PHPBB Site Hacked.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by phpbb

Last updated: 8th February 2005, 02:08 GMT

At present www.phpbb.com is offline due to a group of politically motivated hackers wishing to use an opensource project to push their agenda ... shame on them.

We have some possible further details of the events which led to the loss of www.phpbb.com. Though I have not spoken with them myself I have learnt through an intermediary the group that appears to have attacked phpbb.com did indeed use a vulnerability in awstats to gain entry to our server (note the singular use of server there, we don't own a server cluster, just a server)

http://www.phpbb.com/

This is the image that was left......

http://www.zone-h.org/defacements/mirror/id=2050456/

[MovedGoalPosts]

However secure you think a site and server is, there are always some idiots out there trying to find backdoors for their own purposes. This incurs costs to the site owners, making the medium less desirable.

These hackers should realise that if they continue this way the internet runs a risk of becoming completely discredited, as you cannot trust that what is displayed is what you were meant to see. As a result there is a risk that the medium as it loses its integrity will loose popular support.

It also becomes too much of a hassle for the newbies and less technically minded to maintain security. If the so called "professionals" can't deal with it, how can they expect to. Many, who do have worthwhile contributions to make, will just throw in the towel.

[zoombini]

So it was just the server that got hacked.

Not the phpbb forum though?

Hah! I might have been impressed if their artwork had been better presented and was less crude.No wit at all either.I could have done a better job of it than they did.

They weren't even original in what they were presenting.Ho Hum!