Over the past several months several Trainz Community web sites have been hacked.
Most readers just ignore the hacked site and move on. A few, and a very small few at that, take the time to contact the web site owners and let them know.
A month or so back, I discovered a hacked site and reported it to the owner. As it turned out, this very popular site had been hacked for weeks without the owner's knowledge. Google had picked it up however, and branded it a malicious wares site. As a consequence, it took the owner weeks of pain and anguish to get his reputation back with Google. This could have been avoided if just one of the dozen or so daily visitors had taken time to contact the site owner and warn him.
About three months ago, the Trainz Resources Directory was also hacked. It wasn't so obvious, but IanWoodmore, an observant colleague who regularly frequents my site, noticed some irregularities and reported them to me.
Four days ago the TRD site was hacked again and I wish to thank clam1952 for taking the time to warn me just minutes after the attack took place. That saved the TRD being banned by Google and gave me time to get the site back on line quickly.
Another kind lady by the name of Margaret then contacted me to say my first attempt at getting everything repaired had failed. Once again, I offer my many thanks.
I also wish to thank my Collegue IanWoodmore for also picking up the errors, but he was not quite as quick as the fantastic folks above.
It's interesting to note that from the log files, I can see that the hacker worked for a couple of days before finally breaking in. The site was up and running again in a few hours, and running perfectly overnight. I can never understand what pleasure hackers and graffiti artists (?) get from seeing their hours of work wiped out with a single stroke, be it a replaced script or paint roller.
So folks, the moral of the story is this: These web sites are put up for your enjoyment by hard working colleagues who wish to share things with you. The hack is not only an abuse to the owner's web site, it's also abusing you. The quicker the site is returned to normal, the less pleasure the hacker will get.
Please help by reporting all hacked web sites immediately, please don't leave it to someone else.
Most readers just ignore the hacked site and move on. A few, and a very small few at that, take the time to contact the web site owners and let them know.
A month or so back, I discovered a hacked site and reported it to the owner. As it turned out, this very popular site had been hacked for weeks without the owner's knowledge. Google had picked it up however, and branded it a malicious wares site. As a consequence, it took the owner weeks of pain and anguish to get his reputation back with Google. This could have been avoided if just one of the dozen or so daily visitors had taken time to contact the site owner and warn him.
About three months ago, the Trainz Resources Directory was also hacked. It wasn't so obvious, but IanWoodmore, an observant colleague who regularly frequents my site, noticed some irregularities and reported them to me.
Four days ago the TRD site was hacked again and I wish to thank clam1952 for taking the time to warn me just minutes after the attack took place. That saved the TRD being banned by Google and gave me time to get the site back on line quickly.
Another kind lady by the name of Margaret then contacted me to say my first attempt at getting everything repaired had failed. Once again, I offer my many thanks.
I also wish to thank my Collegue IanWoodmore for also picking up the errors, but he was not quite as quick as the fantastic folks above.
It's interesting to note that from the log files, I can see that the hacker worked for a couple of days before finally breaking in. The site was up and running again in a few hours, and running perfectly overnight. I can never understand what pleasure hackers and graffiti artists (?) get from seeing their hours of work wiped out with a single stroke, be it a replaced script or paint roller.
So folks, the moral of the story is this: These web sites are put up for your enjoyment by hard working colleagues who wish to share things with you. The hack is not only an abuse to the owner's web site, it's also abusing you. The quicker the site is returned to normal, the less pleasure the hacker will get.
Please help by reporting all hacked web sites immediately, please don't leave it to someone else.
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