As you may be aware, Smash Boards went offline yesterday afternoon. This downtime was a response to the actions of an individual who obtained access to our forum's administrative panel and managed to, among other things, set up a redirect on the main page to another site. This redirect was promptly removed, but the forums were also taken offline at this time by site staff.
Since that time, we have been looking over server logs and trying to determine how exactly this individual managed to get this sort of access. We have also implemented a few new security features to prevent this kind of action from taking place again, and believe there is minimal risk in bringing Smash Boards back online now.
Although we were offline for a substantial period of time, I can say that no users, posts, or threads were lost or deleted. There are a couple of points that I'd like to emphasize, however, about this incident.
One, the individual in question sent out an email blast to a number of users that contained a message advertising his site. He also obtained a list of members' email addresses, but claims that he will delete it. We also have reason to believe that this individual may have obtained some potentially sensitive information from our database. I recommend that any users who may have supplied some sensitive information via threads, posts, or PMs (such as usernames or passwords) change that information as soon as possible--while it's not necessarily likely that that information has been stolen, we cannot be absolutely sure about what information was taken.
In addition, I would like to suggest that all users change their account passwords. A good password will contain a mixture of letters (capital and lowercase), numbers, and symbols, and be at least 8 characters long. I also recommend you choose a password unique to this site so as to not endanger any other accounts you may have with the same password elsewhere. To be clear, we have no reason to believe that any of your account passwords have been compromised--even if they were indeed taken, they are stored only in an encrypted form that is not readily decrypted by modern technology.
Lastly, I'd like to note that the Revolution style will temporarily be the only style that will be available. We expect to re-enable the other styles shortly.
Thank you for your patience over the past 24 hours or so. On a positive note, we did take this opportunity to open up an IRC channel, which we expect to keep running into the future.
Server: irc.globalgamers.net
Channel: #smashboards
If you don't have an IRC client set up on your computer, you can use the Global Gamers Webchat.
If you have any particular questions about this incident, please send me a PM.
Since that time, we have been looking over server logs and trying to determine how exactly this individual managed to get this sort of access. We have also implemented a few new security features to prevent this kind of action from taking place again, and believe there is minimal risk in bringing Smash Boards back online now.
Although we were offline for a substantial period of time, I can say that no users, posts, or threads were lost or deleted. There are a couple of points that I'd like to emphasize, however, about this incident.
One, the individual in question sent out an email blast to a number of users that contained a message advertising his site. He also obtained a list of members' email addresses, but claims that he will delete it. We also have reason to believe that this individual may have obtained some potentially sensitive information from our database. I recommend that any users who may have supplied some sensitive information via threads, posts, or PMs (such as usernames or passwords) change that information as soon as possible--while it's not necessarily likely that that information has been stolen, we cannot be absolutely sure about what information was taken.
In addition, I would like to suggest that all users change their account passwords. A good password will contain a mixture of letters (capital and lowercase), numbers, and symbols, and be at least 8 characters long. I also recommend you choose a password unique to this site so as to not endanger any other accounts you may have with the same password elsewhere. To be clear, we have no reason to believe that any of your account passwords have been compromised--even if they were indeed taken, they are stored only in an encrypted form that is not readily decrypted by modern technology.
Lastly, I'd like to note that the Revolution style will temporarily be the only style that will be available. We expect to re-enable the other styles shortly.
Thank you for your patience over the past 24 hours or so. On a positive note, we did take this opportunity to open up an IRC channel, which we expect to keep running into the future.
Server: irc.globalgamers.net
Channel: #smashboards
If you don't have an IRC client set up on your computer, you can use the Global Gamers Webchat.
If you have any particular questions about this incident, please send me a PM.