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AVSIM
PRESS RELEASE:
AVSIM Hacked
Tom Allensworth, CEO and Publisher of AVSIM, today issued the following announcement; “We regret to inform the flight simulation community that on Tuesday, May 12, AVSIM was hacked and effectively destroyed. The method of the hack makes recovery difficult, if not impossible, to recover from. Both servers, that is the library / email and web site / forum servers were attacked. AVSIM is totally offline at this time and we expect to be so for some time to come. We are not able to predict when we will be back online, if we can come back at all. We will post more news as we are able to in the coming days and weeks.
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sounds like extortion or terrorism at the internet level
in the US it is a case for the FBI
elsewhere i think it is a case for the serious crime squad..
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Site Emeritus
Honorary Forums Manager Sierra Hotel
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Site Emeritus
Honorary Forums Manager Sierra Hotel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 40,112 |
sux. I'd like to see these hackers caught and prosecuted.
Pat Tillman (1976-2004):
4 years Arizona State University, graduated with high honors.
5 seasons National Football League player, Arizona Cardinals.
Forever United States Army Ranger.
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If they want to - they can, but the news are really bad: 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. the data is all there, it will cost a bit to retrieve it, then they need to know what happened - no sense in going back online just to see it happen all over again.
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(Formerly Joe Stallin') Senior Member
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(Formerly Joe Stallin') Senior Member
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I hate to point it out, but nothing beats a good tape library.
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nothing (also) beats an external hard drive with RAID mirroring that you unplug after a backup.
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Lifer
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Didn't visit it there much. The search feature at simviation seemed more suited to my needs.
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Posts: 8,771
Oberkriegkaboomführer Hotshot
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What a shame. AVSim has been my preferred site for FS addons for years. 
"...late afternoon the Air Tasking Order came in [and] we found the A-10 part and we said, "We are going where!? We are doing what!?"
Capt. Todd Sheehy, Hog pilot, on receiving orders during Operation Desert Storm
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nothing (also) beats an external hard drive with RAID mirroring that you unplug after a backup.
Actually, there is a lot that beats both an external RAID and a Tape library... Avsim, big as it was, really needed a proper DR schema in addition to a proper replication and backup (and failover) schema. The schema that they presented was flawed to be polite, and absolutely crazy if you want to leave politeness at the door. At their level, they needed to be setup professionally. I sure hope SimHQ has it's sh*t in one sock. -Skater
"As Iron Sharpens Iron, so does a friend sharpen a friend." Proverbs 27:17
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28
Never, ever, underestimate the ability of people to discount Occam's Razor. - Dart
"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." - Grover Norquist
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It is a wake up call for all of us, C6 server was hacked less than 2 weeks ago.
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Hotshot
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Been trying to grab some skins for my A2A Thunderbolt that were only available at AVSIM. No wonder! Thought it was just maintenance.
Never understood the pleasure recieved from this sort of thing. Is it just because they can?
I suppose it's a badge honor amongst the hacking communnity. "Look what I did!"
"From our orbital vantage point, we observe an earth without borders, full of peace, beauty and magnificence, and we pray that humanity as a whole can imagine a borderless world as we see it, and strive to live as one in peace."
Astronaut William C. McCool RIP, January 29, 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia
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Lifer
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Lifer
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Shame, I will donate when they get back up. However, as some pointed out here, offline backup would have saved them a lot of headache, even if it was a month old.
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"if we can come back at all"
Nice, thanks Crackers! NOT! A-holes.
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AVSIM has plenty of resources to draw upon - they will be back in their feet in no time, and much wiser for sure, problem is when they do this to the smaller sites and manage to knock them out for good.
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Such a shame, I hope they can recover from this. Several commercial firms use the Avsim forums for customer support (PMDG, HiFi simulations etc) I wonder if they are going to have to make new arrangements if this is going to be a timely process?
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Big blow to the flightsim community. I hope they recover from this and get the guys who did it.
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(Formerly Joe Stallin') Senior Member
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(Formerly Joe Stallin') Senior Member
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Actually, there is a lot that beats both an external RAID and a Tape library...
-Skater
I'd be curious to know what that is (Keeping in mind an average budget)
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Actually, there is a lot that beats both an external RAID and a Tape library...
-Skater
I'd be curious to know what that is (Keeping in mind an average budget) Well, offsite replication is one way (complements offboard storage and static babckup), keeping in mind that ONE solution is never a safe or sane DR strategy. For example:    This is ONE way. The hacker will not have access to the protected DR site, and in most cases, will not know of the existence of the other site. Of course, that is a really simple way to do it, there are many others, with varying complexity and varying security schemas. -Skater
"As Iron Sharpens Iron, so does a friend sharpen a friend." Proverbs 27:17
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28
Never, ever, underestimate the ability of people to discount Occam's Razor. - Dart
"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." - Grover Norquist
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See that cloud in the middle. That's my turf! We make the blue lines work! ;-)
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