General Discussions

ICGDA Website Hacked – Gump

GUMP

Member

Posts: 1335
From: Melbourne, FL USA
Registered: 11-09-2002
www.icgda-portal.org

Hopefully whoever administrates it(Tim?) keeps backups.

HanClinto

Administrator

Posts: 1828
From: Indiana
Registered: 10-11-2004
At least it's not auto-forwarding to a Nigerian-phisher site or something.

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http://www.includingjudas.com/christiangame.html

crazyishone

Member

Posts: 1685
From:
Registered: 08-25-2004
thats too bad.
Im sure he at least has the files backed up.

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globalrant.tk

nfektious
Member

Posts: 408
From:
Registered: 10-25-2002
The site admin - domain owner and administrator - is in the UK. I haven't seen him online in a long while and hope he does have a backup. I'll be emailing him about this; thanks for making the announcement here. My personal backup of the site is months old, meaning many members will have to register again and several important posts will be lost. However, I can access the database files. I will make an attempt to work through them and see if it is possible to restore them if there is not a backup available. There have been several attakcs on the site for a long while now, so this isn't the first time there has been trouble. Hopefully things will be fixed soon.

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Do not ask if you are doing things right, ask if you are doing the right things.

nfektious
Member

Posts: 408
From:
Registered: 10-25-2002
Update!
The ICGDA site is back online, but not fully accounted for. There are several missing posts, thanks to the hacker. It is questionable whether those posts will ever be found and restored. If a backup exists with more recent information than is currently evident, a restore is in order. Otherwise, what exists is enough to be grateful for.

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Do not ask if you are doing things right, ask if you are doing the right things.

HanClinto

Administrator

Posts: 1828
From: Indiana
Registered: 10-11-2004
Great to hear -- thanks for the update!

--clint

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http://www.includingjudas.com/christiangame.html

GUMP

Member

Posts: 1335
From: Melbourne, FL USA
Registered: 11-09-2002
"Several" posts missing? Seems like the majority are missing.
nfektious
Member

Posts: 408
From:
Registered: 10-25-2002
I don't disagree. But still, much better than a total reinstall at this point. I don't know what is in the works for ICGDA, so it is possible that the current portal will be ditched for another one entirely. At least everyone can get back into the swing of things with what exists of the current portal until the future of it is decided by those who make such decisions.
For the record, I waited for contact from the site admin for over a week and never got it. I took matters into my own hands, carefully of course, and got things going again. I don't believe anything could have been done about the missing posts. In the process of fixing the portal I discovered just how messed up things were. Nearly every link was broken with some critical settings misconfigured, and it appears that the missing posts were randomly deleted. The timing of everything that happened is interesting - took place just after posting on the portal was restricted to members only. I'm sure there were other reasons for the attack as well. Unfortunately, not much one can do about stuff after the fact.
I have since modified some settings and changed certain passwords. Hopefully it won't happen again, but with the press coverage the groups has been getting and the angst of reality-deprived people in the world today it likely will happen again. In my opinion, the portal needs to be revamped anyway; the current system just doesn't have some features it really should have and is quite cumbersome to modify.
Hopefully the ICGDA head honchos will get things moving toward a better portal. Probably the most unfortunate thing is that it has taken over a year to get to the point things are now...and there really isn't much to show for it. The ICGDA-portal.org site was never intended to be the live site; it was supposed to be ICGDA.org...anyway, all of that is in the past and like I said before, not much one can do about stuff after the fact.

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Do not ask if you are doing things right, ask if you are doing the right things.

GUMP

Member

Posts: 1335
From: Melbourne, FL USA
Registered: 11-09-2002
Were you in on the last ICGDA teleconference? It was on Friday, 08/05/05. I just PMed you a brain dump from that conference. Not the most detailed transcript but it gives an overview on what was discussed.

Anyway, I found a company that was willing to overhaul the ICGDA site and moderate it for free (at first).

www.silistudio.com

I'm personal friends with Silvia and Sam Li. I got them in contact with Bill Bean and Ralph...and the whole thing just kinda fizzled. No one is taking any action. Sam and Silvia are still interested in doing it if they're given the required access/info. They've expressed frustration to me that the group, ICGDA, says it's looking for such a person/company and yet do not respond. I'm vexed myself and don't know what to tell them.

Anyway, the post I'm most annoyed about losing was the one on the shared resources.

[This message has been edited by Gump (edited October 28, 2005).]

nfektious
Member

Posts: 408
From:
Registered: 10-25-2002
Got your PM. Check your messages. By the way, all the work on the site to date has been free.

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Do not ask if you are doing things right, ask if you are doing the right things.