# My Message Board Has Been Hacked **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 2, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514 "2005-06-02T07:18:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Patty\_Chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Patty\_Chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_Chuck)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/1 "2005-06-02T07:18:31Z")
My small message board has been hacked. Ugh! Talk about a nightmare. Anyway, my computer savvy friend was able to get the IP# of the hacker, and I have a full report on their IP#'s including some proxies they tried to use. It took place on Memorial Day. Who can I report it to? Is there such a thing as the Internet police? Thank you in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Kenneth\_Noisewater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@Dr.Kenneth\_Noisewater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Kenneth_Noisewater)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/2 "2005-06-02T08:11:04Z")
You can report it to their ISP if you managed to get a hold of that info. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_Chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Patty\_Chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_Chuck)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/3 "2005-06-05T08:55:53Z")
> [@Dr. Kenneth Noisewater](#): > > You can report it to their ISP if you managed to get a hold of that info. I did that. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_Chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Patty\_Chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_Chuck)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2005, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/4 "2005-06-06T09:11:29Z")
> [@Dr. Kenneth Noisewater](#): > > You can report it to their ISP if you managed to get a hold of that info. Just curious. What do you think they will do? Then what can be done to the hackers? ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2005, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/5 "2005-06-06T09:58:09Z")
I’m curious about what makes you think this IP was the one that hacked it? What was actually done? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_Chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Patty\_Chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_Chuck)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/6 "2005-06-06T23:01:42Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#): > > I’m curious about what makes you think this IP was the one that hacked it? What was actually done? My friend checked the logs and was able to see who logged in as a admin besides me on the day. (some cases different IP’s on the same url minutes away from each other, this is probably a single person connecting through a proxy, and occaisonally messing up and connecting with their real address) They went in and deleted all the posts, forum topics and posters. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_Chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Patty\_Chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_Chuck)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/7 "2005-06-06T23:15:03Z")
Oh, and I am the only admin and i have no mods. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/8 "2005-06-06T23:34:57Z")
**Patty and Chuck** I know that a certain message board software (PhpBB?) has had a weakness which got widely reported. Since then, all the lesser hackers with little knowledge and even less intelligence have been pretending to act as if they are some genius computer-hacking wizards. Here is a website that fell victim to these clowns: [http://www.guitarnuts.com/phpBB2/index.php](http://www.guitarnuts.com/phpBB2/index.php) Not that I am defending hackers, but the ones who attacked your message board were probably _not_ very computer savvy. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_Chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@Patty\_Chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_Chuck)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/9 "2005-06-07T03:53:59Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > **Patty and Chuck** > I know that a certain message board software (PhpBB?) has had a weakness which got widely reported. Since then, all the lesser hackers with little knowledge and even less intelligence have been pretending to act as if they are some genius computer-hacking wizards. Here is a website that fell victim to these clowns: > [http://www.guitarnuts.com/phpBB2/index.php](http://www.guitarnuts.com/phpBB2/index.php) > > Not that I am defending hackers, but the ones who attacked your message board were probably _not_ very computer savvy. But they still shouldn’t be able to get away with it. BTW - My forum was a phpbb forum ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/10 "2005-06-07T05:11:32Z")
**Patty and Chuck** Oh I certainly don’t want those clowns to get away with it and I wish you luck with tracking those idiots down. A great many members of the “GuitarNuts” message board wanted the site owner to do just that but he didn’t pursue it. Again, good luck. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/11 "2005-06-07T15:02:24Z")
I post to a board where people submit their fiction stories. It was attacked last week by a hacker. I have my story backed up on my computer, but a lot of people lost a _lot_ of work. It’s pretty awful. You have to wonder why these jerks don’t try to hack big govermnent or media websites instead of targeting little guys in the background. Practice maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-message-board-has-been-hacked/306514/12 "2005-06-07T15:31:53Z")
> [@Amazon Floozy Goddess](#): > > You have to wonder why these jerks don’t try to hack big govermnent or media websites instead of targeting little guys in the background. Practice maybe? It’s easier and the specific methods used mostly don’t work on big sites. A lot of the times when something like a board for a small website is hacked, the person who did it was probably a “script kiddie”. That is, someone who didn’t come up with the exploit but is instead using what other people have discovered. A small site is probably not going to have its own message board script, it’s simply too much effort and what not, so they rely on existing board software packages. Eventually someone comes along and finds a security hole in the software package, and then posts details of the hole (and possibly explicit instructions about how to take advantage of it, or a script that does so progamatically) to the web, IRC, wherever. People then pick that up and use it to hack instances of the board software, but they can only do so until the security hole is patched. Large sites, if they’re running a message board, are more likely to be running custom software, or if they’re running a commercial package, to keep up to date on the patches, so they’re typically less vulnerable than small sites who may be lax in their patching.