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General discussion

Attack on Daughter' Web Sites

Feb 1, 2005 6:55AM PST

Thankx in advance for any help! My daughter created a few different web sites, mainly about her puppy and her friends. Someone managed to gain control of the sites and change the contents to disgusting, vile comments. I called local FBI but to no avail. Anyhow, can anyone tell me what I can do?

Discussion is locked

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Was she hosting the site herself
Feb 1, 2005 7:34AM PST

on her own computer/server? Or was it being hosted by another company on the internet? If hosted by another company on the net, I would think that they are ultimately responsible for not protecting her site, and it's their job to track down the attacker.... and I would be pitching a fit to their webmaster.

TONI

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Attack on site
Feb 3, 2005 8:32PM PST

Newbie,

There is no way to totally prevent such attacks. That is you can not prevent them. The hosting service that you use are the folks that can stop this. I have used several free sites (tripod and geoCities) as well as my commercial site (i1internet). Frankly there is a vast difference in the site that charges me.

From time to time glitches do occur and when that happens I simply reload the site using my FTP upload application (WS_FTP LE). With the free sites if a refresh of the page was required I at that time changed my password. I also include a hit counter on my main page. This gives me some idea who is viewing my page.

The host computer keeps track of upload activity. The problem is that many free sites do not have the time to track down who uploaded to your daughter?s site. My suggestion would be to try a reload and a password change. If that does not solve the problem then use I different hosting service.

Regards,

Rick Johnson

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RE: Attack on Daughter's Web Sites
Feb 3, 2005 9:51PM PST

I'm sorry your daughter had to experience the dark and grim side of the internet in this way. However, the best protection in the future websites is follow a few simple rules:

(1) Make sure the HOST (The company allowing you to build your website) is someone you can trust.

(2) Make sure your website is password protected and that the password you choose is not something that would be easy for someone to guess.

(3) Never give your password out to anyone!

(4) If you edit your website through a browser using an online editor that a lot of free hosts provide; Make sure you logout and close your browser to ensure that the browser session is closed.

If you follow these rules you should be safe, but nothing is safe from a determined hacker. If your website continues to be abused after following these steps, contact the web host and see if they can put a trace on activity being uploaded to the website. They usually can and unless the person is very clever, they should be able to track down the ISP address of the attacker. Most of the time if the attacker is contacted they will cease their activities immediately because of fear. If none of these steps work, perhaps legal action should be pursued. Good luck.

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Malicious attack or just drive-by-hit?
Feb 3, 2005 11:09PM PST

If you suspect that there may be more behind this attack or are worried about her safety, contact cyberangels.org, they can help you.

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Daughter's Website
Feb 4, 2005 5:00AM PST

Newbie, I would recommend limiting her to just one website, and would NEVER post personal info on it, i.e.: names, addresses, and especially photos of your daughter and her friends. You really can't be too careful where your family is concerned.

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Daughter's website.
Feb 4, 2005 5:27AM PST

I know how frustrated you must feel not able to do something about the slime that pops up occasionally.

I recently had something similar happen to me, not on a website, but through my email over what I thought was a protected group thread.

A person took over my name and email and was writing abusive and begging comment to others about me, on this rather large group of subscribers.

I live in Canada and I knew the abuse was coming from England so I just wrote an email to my group telling them I had placed it in the hands of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police by listing it on

www.phonebusters.com

This is a group that chases everything like the Nigerian letters etc.

Strange enough the abuse ceased immediately. I guess they believe "the Mounties always get their man".