WELCOME BACK - We Were Hacked

[Rolfster]

Welcome back to the MEXonline.com Message Board, and thank you for signing back up again.

The bad/sad news is that last week (July 30th) our old message board was hacked into and basically destroyed by a known hacker, who has done this to dozens of other sites that use the same type of system (a particular version with a vulnerability). He was able to delete all of the old messages, deface the site, and then leave.

The main blame goes, of course, to the little punk by the name of Technic Turkish, and if you do a Google search for that term you'll see some of his other victims. I also have to bear some of the responsibility by not having downloaded the latest patched version of the software, and by not backing up the database on a regular basis. I intend to correct those practices starting immediately.

There is no excuse for this kind of hacker behavior, and if possible I would like to follow up on this with the authorities if possible. As luck would have it, the membership database was still readable, and the hacker did in fact leave some clues behind. Also, other files left behind in the hack indicate the attack may have come from Mexico or Spain. If anyone has any information related to (now known as) the Techno Turkey, please contact me through this Message Board.

Since the message database was deleted, we have lost many great discussions so please feel free to add your post here, so we can get back to making this the helpful, constructive community it has always been.

Sincerely,
Rolf Metzger
Admininstrator, President - MEXonline.com LLC

[Lib]

I missed my daily dose of Mexico!!!

I just signed on a few weeks ago and thought it was regular maintainence. Sorry to hear of the hacking. I enjoy this board, and like to visit in Mexico whenever I can (Toluca, Ciuadad de Mexico, Nogales, Hermosillo.). Thanks for making everyone welcome. Rolfster, you and all have a great board and I appreciate all the work going into it.

[Rolfster]

Actually, the site didn't go down until this last Sunday night (July 31st), but I know what you mean about needing the daily dose - makes it seem like forever. Thanks for the support, and I look forward to getting things going full steam again.
BTW, you are now able to post an avatar (small image) for your profiles, to help give things a personalized flavor.
Rolf

I tried to select an avatar for my profile but the default is set to "no avatar specified and it won't let me reset the field. I can't add an avatar, but have a feeling I am just dense on something. What am I missing?

Hola Rolf.
Glad to see this site up and running again. Sitting under the Volcan de Fuego w/ nothing to do but watch explosions & drink Tecate can be tedious. The storms here keep us off line so much one would think HACKERS were running the weather.

[Rolfster]

Now that sounds like a fine weekend of relaxation. How about some cool photos of those explosions that we can post ... did you already send me one before? If so I'll be digging through the incoming pictures to post one on the Images From Mexico feature coming up for the MExonline home page.

As for the avatars, I just checked the site settings and they are set to 'on' ... an avatar is different from a 'profile photo', which was turned off. If anyone else tries to upload an avatar and it doesn't work, please let me know. Mine worked ...

PS, there is a new feature on this board called 'reputation' which is the little scale icon at the upper right of each post. This allows you (all members) to give your feedback to a particular post author and comments about the post, and over time they develop a reputation on the site. Good posters get high, trustworthy scores, not so nice posters get a collective rasberry. Let's see how how all this new stuff works.

Rolf

Glad we are back, sure missed the daily buzz. Thanks for the updates, Rolf!

Rolf.
These are the last two really good window rattlers. The first blow litterally rattled the windows and put ripples in my gimlet. The second just kept on rumbling. It was such a nice day and the air so clear that from my patio here in Suchitlan, the vultures just stood out infront of the steam & ash. Tried to put in photos. What in the world is script prompt & enter the text to be formated???? Will send you the photos via your email.

Like jcraz1, I see no way to add an avatar either. It seems locked at no.

About the new "reputation" gizmo: Given the often hysterical and/or childish reactions of people on forums (hiding behind anonymity), I´m not sure how that will fly. Will be interesting, I imagine.

Regarding anonymity, which is a bad thing, I encourage folks to ´fess up on their profiles and have the cajones to put a name and/or face to their opinions.

I do.

Personally, I believe it should be required.