Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

Palomar · 2002-09-22 09:27:26

*Around 8:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, I came to check the message boards. The Mars Society web page was replaced by a hacker message claiming to be of Brazilian origin ("Brasil"), with comments such as "servers sux" and "admin f*ck u," etc. The most prominent name I saw was "Skateboard_Guy" or something very similar; he had a Hotmail address. I should have written this down!

I have no idea what hackers can and cannot do, and so joined a few Mars Society mailing lists via Yahoo! to see if I could get some info. I wondered how long the web site would be down and thus these message boards inaccessible.

Apparently we're back up and running, thank goodness.

Did anyone else see this? The image the hackers left was what appeared to be a Greek goddess of greenish cast with a bullet wound in her forehead and blood trinkling down her face. It put me in mind of the face of the Statue of Liberty, but I'm not sure it was (and no, I'm not running with 9/11 matters).

Geez, I'm glad everything seems to be okay now!!

--Cindy

Adrian · 2002-09-22 10:02:36

I didn't see it - from the sounds of things it was a short-lived affair, thankfully. I imagine that the hackers exploited some kind of security loophole to replace the front page; perhaps the server admin left a default password on somewhere. New Mars isn't on the same server as the main Mars Society website so we wouldn't have been affected.

Phobos · 2002-09-22 13:05:35

The image the hackers left was what appeared to be a Greek goddess of greenish cast with a bullet wound in her forehead and blood trinkling down her face. It put me in mind of the face of the Statue of Liberty, but I'm not sure it was (and no, I'm not running with 9/11 matters).

From your description it must have been some anti-American low-life out there that hacked the site. Sheesh, I can certainly think of better sites to hack though if you hate the USA. The Mars Society is an international organization. I guess the moron didn't have the skillz to hack into a site with higher security measures.

Josh Cryer · 2002-09-22 13:59:16

http://www.zone-h.com/defaced/2002/09/2 … ciety.org/

Just a regular defacement, probably not an anti-America group, per say, just some attention starved script kiddies. I doubt they really care about what sites they attack, they just want to have as many defacements as possible. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Tasteless image, though.

PaganToris · 2002-09-22 19:14:44

Well it seems to me that Mr Phobos is a Non american wo loves the government naw im joking but that really sucks about that hacking
by the way did anyoneelse happen to see the rocket on thhursday go in to the sky?

A.J.Armitage · 2002-09-22 22:44:03

The image says "real", which, if I'm not mistaken, is the Brazilian currency. So they just photoshopped the bullethole onto a scanned image of their currency.

Lil_vader · 2002-09-23 10:44:16

I saw it. It was sick. I hope somebody beefs up the security on the main page.

Glad to see it wasn't permanent.

clark · 2002-09-23 11:06:00

for those who couldn't get to the message board, here is a little "trick".

If you normally come to the message board through the link on the Mars Society webpage, this is what you do when the site is down:

Go to Google.com (or whatever search egine). Type in Mars Society. When it lists the pages there should be a refrence to "cached" copy. If you click on that, it will bring up an old version of the Mars Society homepage, which you can use to get into the message board.

The Mars Homepage goes down ever once in a while, and I have found that this works.

Josh Cryer · 2002-09-23 12:05:25

Actually, a better idea would be to go to www.newmars.com, and click on forums.

Adrian has some really good articles up there. And Stu's pieces are gems.

Palomar · 2002-09-23 15:09:56

Actually, a better idea would be to go to www.newmars.com, and click on forums.
Adrian has some really good articles up there. And Stu's pieces are gems.

*Thanks, Clark & Josh, for those tips.

--Cindy

clark · 2002-09-23 15:37:29

Glad to help Cindy. Praise from Ceasar...

And Josh, I wouldn't neccessarily say your idea is "better" than the one I proposed.... more efficient, practical, and probably more rewarding, but "better"?

Why don't you keep your sensible value system to yourself buddy, no one's buying!

Byron · 2002-09-23 16:31:29

Interesting...

I can't imagine having to come into this site through the M.S. site or the newmars.com home page each and every time you guys visit, although that is how I found these forums to begin with...

After I had joined the New Mars forums, I just logged in and bookmarked the forum home page, and all I have to do now is to click on the bookmark and it brings me straight to the forums.

Now you've got me thinking...that I should log in and out each time I come to the site, or does this happen automatically when I click in and out? I'd like to hear from other members of this board what their normal proceedure is for using these forums...

B

Adrian · 2002-09-23 16:39:42

Here's how the login procedure works for these boards. Every time you log in (e.g. after first registering), there is a little checkbox asking if you want to be 'automatically' logged in every time you visit from your current computer. I can't remember what the default setting is.

Anyway, if you tick it, the forums will place a 'cookie' file on your computer which has your username information on it. If you don't tick it, no cookie. Every time you visit the forums, you'll be checked to see if you have a cookie - if you do, you'll be automatically logged in. If you don't, you'll have to log in manually.

When I'm accessing the forums away from my home computer (e.g. from a friend's) then I won't tick the box. At home, the box is ticked because I'm the only one who uses my computer and I don't want to have to log in manually every time I visit.

I've got the forums bookmarked, and I know the URL off by heart

Phobos · 2002-09-24 20:44:05

I usually log into the forums through the New Mars site since I like to see if any new articles are up.

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#1 2002-09-22 09:27:26

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#2 2002-09-22 10:02:36

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#3 2002-09-22 13:05:35

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#4 2002-09-22 13:59:16

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#5 2002-09-22 19:14:44

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#6 2002-09-22 22:44:03

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#7 2002-09-23 10:44:16

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#8 2002-09-23 11:06:00

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#9 2002-09-23 12:05:25

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#10 2002-09-23 15:09:56

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#11 2002-09-23 15:37:29

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#12 2002-09-23 16:31:29

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#13 2002-09-23 16:39:42

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

#14 2002-09-24 20:44:05

Re: Mars Society Web Page HACKED yesterday

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