Hey, what happened to NitroExpress.com? I haven't been able to access the site for a few days....

They got hacked. They had hoped to be back yesterday. Guess it is taking longer.

This from the site owner...


"The NE website and forums are down at the moment. Someone hacked the ISP's server and the NE is down as a result as well. Hopefully up and running again before long. ISP support staff not working during public holidays have no doubt delayed it a bit."



I'd love to see someone 'hack' the prickholes who do that kind of crap.



Cheers
Tinker

Thanks for the info guys!

IMO AR has always been a sister site to NE and I guess Saeed wouldn't mind?, so till NE is up and running I'd just like to propose a toast to wish us that are NE members as well - Happy New Year here on AR - MAY YOUR RIFLES REGULATE TO ETERNITY !

to NE and AR DRSS fraternity !

Some lowlife must have done a real number on NE so hope John can get it back on line sooner rather than later. I found AR from the NE site and habitually visit both daily.

Best to all,

Von Gruff.

Thanks Mouse!



Cheers
Tinker

No wonder I have not been able to log on the site. Wish good luck NE and God's speed.
Happy New year NE members.
mike b 470

VG-

quote:

Originally posted by Von Gruff:
Some lowlife must have done a real number on NE...

From what John was saying, it looks like the attack was on the service provider.
I'm getting the sense that the NE machines and datalog will likely be OK.

Cross a finger!



Cheers
Tinker

quote:

Originally posted by Antlers:
Hey, what happened to NitroExpress.com? I haven't been able to access the site for a few days....

Apparently more serious than people thought. I heard from another NE member all data may be lost. Its been down a very long time which tells me it may have been wiped out and no backup exists? A tragic situation. Only should take 24-48hrs if the server is operational, but if they changed servers and restore from a backup that may be faster and more secure given this has happened before.

Ouch.

quote:

Originally posted by SINNER:
Apparently more serious than people thought. I heard all data is lost.

Hopefully there's a backup somewhere.
What a great deal of information to go to dust.



Cheers
Tinker

Hopefully John will stop by and give us an update about the status. It'd be a sin for all the information to be lost forever.

quote:

Originally posted by a.tinkerer:
VG-

quote:

Originally posted by Von Gruff:
Some lowlife must have done a real number on NE...

From what John was saying, it looks like the attack was on the service provider.
I'm getting the sense that the NE machines and datalog will likely be OK.

Cross a finger!



Cheers
Tinker

The provider was likely hacked into by the world wide hacking of providers by Wikileaks because of someone that provider host, and likely has nothing to do with NE per say! NE is simply collateral damage, IMO.

Mac-

I was on the site the moment it was blasted.
One moment fine the next moment *poof*

The screen image was replaced by this message:
(and I quote)

quote:

Hacked by The Commender

-Tunisian C00deR-
-RooT-

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_input() in /home/nitroexpresscom/public_html/ubbthreads/logout.php on line 27

Then, moments later the image changed to this:

quote:

Hacked by The Commender

-Tunisian C00deR-
-RooT-

Warning: main(languages//showflat.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/nitroexpresscom/public_html/ubbthreads/showflat.php on line 26

Warning: main(languages//showflat.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/nitroexpresscom/public_html/ubbthreads/showflat.php on line 26

Warning: main(languages//showflat.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/nitroexpresscom/public_html/ubbthreads/showflat.php on line 26

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required 'languages//showflat.php' (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear') in /home/nitroexpresscom/public_html/ubbthreads/showflat.php on line 26

Since then the image has changed to a much more graphic-rich stream of islamic anger related imagery, including rants from the hacker discussing the act as a component of their 'world war 3' contribution.

From some web research on this hacker and other related attacks from them on other service providers, my assumption was (also) that NE wasn't necessarily directly targeted, but was a 'shotgun blast' casualty from the bigger ISP attack.

Still sucks, and I hope John somewhere/sometime has done off-site hard backup of the site.
That's pretty much the professional standard for a body of data could justify archival protection.

We'll see!



Cheers
Tinker

Thanks for the updates

Thanks Tinker! I wasn't aware of the problem till i tried several days in a row to log on to NE with little success, and then saw the info on AR about what had happened.

I too hope John gets back without too much damage, or loss. He's a nice guy and I hate to see him wiped out in the wake of someone else's foolishness!
.............................

You're welcome Mac!



Cheers
Tinker

By the way -- are you going to make it to the Reno SCI convention?
I'd like to meet you, and when you come I'd like you to bring a select handful of your older, more eclectic guns and rifles for me to take from you.
I then can care for them here on my ranch and keep them at the ready for when you return for a chase through our ridge behind my plott hound on cougar!!

tinker focuses his best Luke Skywalker *force* in Mac's general direction...

That and we can have a beer.



Cheers
Tinker

I've thought it through with similar schedule metrics...

quote:

Originally posted by SINNER:
...which tells me it was wiped out and no backup exists. A tragic situation.

...and I still hope for the best. Although there's some chance that John's site is simply waiting in line for it's turn at the ISP for restoration, my sense is similar to yours.

When the site went down and I saw the messages on the screen replacing the NitroExpress graphics, I got the sinking feeling in my gut that it was bad.
It's possible that the hacker managed to do physical damage to the ISP's facility and infrastructure that could possibly be slowing restoration, if restoration is possible.



I agree on the 'tragic' language.
That site definitely has(had?) a special atmosphere which I don't see elsewhere on the web.



Cheers
Tinker

quote:

Originally posted by Antlers:
Hey, what happened to NitroExpress.com? I haven't been able to access the site for a few days....


Apparently more serious than people thought. I heard all data is lost.

I am an administrator on NE.com. When I saw the site down I emailed John Hahn to inquire. Let me relate his exact reply which he sent to me on December 31:

Roscoe

The server of the ISP NE is hosted on was hacked.

As usual the ISP is uncommunicative, and while they have initiated action to see what the “problem” is, that is all the information I have got.

It was hacked on the 24 or 25th of December and of course with the holidays and public holidays they probably don’t have many staff working.

Another Aussie hunting forum was also hacked John Griffin told me.

Just have to wait and see what the support staff can do about it. Nothing really I can do at the moment.

The hacker claimed to be from the Middle East btw and posted some sort of graphic before that was taken down.

When the site is back up, will have to see what other options we should pursue. This ISP has now been hacked two times in two months.

John H


You can see that John makes no statement that data was lost. Were that so, I believe he would have told me.

I haven't bothered John since then and have heard nothing further from him. I do believe if things were as bad as to lose all data that John would have been in contact with the moderators and administrators of NE.com before putting such information to the public. So it seems we wait.

One of the tasks I perform for NE.com is to archive photographs on the NE.com server, thus avoiding the red "x" in a box. Just a few minutes ago I logged on to the server I access for this purpose and found everything there. In addition, my email communication to and from John (just mentioned) were using his email address "@nitroexpress.com". They went through without a hitch.

I don't know whether you keep an eye on DoubleGunshop.com. I do. It was down for a month or so during November and December because of some unexplained complications. I have no idea how a forum works, being totally unfamiliar with the software that drives them. I do know that the ISP server I use in my business (GoDaddy.com) claims it protects data with off-site backup.

Let's maintain our optimism and wait.

Roscoe Stephenson
"CptCurl"

Nice!


I was going to call you to ask, but you beat me to it here.
I should call you anyway!

I hope that NE gets ironed out, and I'll maintain an optimistic attitude.



Cheers
Tinker

I have long felt that anyone who infects another's computer should be infected. Ebola or the bubonic plague would be appropriate . . .

I wish John all the best in recovering from this assault.

Buchseman

To correct one poster’s un-substantiated rumour mongering.

And to inform everyone else whom is concerned.

1. If it hasn't come from me, ie the “all data has been lost" comment, it has come from someone with no real information and it is just rumour mongering.

2. Initially all I got from the ISP was they were "looking into it." The site was hacked Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Probably minimum to no staff working that day.

3. I don't get any reports via the ISP on progress via their online support system, so telephoned. They are reluctant to admit it, but it is obvious an entire server or more was hacked. It wasn't the NitroExpress site specifically, it was the whole server. At least one other shooting site in Australia went under at the same time, as did probably many other sites. The ISP's domain name server appears to have been affected.

4. The ISP claims to have backups available. A telephone call today, they requested a particular file to assist them with restoring the site, or speeding it up.

5. NitroExpress operates on three different servers. Two are on another company's servers. Only one out of three was hacked, but that one included the domain name server info.

For example the entire extensive Nickudu Files collection of online books and articles is located elsewhere, as is the very extensive collection of double rifle graphics and photos.

Thanks to our many members and visitors whom wish the best. Hackers are a curse on the internet to any web site or service.

Good luck John!



Cheers
Tinker

Progress. See the graphics above are now working.

I can now access the site by ftp and the files and directories seem intact. Won't be able to test out the database for the forums until the domain names are working, and so far, no result.

Looks like there is a chance that the data and photos can be saved; keeping my fingers crossed!

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
I can now access the site by ftp and the files and directories seem intact. Won't be able to test out the database for the forums until the domain names are working, and so far, no result.

well you had me worried for awhile.

best

peter

But Sinner, whether you have all the data or not, if the DNS data / server etc is gone / not working etc etc, then no one can / would be able to find it.

As I say, if the traffic lights aren't working,
chaos ensues !

And even if / when it is put back up on line, it can take 24 hours to promulgate around the world etc through all the servers.

Bad thing to happen, bad timing (staff wise).

Hope it all works out for John.

.

The NitroExpress.com website and forums are still offline and are being restored from a backup. Due to the volume of sites affected and being restored, they estimate it could take 24 to 48 hours to restore.

New hardware has also had to be installed. The hacker must have done a really thorough job it seems.

The DNS now seems to be pointing OK to the new location and server, which will currently bring up a maintenance page.

Here's hoping. Soon!

Thanks for the updates John..

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
The NitroExpress.com website and forums are still offline and are being restored from a backup. Due to the volume of sites affected and being restored, they estimate it could take 24 to 48 hours to restore.

New hardware has also had to be installed. The hacker must have done a really thorough job it seems.

The DNS now seems to be pointing OK to the new location and server, which will currently bring up a maintenance page.

Here's hoping. Soon!

Good to hear, looking forward to it.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
The NitroExpress.com website and forums are still offline.

New hardware has also had to be installed. The hacker must have done a really thorough job it seems.

Here's hoping. Soon!

You should consider using a new server, that may remedy things faster and be much more secure.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
The NitroExpress.com website and forums are still offline and are being restored from a backup. Due to the volume of sites affected and being restored, they estimate it could take 24 to 48 hours to restore.

New hardware has also had to be installed. The hacker must have done a really thorough job it seems.

The DNS now seems to be pointing OK to the new location and server, which will currently bring up a maintenance page.

Here's hoping. Soon!

Hang in there John, rumors always fly around but hard work most always prevails in the end too!

So here's wishing you a pre-emptive happy 2011!

NitroX-


Great news, and thanks for the update.


...now if only my Luke Skywalker gig could only do so well...

quote:

Originally posted by a.tinkerer:
tinker focuses his best Luke Skywalker *force* in Mac's general direction...

...but something tells me that Mac ain't gonna budge on that one.



Cheers
Tinker

I've been feeling like a bit of an addict lately. The temporary loss of NE (still crossing my fingers) has been one of those "you don't realize what you have until it's gone" kind of deals.

Still wishing you the best John,

Buchseman

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
The NitroExpress.com website and forums are still offline and are being restored from a backup. Due to the volume of sites affected and being restored, they estimate it could take 24 to 48 hours to restore.

New hardware has also had to be installed. The hacker must have done a really thorough job it seems.

The DNS now seems to be pointing OK to the new location and server, which will currently bring up a maintenance page.

Here's hoping. Soon!

Any further up-dates John.

Von Gruff.

http://nitroexpress.com/


It was nice to see the main page back up on line!
Looks like there's more work to go, but progress is encouraging.

Best wishes in the effort!


Cheers
Tinker

quote:

Originally posted by a.tinkerer:
http://nitroexpress.com/


It was nice to see the main page back up on line!
Looks like there's more work to go, but progress is encouraging.

Best wishes in the effort!


Cheers
Tinker

yes and yes

slowly buth steady

peter