My Site Got Hacked Today
 

The site where I spent most of my time and doing most of my work, my playground, got hacked today and totally wiped out. One of my other admins said all the pages were blank with the exception of the words Hacking Attempt! up in the top left hand corner.

By the time I got online to check everything was gone - 3 databases deleted and all the files gone from the server, tons of hours and some unique scripts wiped out.

I'm not going to attempt to rebuild or open a new site, sites are getting hacked all too frequently now and I'm not about to pour numerous hours and money into something that could get wiped out again by someone looking for a cheap thrill or whatever it is they gain from taking down a site. This might come as a surprise but it is a hassle I don't need.

I'm going back into hospital next month for a follow-up to surgery I had at the turn of the year, maybe after that (and by which time vBulletin 5 should be appearing) I'll look at the possibility of opening a new site and continuing my hobby but in the meantime I shall bid you farewell.

*This does mean all my mods that say 'Not Supported' will now definitely be unsupported and anyone looking for v3 Arcade support will need to go through the vBAdvanced guys.

Thanks for giving me a home for the past 8 years - it has been a blast.

Really sorry to hear about this.
It is something that gives me sleepless nights.
Best wishes to you.

This is most unfortunate? Dont you have any other backups from which you can restore? Even old offline ones?

In any case I urge you not to get completely demoralised by this and quit. You should try to rebuild/recover your site.

No, not really. It would require too much work and I don't think I've got copies anymore of many of my edits to files or templates.

Just found out too that the Twitter and Facebook accounts for our site were also hacked.

Wow, it almost sounds like you were targeted, that is wasn't just some script kiddies deciding to have some fun hacking a site. I'm sorry to hear this. It's an awful feeling to wake up and have a surprise like this waiting for you! :(

Hey, Gemma
Take Care.
I was just starting to check out your site and was seriously thinking of joining :(
Sometimes the bad hackers just don't realize who they hurt.

I am looking forward to seeing you on vB 5

Cheers, :)

Oh cr*p :(

Reading your OP a couple of times it wasn't the site being hacked but your server,which means that was not secured somehow.

Was this shared hosting or a VPS and what control panel did you use?

I had a VPS messed with a couple of years ago and that was through CPanel.

I was lucky to have full backups and database copies so we were in control again within an hour.
The VPS was then firewalled so that only a couple of IP's could access it.

File and template edits are not as important as they seem. Even basic forum software is quite good. Restore your site with what you have now. More modifications can come later.

How could they get credentials for you facebook and twitter account?

Sorry to hear this Gemma, even it happened to me once. Never give up!!

If you need any help, i am just a pm away ;) [of-course for free]

Also, good luck with your surgery.

Peace.

Gemma, firstly good luck in your surgery and as socialteenz said if you need help just ask, we'll all do what we can to get you back up and secure :)

I got hacked about 3 months ago by Anonymous simply so they could use my server to send millions of emails asking people to rise up against parliment and congress.

By hook or by crook i managed to get in contact with someone who could contact them, i asked them to stop and why they were doing it, they simply said it's unfortunate that there are casualties of war!, i got blacklisted everywhere and felt like you, but i put my head down and got to it, now i still have my playground and still enjoying it :)