MKF may be hacked & what is a bot??

[maureenfarone]

This really isn't an FSU problem, but I see many names here that also post/read at MKF. There appears to be something wrong with the site. A couple of longtime users have had trouble posting and one has been misdirected to a site with strange (viagara, etc) messages.

This morning I put mkforum.net into google and got a google warning that the site may be hacked and taken over.

Please be careful about going there! If the site has been hacked they may also have access to all of our email addresses

Also, I play on my pc but barely know what I am doing, so don't know if this means anything or not. I noticed a name in the "actively using" list at MKF and here at FSU which might be a problem. The name I saw was Baidu Spider, and also google spider and yahoo slurp spider - are these bad??

Anyway someone who posts here and at MKF emailed Grace yesterday about the situation - and is waiting for a reply.

Recent PMs to Grace over the last few weeks have gone unanswered. I also PMd another moderator over there and it hasn't been answered.

Maybe I'm getting paranoid, but the google warning about the site being hacked really shook me up.

[Angelskates]

I have never visited, let alone posted at MKF, but I think this would be useful for the whole board to know, and not just Secret Sources. I think a lot of posters here may post there, too.

[UMBS Go Blue]

Spiders are search engine robots (associated with all the sites you note) that index every publicly available post in a forum (or any web page) to make it searchable in a search engine. They're fine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler

[Prancer]

I just went to MKF and I don't see anything unusual.

I would strongly suggest that everyone who is getting the redirects and messages about hacks run a virus check.

This is a known issue with bulletin boards; the "hacks" are actually some code that gets added with some plugins and through SQL injection attacks. Nothing bad will happen to you at MKF, but you might "catch" something if you go to the redirected sites.

[maureenfarone]

Here is another question for those who understand forums way better than I do!

When I look at the front page of FSU or GoldenSkate and click on names in the "currently online" list, I see their profiles. When I try this at MKF I get a message that says I do not have permission to view this page. Why would that happen? I am a member, logged in, and I can see some of the profiles in the "currently online" list, but not all.

How or why would someone who has posted for years on a forum suddenly not be able to post and drop off the member list? I am sure the person hasn't been a trouble maker or done anything naughty, so would someone have deleted their name of the member list?

Anyway the mystery seems to continue and I don't really know how much of this works, so hope I can get more info.

Thanks!

[mysticchic]

I just went getting a redirect virus and what you need to do is clear your browser, change passwords and run a virus program. Here is the link to google with solutions. I got mine from downloading an update to Java. It was a huge pain in the butt to get rid of.
http://www.google.com/webhp?source=s...a8c76a6c0c658b

[Prancer]

When I look at the front page of FSU or GoldenSkate and click on names in the "currently online" list, I see their profiles. When I try this at MKF I get a message that says I do not have permission to view this page. Why would that happen? I am a member, logged in, and I can see some of the profiles in the "currently online" list, but not all.

I don't know. MKF might allow members to block their profiles. We don't.

How or why would someone who has posted for years on a forum suddenly not be able to post and drop off the member list? I am sure the person hasn't been a trouble maker or done anything naughty, so would someone have deleted their name of the member list?

That depends on several things. If the poster hasn't made a post in a long time, they might drop off the list. If the poster deletes the account or has it deleted, the account would disappear.

We don't delete accounts here unless said accounts have gone several years with no activity, but other boards often prune accounts more often or delete user accounts by request or because of a banning.

Otherwise, I don't know why someone would disappear off a member list.

User accounts, people. User accounts don't catch viruses! Stop cruising the internet on your administrator accounts!