Gaia Angel 
ezOP
Posts: 2402
(6/2/05 5:13 am)
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message from ezboard :Dear ezboard Family,
Dear ezboard Family,
By now you I am sure that you are quite aware that ezboard's systems were severely attacked early on Tuesday morning. Since that time, we have been focused on getting boards running properly and restoring data. We have restored a significant number of boards and we are continuing to restore boards and system functionality as quickly as possible. I want to bring you up to speed on what we know, what we are doing and what happens next:
Here is what we know:
1/ The attacker erased all historical post data on all boards and a significant amount of back-up data - the reason we have been able to restore some boards at this time is that we have back up data from the May 9th incremental back-up (we perform back-ups every day, but the attacker deleted many of them). As a result, some board data will be restored, with entries between May 9th and the attack missing. We *may* be able to restore this more recent data from data that we can retrieve from RAM on the servers. The probability of this being successful is not known right now.
2/ Personal and credit card information was not compromised - ezboard does not have CC information on file,
3/ User data, ezSupporter and board configuration data was not compromised,
4/ We have restored data to many boards at this point,
5/ We have additional back-up data for approximately 8,000 boards and will be able to restore over half of all Gold Boards,
6/ We have information on the attacker and are building a case,
7/ New security measures have been put into place to reduce the potential for future attacks,
8/ Your Community Chest and board expiry data was in separate systems and will be restored soon,
9/ Trial boards that were moved off of p097 before the attack will likely be OK. Boards that were created on p097 may not be available.
What we are doing:
1/ Repairing systems to allow posting on all boards,
2/ Restoring data where possible,
3/ Actions have been taken to close the method the attacker used to gain access to the systems.
Next Steps:
We want to be sure that your concerns are addressed as directly as possible. In addition to the above information, we ask you to read the Important Announcements and New Server Status forums frequently for updates. Please read these announcements prior to posting your questions in a forum. Because of the scope of the communities were affected by this attack, it will not be possible to give individualized responses to every user, every poster, or every help ticket. Keep in mind that we do read your questions and will certainly combine frequent questions and themes into broadcast messages like this one.
I would like to thank the ezboard operations staff who have been on the job since Tuesday at 5AM and continue to work hard restoring boards and modifying systems to reduce the threat of future attacks. While you may not be aware of their commitment, please believe me that they are working non-stop for you.
In addition to the hard work that these folks are doing, other members of our team are working hard on the next version of your community experience. An experience that will be vastly improved using the knowledge gained from the last five years of ezboard community and the exciting new developments in online interaction happening now.
Thank you for your patience. We will be keeping you updated every until this is resolved. At this point you should expect to see an update at Noon Pacific time each day.
Sincerely,
Rob
Robert Labatt
CEO
ezboard, Inc.
robertlabatt@ezboard.com
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Update: 5/31/05 20:30
Dear ezboard Family,
On Tuesday May 31 ezboard's systems were the victim of a very precise and malicious internet attack. This attack resulted in the loss of a significant amount of current and historical board postings and interrupted services across all systems. I deeply apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused and am here to give you the first of several in-depth updates.
At this time most board management services have been restored and our goal is to have post/reply repaired on Wednesday . We are working to restore board data from our back-up systems. This will take some time, and complete data restoration may not be possible, but it is what we are working towards. What we know now is that the attacker deleted current board and back-up data. We are taking the fastest route to restore data, but it may take up to 48 hours to get data back to approximately 9,000 boards. A more manual method requiring upwards of seven to ten days is required to restore data to the other boards that lost data. Regrettably we may not be able to restore data to all boards that lost data.
Second to restoring board data we are gathering information on how the attacker went about his or her business and what evidence was left behind. We are using this information to reduce the opportunity for future attackers as we build our new release. Should you hear or read anything about this attack we would love to know about it at legal@ezboard.com.
You should be aware that there is no evidence that personal information was touched. There was also no opportunity to see or download credit card information as ezboard does not keep credit card numbers on file.
Again, I apologize to you for any inconvenience caused as we value your participation on ezboard today and as we move towards an exciting - and more robust - version of the experience. We are working to restore your systems as fast as possible. Gold Board managers will be receiving information on GB subscription credits in the next few days.
We we keep you updated as the restoration progresses.
Sincerely,
Rob
Robert Labatt
CEO
ezboard, Inc.
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LAST UPDATE: 12:15 pm Jun 01
Be sure to read the latest message (immediately below) from the ezboard CEO, too.
The following is a summary of the known issues resulting from yesterday's attack:
1) Certain boards and forums are missing topics.
2) Various request errors are hindering boards (when opening certain topics, when replying, etc.).
If your board gives a request error on the main page, i.e. you cannot view the board at all, please post here.
3) Some boards have reported losses of funds from their Community Chests.
4) Various boards' user member lists have lost some or all members.
5) Certain boards' security logs have gone blank.
6) The ezboard network is slow. update (5/31, 5:20 pm):: The network's performance has improved a good deal, but there may still be sporadic slowness.
Along with our technical operations department, we are continuing to work on potential solutions to each of these problems. Until we are able to come up with a detailed plan of attack for each issue, please continue to sit tight. We will keep updating this topic as frequently as possible.
What you should do now
At the moment, all problems listed above are being worked on by the technical staff. We would ask that all admins wait for further information and updates on these issues. Once these are forthcoming you may be asked to submit your board url and describe which problems affect you, but at this point in time it is better if you do not post or submit tickets, as the staff are unable to take action yet.
You can continue using your boards. If certain forums at your board are giving request errors (e.g., when replies are submitted), an administrator may want to create NEW, temporary forums. Then, when the "broken" forums are fixed, the topics from the new forums can be moved into the appropriate, old one.
Edited by: ezatlass at: 6/2/05 0:56
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