My site is under attack!

Literally. Spammers, hackers, they're all in the group known as Anonymous. And now, they've chosen a site I help administrate to mess with. Which, needless to say, ticks me off quite a great deal. I've noted at least three direct members who are positively part of this group, and the site has been getting members like them for a while now. The only difference is that the three most recent ones came and supported a thread started by one of them saying that the site had been claimed by Anonymous,(Which it is SO not!) while the others in the past were random and never said anything about Anonymous. This is the first time I've heard of the group.

I need help, or advice, which ever you have to spare. From what I've gathered, they won't stop spamming till our site is in the dumps, and they have the numbers to do so. Has anyone dealt with this before? I need to save the site from being spammed --or worse-- hacked.

* Post removed by me. Placehold is right, it can only cause further panic.

But ↓ stays.

That's...lovely. -.-

Is there absolutley NOTHING I can do? Isn't this illegal somehow? It just doesn't seem right...

EDIT:: I banned the suspected members.

Ok firstly, Anyone with a bit of computer knowledge can prevent such attacks,
In my 10 years of programming i have had worse than these guys threatening me and i'm still waiting for it to happen,

Anonymous are just a large group of computer geeks who like to threaten people with this stuff,

Infact they aren't a threat at all, if anything the software they use is more dangerous.

If you feel that they are going to hack your site then ban their IP, Email and member accounts, Watch for new accounts appearing and also stop any random posts and threads that look suspicious before people have a chance to create a big thread of it.

I have replied Via email aswell

Regards







Craig

I have no computer knowledge >.< I'm technologically disturbed. xD

I've done that much; banning them I mean. I guess now all I can do is wait and hope they don't register in large numbers?

I wouldnt underestimate them however.

We arent talking about some basic script kiddies.

On the reverse side starting to tell people that these guys are dangerous not only panics people but it does paint a false impression of that group, the group themselves aren't actually set up for "Hacking" and yes most of the people members allegedly linked to the group are actually young teens who watch too much youtube and use bruteforcers to try and hack forums, the problem being they cant because it doesn't work.....

I know from experience

It is all common sense, If someone posts something that looks suspicious then take it down or delete the thread.

If a surge of members register and they all come from the same couple of ip address's then ban those dodgy accounts.

Remember you control the forum not them, Think about things instead of letting it slide, Security is pretty tight on Forumotion to begin with.........

Regards







Craig

Also, set new accounts to be activated by admin - you can then see who is trying to register on your forum before they actually do.

I never said i dont agree with you and with the methods of prevention... I am just saying that they shouldnt be so underestimated. As much as i remember their group contains few members with a bit superior knowledge...

However, somehow i cannot believe that Anonymous would be even interested in your forum. What kind of forum is it ? Is it highly popular ? What is its content ?

I don't get why they're interested either. The more I google and the more you all tell me, I add another bit of doubt that it is the real group.

The site is two years old, with over 1000 members. It's a fansite for a book. Twilight. (Not the freakish spazzes that are all ZOMGEDDDIIIIIIIIIIEEE!!!!!!!!!!!11111111, but people who started off as fans in the early days and now jut hang around for the friends they've made.) Content? We have games, classes, awards, competitions, discussions, a chatbox, and teams that help make the site interesting. That's about it. I don't see how on earth we earned the attention of some of these people, they seem more the freaks they accuse us of being than we are.

I guess you could say it's popular..we have a link on SM's site, and we get a steady flow of members...

Placehold wrote:On the reverse side starting to tell people that these guys are dangerous not only panics people but it does paint a false impression of that group, the group themselves aren't actually set up for "Hacking" and yes most of the people members allegedly linked to the group are actually young teens who watch too much youtube and use bruteforcers to try and hack forums, the problem being they cant because it doesn't work.....

I know from experience

It is all common sense, If someone posts something that looks suspicious then take it down or delete the thread.

If a surge of members register and they all come from the same couple of ip address's then ban those dodgy accounts.

Remember you control the forum not them, Think about things instead of letting it slide, Security is pretty tight on Forumotion to begin with.........

Regards







Craig

I agree.


Passwords:
Well, a good way to prevent hacking of accounts is to have good passwords for administrators. Using numbers in the password is good, I got a tip a long while back from someone who worked for the U.S. government and helped stop hackers. Something along the lines of using number substitutes.

Ex.
AN3WPA22W0RD
[A-NEW-PASSWORD]
Not exactly the best, but it's just an example.

You can also limit what members can do, such as remove the HTML feature (I'm not an expert, so I don't know if that would exactly help), make it so guests can't post, censor words, make it so you use confirmation to get to admin. panel, etc.

Pretty much what Placehold said. Just ban the users and such.

This Anonymous group, What forums do they usually hack? I mean what type of forums they are interested in?

Ok, i ll add my "wisdom" here ( and removed my first post while i am it, dont want to frighten people )

1. Administration Panel
2. General
3. Security
4. Enable : put all on yes

• Confirm password to administration access :
• Auth Dialog Box to administration access :
• Disallow "Send by email a new password" to administrators and moderators :

5. I dont know if it is by default, but activate all this :

• Automatic daily forum backup :
• Pages optimization for a better referencement on search engines :
• Anti-spiders mode (for your pages and the emails inside) :


Improve your password. Build it from all possible signs ( numbers, capital letters, normal letters, Shift + signs, Alt Gr + Signs... ) and increase the number of the password to 24 - maximum limit. Order your staff members ( every moderator and administrator ) to DO THE SAME.

If you cant think of an successful password, use :

The Bitmill

Good password : D?7\81f3Nb\].#aocq|t%={b

While banning :

• Ban their email
• Add their IP to the ban list
• Ban their name

Star Blade : no offense, but with passwords like that - no wonder people can hack government system. This password contains 3 numbers, no special characters and those 3 numbers are replacing the obvious letters ( 3 = E in leet speak anyway ).

magicm00n : i doubt they are interested in forums at all. They hack what they feel its important enough to get hacked. Mostly some websites or something. Perhaps those people are real Anonymous members, but there is no way entire Anonymous would participate in this. After all, we are talking about the only people who publically declared war on scientology.

Placehold made his point and i respect that as he has superior knowledge. But i do insist that Anonymous arent some basic script kiddies, they successfully hacked some sites and performed ddos attacks not to mention their relations with some sites and services.

if u are a staff u could always bann them!

True. But if they gonna hack your forum, you wont be staff anymore....

Tarogasini wrote:

Star Blade : no offense, but with passwords like that - no wonder people can hack government system. This password contains 3 numbers, no special characters and those 3 numbers are replacing the obvious letters ( 3 = E in leet speak anyway ).
.

It was a simple tip, it was given to me about 2-3 years ago, so I may have left out detials. And the example of mine was poor.
________________
Also, it's good to make it so it requires admins to activate users, that way you can view users that have registered, before they're official members.

magicm00n wrote:This Anonymous group, What forums do they usually hack? I mean what type of forums they are interested in?

Scientology/Scientologists. I know they target them.

Good target tho.

And also : they hacked nocussing.com ( sadly the site was restored )

Well, if you still now your founder account.
Log in it then search for their ip address on their post on your forum site.
Then immediately banned them off to your forum.
Then, deleting the group that is made by that hackers of yours...