Hacking


andrew.colomb
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Joined: 10/07/15
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andrew.colomb
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11/13/2018 5:07 pm

Good evening

Guitar Tricks, what are you doing about the hacking? If you are unable to stop this/them, I am concerned that my/our private and personal details may be compromised?


# 1
Guitar Tricks Admin
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Guitar Tricks Admin
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11/13/2018 7:11 pm

Hi there,

I understand your concern here, but to be clear, it's not hacking, it's spam. The only thing impacted is that the forum becomes clogged with unnecessary posts.

We're taking care of it and working on more permanent solutions. Thank you for your patience and feedback!


If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us.
# 2
john of MT
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john of MT
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11/13/2018 7:44 pm

I've been reporting the spam as I notice it to GT Admin since March, the recent foreign language infestation since about August. The GT folks are quick to respond to my email and remove the junk except...

It appears that the Forum is not monitored, i.e., my or someone else's reports seem to be the first tip that something is wrong. Futher, the probable Chinese spam like what we just went through is sent at what is the morning time in the Far East. Consequently, it's past normal business hours in California. Again, it appears there is no one to montior and correct the influx of spam during those off hours.. This spate we just went through took more than 24 hours to remove... maybe because it was a holiday?

I too have some concerns. I'm concerned that clicking on the spurious links contained in the spam may lead to some nasty infectation of GT user's computers. I'm also disappointed that there is no [u]proactive[/u] response. Not yet, anyway.

IMO, such trash shouldn't hang around the Forum for one than an hour. But that's just my opinion...

Again, the Admin guys are fast to remove the spam when they receive my tip offs. But I have a sinking feeling the response should be faster.

john

p.s. There was a short GT site outage this morning, I think it was in the seven-hour, Californiua time. It only interrupted me for about ten minutes but I couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with the dump of dozens of spam messages into the Forum. If that was the case, it's a good reason for a more immediate response to spam dumps.


"It takes a lot of devotion and work, or maybe I should say play, because if you love it, that's what it amounts to. I haven't found any shortcuts, and I've been looking for a long time."
-- Chet Atkins
# 3
manXcat
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manXcat
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11/13/2018 10:13 pm

I can comprehend why it might take a few hours when the spam is dumped during out of local working hours, but for days? This is a reoccurring issue which really needs attention and an effective solution ASAP.

As is, it presents as unprofessional, and just as John of MT has said, shouldn't require end user reporting by email for an alert before it's acted upon.

Even free hobbbyist forums tend to fix this kind of problem with a degree of urgency not apparent here. o.O ??

BTW, I don't think the "click all boxes which don't have a bus in them" image verification or "I'm not a Robot" checkbox and other annoyingly intrusive upon members blocking pages are the answer either. They not only irritate the begeezuz out of me when they present, but inarguably, [u]they aren't working very well[/u] as an [u]effective[/u] solution.


# 4
Guitar Tricks Admin
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Guitar Tricks Admin
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11/13/2018 11:31 pm
Originally Posted by: manXcat

I can comprehend why it might take a few hours when the spam is dumped during out of local working hours, but for days? This is a reoccurring issue which really needs attention and an effective solution ASAP.

As is, it presents as unprofessional, and just as John of MT has said, shouldn't require end user reporting by email for an alert before it's acted upon.

Even free hobbbyist forums tend to fix this kind of problem with a degree of urgency not apparent here. o.O ??

BTW, I don't think the "click all boxes which don't have a bus in them" image verification or "I'm not a Robot" checkbox and other annoyingly intrusive upon members blocking pages are the answer either. They not only irritate the begeezuz out of me when they present, but inarguably, [u]they aren't working very well[/u] as an [u]effective[/u] solution.

Hi guys,

I agree with you. We definitely need to be taking care of the spam faster, and that's something we're working on.

We check the forums everyday and have caught them early as well. The spammers that hit the forum during the summer posted a number of links and advertisements that had nothing to do with us, and we've taken care of that type of spam.

The spam that is happening now, is a different type of spam that is dropping tons of posts within minutes, which clogs the forums and takes a little bit of time to remove them. As we work on a more permanent fix, we appreciate your patience and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Best,

Billy


If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us.
# 5
Ben Martin
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Joined: 04/26/10
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Ben Martin
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Posts: 365
11/13/2018 11:42 pm

Hey guys we are so sorry this keeps happening on the forum!

Like Billy said, we put in a few code updates during the past few months to prevent these spam posts, and lots of it now gets rejected. But some of the posts are still making it into the forum and we need to manually remove them.

We are still working on ways to to prevent this from happening, and we will get it sorted out.

Ben


# 6
manXcat
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manXcat
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11/14/2018 1:30 am

Thanks for the courtesy of your prompt responses Billy and Ben.

Appreciate it can be difficult to prevent. Seen this kind of thing before when the perpetrators are targeting a site forum specifically trying to crash the site's server and slow down or the forum until it has to be reconstructed from backup, resulting in disruptive downtime and time consuming for the site admin/s.

[br]The usual motivation for attacks on the other sites I've referred to is their popularity vs alternative sites. Perhaps Guitar Tricks is 'guilty' of being too successful against its competitors?


# 7
john of MT
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john of MT
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11/16/2018 6:05 pm
Originally Posted by: manXcat

Thanks for the courtesy of your prompt responses Billy and Ben...

[br]...The usual motivation for attacks on the other sites I've referred to is their popularity vs alternative sites. Perhaps Guitar Tricks is 'guilty' of being too successful against its competitors?

Add my thanks too.

Given the seeming origin of the recent massive spam dumps maybe it's a reaction to GT teaching the wrong scales.


"It takes a lot of devotion and work, or maybe I should say play, because if you love it, that's what it amounts to. I haven't found any shortcuts, and I've been looking for a long time."
-- Chet Atkins
# 8
mouseq101
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mouseq101
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01/21/2020 2:24 am

That is hacking and personal data can be really stolen from everything. There is no connection with a code etc. There is a new way now to crack any password. It is hashing. Actually this way is not that new, but people got opportunity to use just few years ago. It is all because it needs very much performance and very strong machine. It is called hashing, it simply tries every symbol a million times by the algorithm until enters the system. Now there are servers with a lot of graphic cards which can be used by simple users for a small payment such as http://gpu-hash.com/. So, be careful guys.


# 9

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