Typhoon 5 Posted May 14, 2009 PRESS RELEASE: AVSIM Hacked Tom Allensworth, CEO and Publisher of AVSIM, today issued the following announcement; “We regret to inform the flight simulation community that on Tuesday, May 12, AVSIM was hacked and effectively destroyed. The method of the hack makes recovery difficult, if not impossible, to recover from. Both servers, that is the library / email and web site / forum servers were attacked. AVSIM is totally offline at this time and we expect to be so for some time to come. We are not able to predict when we will be back online, if we can come back at all. We will post more news as we are able to in the coming days and weeks. We have set up a temporary forum in order that we can provide status reports on our efforts to bring AVSIM back online. The temporary link is: http://linux.myalbemarle.org/forums/index.php Tony Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SirMike1983 3 Posted May 14, 2009 OvS had the same crap with the Hells Angels (RB3d add on) site. It was a good site and good add-on, but hackers struck and destroyed it, from what I recall. It's sadly becoming more common. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SayethWhaaaa 245 Posted May 14, 2009 Bastards haxors... I'd like to meet a group of these pasty, vitamin D deficient pr*cks to give them my best. And by best, I mean my best haymaker. :threaten: They've caused no end of hassle at Libraries and Universities I've worked at over the past decade! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wels 2 Posted May 14, 2009 Hello, i really wonder what people find in destroying sites that indeed help other people, and in case of AVsim offer thousands of planes for free download for all kinds of simulators ? My take is the good question "whom serves this best" ? Probably not the usual "hackers" that enter government sites to show "Hey look here ! I did it!". Greetings, Catfish Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UK_Widowmaker 571 Posted May 14, 2009 An absolute disgrace!...Not a user of Avsim myself, but my condolances go out to the owner and members of the forum there. As people have already said, it beggars belief why anyone would get pleasure from ruining other peoples enjoyment. I take some satisfaction in the knowledge bestowed on me in my 47 years of life...that the sort of person that does this, will have failed relationships with people throughout their existance on the planet, and will spend vast amounts of their life utterly miserable and lonely...because that sort of attitude brings with it, the curse of a lonely existance..... People just don't like you if you are that self centred and unpleasant.! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OvS 8 Posted May 14, 2009 OvS had the same crap with the Hells Angels (RB3d add on) site. It was a good site and good add-on, but hackers struck and destroyed it, from what I recall. It's sadly becoming more common. I remember when I got the email from one of the more requent users.... it was like 'hey, have you seen the forum yet? It's dead'. And when I went to it, it was some stupid Turk crap all over it. Like why destroy a flight sim website? It makes no sense. If you want to make a point, attack, Pepsi, NASCAR, Playboy... etc. Not a flight sim forum. All that proves is that you're an amaturistic little penis! OvS Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tonyo - legion 2 Posted May 14, 2009 People who do this sort of thing have no brains, & as people have said on this forum why do this to the avsim website? what does it achieve? It certainly isnt something to be proud of - if i got my hands on them, i'd smash their hands so they couldnt use a keyboard again - let alone play with themselves - total W*&nkers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted May 14, 2009 People who do this sort of thing have no brains, No, Tonyo, it's even worse. They have brains, but don't know what better things to do with them. Instead of being creative, they destroy. The lowest form of existence. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Creaghorn 10 Posted May 14, 2009 freaks with no social life, no friends, no relationships, no vitamin d, who got punched each day at school, not by bullies but by girls. would like to face them mano a mano and teach them some manners my way... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OvS 8 Posted May 14, 2009 freaks ... who got punched each day at school...by girls. Hey, go easy there sparky... some of us like that kind of stuff.... speaking of which.. .where is WF2? I need my monthly whipping! Damn girls, never around when you need them most. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UK_Widowmaker 571 Posted May 14, 2009 Damn girls, never around when you need them most. Ain't that the truth.. WOOF WOOF Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cameljockey 3 Posted May 14, 2009 (edited) Damned cyber-murderers! It could be someone connected to the site in some way. Maybe they got into a flame war, got themselves banned, and are now exacting their revenge, or it could be just random, sort of like a cyberspace serial killer. Whatever the rhyme or reason, it sucks, nonetheless. Best of luck to the folks at AVSIM, I honestly hope you get things straight. This just pisses me off! You reap what you sow! CJ Edited May 14, 2009 by Cameljockey Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hauksbee 103 Posted May 14, 2009 You reap what you sow! If only... But don't commercial sites maintain back-up files? Or did the hack manage to take that out too? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve58 0 Posted May 14, 2009 If only... But don't commercial sites maintain back-up files? Or did the hack manage to take that out too? Sounds like they had two servers and backed up each server to the other. The hacker took out both servers... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OvS 8 Posted May 14, 2009 Sounds like they had two servers and backed up each server to the other. The hacker took out both servers... Correct. They lost it all. :angry2: :black eye: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimAttrill 24 Posted May 14, 2009 I'm a newbie here but looked at this post. As someone who has been in IT since 1981 and has said numerous times to users "when did you last take a backup?; have you ever tried to restore from a backup?" etc. etc. Rule one of backups is to keep an off-site backup on removable media (in case the whole shebang goes up in smoke or gets flooded). Rule two is to take more than one backup. I have never lost any data either professionally or privately and there is no reason to ever do so. My wife didn't see the point in backups until her pooter was taken out by a virus :-( Now I don't even have to ask if she has done her daily backup to DVD :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve58 0 Posted May 14, 2009 A hard, hard, lesson they just learned .... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CaptSopwith 18 Posted May 14, 2009 I remember when I got the email from one of the more requent users.... it was like 'hey, have you seen the forum yet? It's dead'. And when I went to it, it was some stupid Turk crap all over it. OvS Oh man, I remember that day. Wasn't pretty... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MigBuster 2,875 Posted May 14, 2009 Saw this at 3rd Wire: This is their response when asked about backups- "Some have asked whether or not we had back ups. Yes, we dutifully backed up our servers every day. Unfortunately, we backed up the servers BETWEEN servers. That is, GREEN, our library server, would be backed up to PURPLE, our WEB/Forum server. That way, if one or the other failed, we would have a back up on the remaining active server. The hacker took out both servers, destroying our ability to use one or the other back up to remedy the situation." Ive never used avsim either but sounds a real shame - and as said above there is no excuse for not having it properly backed up. Their kind of rudimentary load balancing act above FAILED and was not thought through if they thought it would be adequate. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gremlin_WoH 0 Posted May 14, 2009 Saw this at 3rd Wire: This is their response when asked about backups- "Some have asked whether or not we had back ups. Yes, we dutifully backed up our servers every day. Unfortunately, we backed up the servers BETWEEN servers. That is, GREEN, our library server, would be backed up to PURPLE, our WEB/Forum server. That way, if one or the other failed, we would have a back up on the remaining active server. The hacker took out both servers, destroying our ability to use one or the other back up to remedy the situation." Ive never used avsim either but sounds a real shame - and as said above there is no excuse for not having it properly backed up. Their kind of rudimentary load balancing act above FAILED and was not thought through if they thought it would be adequate. So it was an insider job or the hacker found the scripts that automated the backup and then had references to the backup server. I have been hit by a turkish hacker once. That was before I found some privately developed security fixes for my forum. Anyway I was back one hour later as I had my backups on an offline source. But wait there is a red line: openplanesim.com Forum was hacked some years ago, Sim-Outhouse Forums about one year ago, now AVSim. Who is next? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
