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Avsim Destroyed!!

Has the Flight Sim community done something wrong to deserve all these blows recently?

Netwings, our own server dying, and now this act of wanton vandalism?????????
 
Oh, Man! There are files of mine on Avsim that I don't even have on my own computer anymore! I always used Avsim as my backup.

I know of a few old water filled quarry's out in the woods that wold be handy for disposing of certain... Undesirable... things.

Brian
 
hewman100 said:
Has the Flight Sim community done something wrong to deserve all these blows recently?
Netwings, our own server dying, and now this act of wanton vandalism?????????
Click to expand...

No, but a couple of names come readily to mind who would be capable of doing this out of plain spite.
:pop4:
 
You know, I hate this. When things come down to this sort of vandalism, I sometimes think we had best go back to the Stone Age and work a little better on this "progress" thing!

And if found, chances are, all the basticks'll get is a wrist slap and a job! :angryfir:

Caz
 
Here's the backup situation explained by Tom from Avsim temporary forum: http://linux.myalbemarle.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=13

Some have asked whether or not we had back ups. Yes, we dutifully backed up our servers every day. Unfortunately, we backed up the servers BETWEEN servers. That is, GREEN, our library server, would be backed up to PURPLE, our WEB/Forum server. That way, if one or the other failed, we would have a back up on the remaining active server. The hacker took out both servers, destroying our ability to use one or the other back up to remedy the situation.
 
Cowardly thing to do, to put it mildly. Good grief. Hope Avsim is back up and running as soon as they can, and hope they find the person(s) that did this.


Mike
 
Really sad news. I'm convinced the world will keep on turning, but the sun is just a bit less bright.

Huub
 
I'm really shocked by this news :frown:

Here are a few more infos: AVSIM Temporary Home

Tom Allensworth said:
What Happened?

I want to provide everyone with a non-technical view of what took place yesterday and last night so that some of the rumors that are already starting to spread are corrected.

During the early evening yesterday, we noticed that some alarming things were starting to happen on our servers. The first sign of an issue was that some functionality disappeared on our web server. That progressed to not being able to access the web server via FTP or SSH. Finally, the web/forum server tripped offline. Next the library/email server started to exhibit issues. We went in to reboot it, and that is when it failed entirely. The partitions on both of the servers had been removed. We shut down both servers until we can get a technical member up to our Network Operations Center (NOC), and do a comprehensive inspection of the damage.

I have seen some rumors and speculation already on the various forums in the community, and I would like to make sure that everyone knows the facts. Here are some:

Early in the evening, I sent out a bulk email to all forum members letting them know that we anticipate shutting down the Web/Forum server for a period of time. About a third of the way through the process of sending that email to all 60,000 forum members, the hacker succeeded in bringing the server down. The email was did not get sent to everyone. The reason I sent the email, based on what we knew at that time, was because that a minimum, we would need to shut the web/forum server down to inspect the unit and do repairs. At the time the email was sent, we were unaware that a hack was in progress and that our system would be taken offline entirely. There were no hoaxes involved, as some have asserted.
Click to expand...
Tom Allensworth said:
Backups?

Some have asked whether or not we had back ups. Yes, we dutifully backed up our servers every day. Unfortunately, we backed up the servers BETWEEN servers. That is, GREEN, our library server, would be backed up to PURPLE, our WEB/Forum server. That way, if one or the other failed, we would have a back up on the remaining active server. The hacker took out both servers, destroying our ability to use one or the other back up to remedy the situation.
Click to expand...

Greetings
Tim
 
stansdds said:
I don't understand why someone would pick something like AvSim. It has no strategic interest, it does not effect the economy, it's strictly a hobby site.
Click to expand...

But it is one of the most popular sites for this hobby. With these small minded looser it is all about impressing their like minded little looser friends.
 
This is what happened to us 1 month ago, they put so many requests on the server it overloaded and this went on all night until the server died. It filled up the swap partition till it burst. 2 weeks after that they attacked again, but i was on top of it and blocked the attack. This 2nd attack came in aiming at my personal website ickie.net and I had to remove ickie.net and put it to sleep. It was an email attack, like 100,000 per hour, this is all placed into the swap partition and when it failed the server would stop, I cought it when it was at 99% full.
I do not know what else to do but have good backups, when hackers attack they use millions of bots on millions of computers. Just rebooting does not help, I had to re-route our IP's to fend them off. This is a temp measure, as who ever strars the attack just needs to re write their code to get the new IP's.
I feel for the people who have to re-build avsim, it is no easy task as you all know.
 
If these "people" (and I'm being nice by calling them that) would put in as much work trying to make an honest living as they did screwing around trying to make other peoples lives miserable....


Darrell:angryfir::sniper:
 
Thanks for the info Tom. Hopefully, the twerp can be caught. Hacking a non-revenue website is (I'd imagine) a low priority in most law enforcement communities, but since the Store was also destroyed, hopefully the authorities will have the ability to actually do something that the hacker really won't like.

My own version of "punishment" would be to put him in some "Super-Max" prison and make him Bubba's cellmate! ("Huhuh - yer purdy!")
 
My sympathies go out to Tom and the rest at AVSIM. I am sure the hackers are happy at their success. I hope that the idea of Karma is in reality a fact.

May they reap what they sow.
 
Cowardly Act

I'm sickened by the fact that this person(s) who are intelligent, would use it for such evil purposes :angryfir:. To destroy the hard work of both flightsim modellers and painters is just a act of either cowardliness or jealously. This goes for both of the :censored: hackers who attacked Avsim and her at Sim-Outhouse. I would really like to know what these jerks get by destroying people who use their free time by creating great work that brings enjoyment to great numbers of people work?. My punshiment for these slime, first, lock them in a room with of the staff of both Avsim and Sim-Outhose. :pop4:. Then, lock them in a room with all the developers and repainters whose work has been locked lost in another room :pop4:. After that, throw them in jail, with some 6'10 foot guy with lots of tatoos named "Butch" :isadizzy:. Then see if they try anything like this again. That's my two cents :a1451:

Hackers ---->:173go1: <---- Flightsim Community
 
it's a shame when stuff like this happens. especially to something as important as the avsim library. it reminds me of the burning of the alexandria library that we learned about in grade school. so much loss.

it was probably some kid who got ticked off in the forums and had a beef there, and decided to get revenge.





i hope they get the guy, and i hope they get it up and running. if the members there are as cool as ours, (i don't know them) they should be ok.
 
Why don't people attack wothless websites. Like Paris Hilton's or Hanna Montanna or crap like that? Whoever did it should be drug out into the street and beaten with a brick.
 
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