Megalodon]

Sir,

Thank you for your update.

In case of Forum restoration:

1. Is the original content (before the incident) have been lost? Memberships too?

2. Would their be potential security concerns or my new password will be good enough?

[Michael]

Mar 28, 2014 8:56:39 GMT -8 Megalodon said:

Sir,

Thank you for your update.

In case of Forum restoration:

1. Is the original content (before the incident) have been lost? Memberships too?

2. Would their be potential security concerns or my new password will be good enough?

We are looking into the possibility of a restore now.

A new secure password will be enough but likely we'll send you a PM with more details of what exactly occurred before we have everything restored so that you understand what happened.

[David Clark]

Megalodon, a quick scan of your security logs show that whoever gleaned your login credentials and accessed your account had deleted several categories on their way out which contained boards/threads. That seems to be it, though - it doesn't look like members were deleted. We'll have more information on this when our systems team can look into the situation.

For question #2, I'll be sending a PM to you with more information concerning how they might have accessed your account and how you can avoid it in the future.

Let me know when you'd like the forum brought back up.

[Megalodon]

Thank you for your support, Sirs.

At the moment, I am awaiting details/update from you (good staff).

When I decide about Forum restoration, I will inform you.

[Vodmeister]

Any news? When I visit the WoA url now, it says: "It looks like this forum doesn't exist any more. The forum admin has opted to remove it from the ProBoards service."