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Author Topic:   Hack attempts
Scott Martin
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Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 11-05-2016 12:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
We have always had forum hack attempts.

And we block the IP's as we discover them. We have a blocked list with millions of IPs.

Most often the attempts come from China, Russia and South America. Lots of other countries as well.

Of late, I've seen an uptick and a change. This morning it was Russian attempts. It also seems the Chinese in particular and the Russians have command & control of US based IPs to do their probing and hack attempts from. The US based IPs seem not to be infected PC's but rather servers.

To me it looks like the bad guys have used our freedom to buy US based servers farms and set up shop. I expect they are remote controlling the server farms and are not physically present; so there is no catching them.

Every ISP has an abuse contact. But the abuse contact is generally something that goes un-responded to.

    As things get worse, I will be blocking more US based IP's. So it is possible that your IP (computer/phone) might get blocked. You will see this. If this happens, please email us from your registered SSF email address and we will create a special access permission for your computer-phone/IP (as long as your computer-phone is not infected and you have an unchanging IP).

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ahwt

Posts: 2334
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 11-06-2016 10:03 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for ahwt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
One of the stores that my wife likes to visit has free wifi and when I log on and go to this site I get your 403 forbidden message.
I think the next time we go there I will tell the manager about it as I doubt they even know anything about their set up.
Looking for emails is only one reason people want to hack, but the person that invents a secure way to communicate will be a hero.

[This message has been edited by ahwt (edited 11-06-2016).]

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 11-06-2016 10:29 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes there are a lot of amateur trollers looking to harvest emails. But there are more hackers trying to get credit card info, passwords and attempts to take control of our site. There are also fake registrations...lots of fake registrations. And every once and while we are slow to detect the fake registration so for a moment there are posts with links to porn sites.

The bad guys troll and use "free" WiFi sites....My advice don't do anything at a "free" WiFi site that requires any id, password or personally identifiable info. Beware auto fill could betray your privacy.

This PC world article should give a good intro to the issue of "free" WiFi
The dangerous cost of ‘free’ Wi-Fi

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asheland

Posts: 935
Registered: Nov 2003

iconnumber posted 11-07-2016 09:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for asheland     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I usually post on here from my job. It appears to be ok from work.

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ahwt

Posts: 2334
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 11-08-2016 12:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ahwt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NPR has a short article on how easy it is to hack an unsecured computer. I notice now that when I log on to Wifi as various stores I get a security notice. Maybe it is just better to just my own link to the internet than the free one. I never seem to run out of time anyway so the free feature in not important.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 07-15-2018 12:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
At the SSF we have managed to block millions of the bad player's computer networks from registering on our forums.

Regularly we detect new networks making an attempt and block them as well. Its usually only a few.

Since the indictment of the "Russian hackers" the attempts are way up and many.

I expect most people won't notice but the USA is truly under siege. I hope our government (& Nato) start fighting back with better detection and defenses.

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ahwt

Posts: 2334
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 07-15-2018 01:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ahwt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I also hope we do something, but I do not have high expectations. Sometime ago I opened an email account for my wife and just got word today that someone in Vietnam tried to get into this account.
I thought this all happened under the Obama administration and was all over.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 07-15-2018 03:03 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
    Internet Social engineering & Spear-phishing

Our site is an Internet "social" site.

I won't go into one of my rants... except to note that social engineering is often at the core of bad things happening....

Spear-phishing is just one type of social engineered attack. There are articles all around the Internet on exactly what Spear-phishing is....

I am bewildered as why an company like eBay would set up their users for a Spear-phishing attack but they just did.

This morning I got an email from eBay, which can be faked. This unexpected email was about securing my eBay account by updating the info on my account. And there is nothing wrong with this reminder EXCEPT that eBay provided a link for me to click. The link is certainly convenient but NOT GOOD!

Any bad player can send email like this, so you should never click on a link in an unexpected email. If you do get such an unexpected email go to the company's site independently without clicking on the link and log in as you normally do.

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ahwt

Posts: 2334
Registered: Mar 2003

iconnumber posted 07-16-2018 12:39 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ahwt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Another scheme to watch out for are the offers to clean your PC at no cost. Apparently you are directed to a web site and asked to give access to your computer for the purpose of cleaning out viruses.
A friend of mind did that and their cleaning included cleaning out his checking account. I do not know any more details of how they did it, but good advice is back away from free offers.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 07-18-2018 10:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I know we have several members in NC.

Because of a few bad bots originating out of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill we've had to block some of the university's IP's from posting. If you are using the blocked portion you will still be able to read the forums just not post.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 08-01-2018 02:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Of late the "bad guys" have really been trying to find a way into the forums. We have done a pretty good job keeping them out.

The "bad guys" are getting more sophisticated and are more hidden about where in the world they are originating from. They are doing more "spoofing" and using more proxy networks.

We hope they never get through our defenses but if they do we expect it will be in one of the new members forums.

There isn't much they can do to the forums. But they can cause you trouble if your personal defenses aren't good enough. If they do get through to one of New Member's forums we expect it will include a link to a malware infected web site. So any fresh new member's first few posts that includes a link please think twice before clicking the link!

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 08-01-2018 03:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
UK members-

This afternoon a bunch of "bad Guys" tried to break into the forums from a UK tor network. You shouldn't have any problem reading the forum but you might when posting.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 08-04-2018 12:45 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There is more and more TOR traffic hitting our forums. Some of the TOR traffic might be a legit visitor to the SSF. The visitor might just be using a TOR browser for privacy.

So for now we are allowing must TOR traffic to read the SSF.

Because a lot of the "bad guys" also use TOR... more and more TOR traffic is blocked from posting at the SSF.

If you are a TOR user and have difficultly posting, please switch to none TOR mode browsing or a non-TOR browser.

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