We have been under a steady Ddos attack for awhile. It took us down today for a few hours. We don't know who is doing this. We should be back to normal now. This has happened a few times over the years. Unfortunately we have to pay for tech support to recover the site. That cuts into our budget in a big way paying for the tech support for a number of hours. The folks attacking us know we operate on a shoe string budget and this hurts us significantly. It is discouraging.

I’m always more than happy to chip in. I’ll make a donation tomorrow in response to the attack.

Not only are my donations to RFM way less expensive than tithing, I'm confident that the money will actually be used for good purposes.

Small donation made through PayPal

Sorry that this is happening Eric!

Just in case someone is curious:

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic. - Wikipedia

Thank you - I didn't have a clue, and was feeling like a dummy.

Same here.

Eric:

Please post the info needed for getting contributions into the proper place.

Thank you!!

Tevai Wrote:

> Please post the info needed for contributions...

Hi Tevai:
If you go to the main page, and scroll ALL the way down to the very, very bottom of the page, there is a button which says "Donate". https://www.exmormon.org/

The "Donate" button only appears sometimes as per the site:

" This is a once-in-while donation request. This is only the 4th request since 1995. Our expenses are minimal. No one is paid to run the site or admin the bulletin boards. We do pay for site fees, ISP help, and upgrades."

Thank you Eric for the Board, and sorry about the attacks! Hooray for free speech and open discussions!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/2019 11:59AM by mel.

All those senior couples missionaries on "computer missions" don't have enough to do.

Way back when, on the old dial-up internet, Mormons had machines to make multiple hits on their own websites, so that MORMON would be at the top of most search lists beginning with the letter M, or with "religion" or "church", etc. I was still TBM back then. Now the internet system automatically rejects machines, but the Mormons have all those useless missionaries, sitting around doing nothing, or begging to do simple chores for people, and certainly have enough people to flood a website. I'm sure they continue to keep their own websites "popular". I know this happens. Mormons are fighting a WAR, dontcha know--as the Armies of Helaman--the battle of Satan and his minions! Mormons are best at fighting dirty! They like secrets and lies, and sneaking behind people's backs.

Small donation sent. Bet that grates on them when we all step forward with donations to combat their evil unkind actions. It just shows who is good and who is evil.

Erik and Concrete Zipper keep up the good work. Thanks for making this site available!

I'm happy to help with a little bit. It's the least I can do!

Small donation sent. Bastards!

Just look what the bastards got that time when they thought that destroying the Expositor printing press was a good idea.

Some fools never learn.

Godspeed RfM.

Sent a few tuppence your way.

I just sent a few shekels your way. It beats tithing to TSCC.

Plus, it's a mitzvah.

:)

Glad to help. Thank you, Eric, CZ, and all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/2019 06:55PM by kathleen.

Small donation sent. There was no way to mark it "Courtesy of catnip," but it's there.

Get those dodos (that's how I read the word at first. . .)

Holland's brave brigade of stripling dodos.

Thanks for the contributions. We will run out of funds in May/June of this year. So those were helpful. We had a generous benefactor who paid 100% of the site costs for years. The last few years we have had to raise funds. We have about $750 remaining in our balance before getting tech support invoices fixing this latest attack. Concrete Zipper is slowly taking over as he has had to take care of personal items. Life happens to all of us. He will be a great resource here.

If you wish to help, we stop collecting when we reach $2500, is to click on the Paypal button: at the very bottom of https://www.exmormon.org

Just reminding everyone to please support the Board against attacks!

Thank you!

Cyber warfare is the new 'Spiritual Warfare' of the 21st century (wink wink.)

The Gadianton robbers and Danites are up to their old tricks.

Happy to help the cause, Eric K.

I hope as many as can, contribute even a little. The Board is very important as a place we can learn, and help others! Please always post whenever there are needs.

Thank you for making this amazing place available for us!

Donated. Definitely a better use of funds than paying tithing.

One wonders if tithing is funding attacks?

Directly or indirectly, I assume it is.

What I can afford to donate here makes me feel better than any time I paid tithing or fast offering.

memikeyounot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...donate here makes me feel better than any time I paid tithing or fast offering.

Me Too!!! :) :) :)

After several attempts to use my debit card (which, for some inexplicable reason, was being declined by the processor), we used another name, another gender, and another card, and the donation went through.

Finally!!

:)

Have you made contact with the FBI Cyber Crimes unit? Why not let them go after it for you. IF they find it is within their jurisdiction you may just get some satisfaction.

Haven't logged in here for a long time.
Glad I did.
Just made a small donation.
Please keep up the good work.

T-Bone Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Haven't logged in here for a long time.

Your topic that you posted about funerals was very interesting. Glad that you came back! I am fairly new to the Board and have learned so much from the folks here, and appreciate so much the interesting things people post!

Thank you Eric. Your effort is very much appreciated.
I donated my entire PayPal balance (just like the widow's mite).

Thank you all so much for the Board, for keeping it such a nice place to be!

A problem for us but much WORSE for them.

I guess their prayers weren't enough to take this site down. After all God works in mysterious ways

Thanks for the donations! We are at a $1166 balance. I have an outstanding invoice to our ISP of $196.00. We are good for 4 or 5 months. We are on a dedicated server with full daily backups. There is too much to lose if we shut down or get wiped out by a virus. So many have contributed with over 2,000,000 posts.

CZ has been busy, so I am working on a mobile friendly version of the site while I have time.

Eric

Wowsy, from $750 last count to $1166 latest count, shows every little bit helps.

This wasn't even a formal fund drive. Will try to contribute more as able.

Appreciate all you do and others here who volunteer their time and talents to keep this board running smoothly.

Amyjo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wowsy, from $750 last count to $1166 latest count,
> shows every little bit helps.
>
> This wasn't even a formal fund drive. Will try to
> contribute more as able.
>
> Appreciate all you do and others here who
> volunteer their time and talents to keep this
> board running smoothly.


Thumbs up!!!

:)

Line upon line, percent upon percent...

I wonder if the church or someone in it is re responsible for these attacks.

It seems like any kid who has taken a high school computer class could write a three line denial of service attack script that sends out requests for replies to a given server several thousands or millions of times per second.
-----------
Attack:
Ping url-goes-here
Goto Attack
-----------

But a distributed Dos attack would require either a bunch of people running that kind of script all at the same time in a coordinated effort, or someone also writing more advanced code to go around security measures to implant and execute their code remotely (zombie attacks) from other people's computers, probably the attacking computers being innocent victem's themselves. It would be interesting to know if there are only a handful of sources of attacking IP addresses (like a group of friends working together), or a very large number of different attacking IP addresses. The ISP should have that information readily available as every request should be logged. A few amateurs working together could possibly do a lot of damage while they might be easy to catch. If it's more than that, it might be interesting to see just how sophisticated this attacker is and what kind of software they are using.

I would call the ISP with a lot of questions. If you keep paying them without asking questions, they may not be too bothered by these attacks themselves.

The Board is attacked a lot, whether by groups as AZSteve suggests above, or motivated loners. While blocking attacking IPs may work in some cases, so many systems no longer assign static IPs that it may be of limited use, or providers may not offer that service.

I hope everyone who can financially support the Board to keep it going, will click on the "donate" button on the main page, to try to help out. If we keep coming back after attacks they will eventually give up.

Thanks!

Agreed. Bump.

Every time someone connects through the internet, the connection is made possible through either a static IP address, or through a temporarily assigned IP address that is periodically re-assigned. So as a routine procedure, your ISP always has a record of who had which IP address at any given moment. That's how they manage the traffic through their routers. When you see the IP address of the person who is attacking your web-site, that is who to go after first. Most people assume that this is all mysterious internet stuff. But in most cases, it's more like the attacker leaves their name and home address behind every time, and is too ignorant to even know that their signature is everywhere they've been. Some of them may think that they are pretty sneaky, and have methods they think are effective at masking their identity. No matter who we are though (that includes all of us), there is always someone smarter out there. These attackers will eventually be caught somewhere if they keep it up. And once they have been caught, it will be quite easy for law enforcement to document everyone they've attacked, and to assess the value of the damages they've caused. The collective amount is probably much more than they might imagine, and criminal courts can order them to pay restitution in addition to jail time. I can't imagine that attacking other people's servers would be a fun hobby for very long considering that sitting in jail and paying restitution when you get out of prison isn't much fun.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2019 05:14PM by azsteve.

Just a teensy donation, but I hope they'll all add up. I detest people who try to interfere with free speech and useful communication. This board is a valuable contribution to many lives. Thank you.

Black sheep, I am sure every donation no matter how small, helps . Good job helping - I am sure the operators appreciated!

So many need this site to stay up. Thanks for all you do. Donation sent