Forum guest raid - possible hack

[MicBoring]

Hello,

On my forum, guests are only allowed to see the rules thread; they aren't even allowed to see the members list or who's online list. Plus, we rarely get more than two guests at a time. However, this afternoon a total of fifteen guests were viewing features (like the member list and forum search) that were disabled for them. Here is the screenshot:



It seemed odd enough that there were so many guests online at once, but it was just worrisome that they were viewing disabled pages. Could I possibly have been hacked?

I might add, though, that the Google bot was online as well. I've heard that sometimes bots will add nonexistent members in the form of guests and make them active, to make the forum look busier. There were three specific IP addresses, though, and while this would be a much less disturbing option it is decidedly annoying. Would there be anyway to stop it, if this is the cause?

And, of course, if it was a hack, what are the best precautions that I can make?

My Forum is very small and private, so this sort of thing makes me concerned for my members. If someone could get back to me on this as soon as possible I would appreciate it.

Thank you!

[Shian]

Hello.

I doubt this is a hack. This happens on many forums. It could really be anything, but not a hack.

[MicBoring]

Thank you for your help, but is there anyway to avoid it?

[SLGray]

It does not mean that they are exactly seeing those pages. They are seeing the log in page that loads when they do not have permission to see those pages.

[MicBoring]

I don't think that is possible, due to the fact that as a guest you cannot even see the forums/pages etc.

And that does not explain the sudden surge of guests.....is there any other thing else that might have happened?