From: Joe McGonagle <joe.mcgonagle.nul>
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:35:18 +0000
Fwd Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007 07:24:21 -0500
Subject: Ufologyinuk Mail List Crash


[Was: Major Server Meltdowns]

I think that I can explain the ufologyinuk situation.

At 18:51 on 10th February, I removed two attempted registrants
from the List as they appeared to be spammers attempting to gain
access to either harvest email addresses or send spam to the
List. I emailed both addresses directing them to an FAQ setting
out several reasons why spammers were wasting their time on the
ufologyinuk List.

Shortly before 05:00 on the 11th February, I was working on the
site when it suddenly crashed. Initially I thought it was just a
software or hardware glitch, but on further investigation, it is
clear that it was a malicious hacker.

No doubt one of the spamming swine decided to take the site down
in a fit of spite because I wouldn't let them get their way.

Due to the nature of the attack, there was a possibility that a
trojan had been embedded on the server. This meant that we had
to migrate to another server and carry out a total rebuild of
the List software in order to ensure that any trojan would not
remain on the system and present a risk to List-member
confidentiality.

The List software is a blending of two popular packages, a mail-
List, and a forum to enable on-line posting and reading of
messages. Although these are standard packages, there is a large
amount of customisation required to integrate the features and
improve user security. An additional complication is that the
new server is running a later version of the operating system,
and we are coming across some issues related to that.

I estimate that Dan Bright (my volunteer IT guru) has spent in
the order of 40 hours on this already, and I have contributed
over 10 hours just trying to identify the attacker with only
limited success. The attack has resulted in over 200 emails
between me, Dan, the ISP, and ISPs hosting the possible
attacker.

We seem to be taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back, having been
on the threshold of opening the List only to uncover another
technical problem and having to start again. There is a backup
service at:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ufologyinuk/

and a few members have found their way there. The current
expectation is that it will be at least another week before
service is restored on the main List, but that will depend on a
resolution to a current problem and the non-occurrence of any
further problems.


Cheers,

Joe