We're back - unexpected forums outage

**Janet H** · 11-20-2009, 01:29 AM

An exploit in our software was taken advantage of by some hackers who linked to a malicious site. It appears there was a little over 4 hours between the time it happened and the time we took the servers offline Thursday.

In an effort to minimize damage to the board we opted to shut everything down while we investigated the issue and formulated a game plan. Our team (server admins, programmers, and software vendors) coordinated and developed a plan to remove the malicious files and secure the servers. We believe that forum members should not have any system issues associated with this so long they didn't visit the malicious site AND install anything.

While the service interruption was unfortunate, it was important to us to make sure this issue was fully addressed before returning to business as usual. Protecting our community from this kind of intrusion is paramount and we'll post more info here as it becomes available. It's possible that we may need to continue tweak the forum setup and if so, we may have another service interruption.

We thank you for understanding

Doc Mark · 11-20-2009, 06:58 AM

Thanks for your quick responses & for keeping our surfing safe.

From the date/time stamp on your message, it was a late night!

Jim Stewart · 11-20-2009, 07:00 AM

You Guys/Ladies do and did a great job. Thank you for being the best resource and site on the web for us RVers! Now take a break and get some sleep, I am sure you were up very late!

Jim Stewart

TexasPSDX · 11-20-2009, 08:42 AM

Thanks for taking care of us!

GaryKD · 11-20-2009, 09:39 AM

I've been where you are. You did the right thing. Now, progress to the prevention side. Good luck.

georgetown350 · 11-20-2009, 10:07 AM

My wife would like to know if this could happen more often as it cut my internet time in half yesterday

Ken-55 · 11-20-2009, 10:10 AM

I've frequented other (non-RV) sites where forum members were left in the dark for hours or even days when problems happened. While I did a double take when I got the information page, at least I knew what was going on . . . even better . . . when I checked back later before going to bed, the site was back up!

Great job!

Kvtaylor · 11-20-2009, 10:38 AM

Thanks for your great effort guys and gals.

Gary - K7GLD · 11-20-2009, 11:10 AM

Great recovery - and congratulations on aggressive response! I suspected something like that was happening after the site went offline as I was going thru the forums - so did a full PC virus scan to make sure all was still OK on my end (Zonealarm) - and all was well here.

jamesr · 11-20-2009, 11:15 AM

I was pleased and surprised to see how quickly you handled the problem. There you were back up and running this morning. Great Job!!! thanks a lot for taking such good care of us. Jim and Sandy

BigSkyBob · 11-20-2009, 11:35 AM

Thank you for doing a fantastic job with this forum. I vote yes for a substantial raise for you all.

Pigman · 11-20-2009, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken-55

I've frequented other (non-RV) sites where forum members were left in the dark for hours or even days when problems happened. While I did a double take when I got the information page, at least I knew what was going on . . . even better . . . when I checked back later before going to bed, the site was back up!

Great job!

I can't say more than "ME TOO". The info page letting us know what was going on was just great. Thanks for looking out for us, both by keeping the site safe and also keeping us informed. Places with that kind of approach will always succeed, and you're out ahead of the pack.

John