King Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 The rays of the morning sun were fighting with the dark curtain in the bedroom to make its way and hit his name sake (I'm named Ravi you see). The bigger Ravi won the battle and I shrugged off the warm duvet to start the morning. It's pretty same mundane stuff at work I reckoned. Headed to the shower and while enjoying listening to the morning radio in the shower few thoughtful posts from the general discussions went through my head. I was a bit miffed I didn't get time enough to have a look at the website Indiancricketfans.com before heading to the shower. That hurried my shower by a bit and I thought man, I could finish shower early when I need to. Started the laptop and wasn't happy with the time it was taking to startup. Headed straight to the desktop in the other room and powered it up. I just couldn't wait to get on to the website. After all India was taking on Bangladesh in the 3rd ODI today. I had plenty to do for the day before I could head to work. I had to put the bets up for the 3rd ODI, also had to bet on the WI v England test series. After all I only had Apocalypse to take over in the betting module. Looked up the website and started to read few threads while looking at my PDA the engagements for the day. Multitasking some times takes a toll. I thought I missed couple of decent posts on the forums by a couple regular posters. I had about another hour to head to work I thought. I wondered if we were going to see a good knock by Sehwag this game at least. Meanwhile noted down I had couple of meetings to attend early on. I hate meetings that don't come with any agenda and results. Just then the outlook on my desktop sounded an alert. Must be some technical article from one of the website I thought. Had a quick look at the outlook and noticed the subject line had "ABUSE: POLICY ENFORCEMENT" and was from the web host of this website. What now I thought? Had a quick look and realised they provided a link to a fraud website that was being linked from indiancricketfans.com What the heck I thought? Surely our mods/admins aren't dumb enough to download something like this and upload it to the website by any chance I thought. I wasn't sure if one of those multitasking events hasn't led me to do something as stupid as this. Of course not I thought how we can even have files from EBay. Web host had directed us to delete the fraud Ebay website. I logged into the server, got rid of the directory/website where the fraud website was uploaded and wrote to the web host the website now was deleted. I also mentioned I had no clue how it ended up on our website as a sub domain and mentioned the website may have been hacked. Web host thanked me for getting rid of the website and let me off the hook. Now I wondered something isn't right. Logged into the website using ssh and noticed the fraud EBAY directory/website has yet again risen like a phoenix and has made its presence yet again :shrug: Now something must definitely be wrong I thought and deleted the directory again only to notice it was back in less than few seconds. Ah.. Someone’s dropped an auto script in the base directory of our website that is kicking off the new directory/website I realised. Got rid of all the scripts I could recognize that weren't legit. I received the message while logged into the ssh something like "It's a pretty good morning over here" with a little naughty smiley. The fact then hit me that was the hacker sending me messages from his terminal over to my one while logged in to the server. This is the hacker that dropped few auto scripts and playing around with our website. First thing, I wasn't angry. I don't get miffed that easily. I believe everyone in this world is entitled to do what he reckons is best for him whether right or wrong. I'm usually composed in situations such as this. I didn't want to respond simply because there was no point. He was there defacing the website and it wasn't going to serve any purpose talking to him. Either way he is not going to stop the carnage. Hacker wrote back "You don't want to talk to me? It's ok if you don't want to. Email me at xxxx@xxxx.xxx (ps: I don't want to publish his email here in the public domain)". I thought I should respond, I replied "What are you up to man?". The hacker sent another naughty smile and said "I'm very peaceful, just email me" I chuckled away, peace and hacking, doesn’t mix Still I wasn't going to abuse him, he's excelling in what he's trying to do I thought. I reckon he sent another message something like "I can do more damage". I thought that's great but what's the point? I couldn't understand the motive. What purpose is it going to serve in the end? It's only a sports website for heaven's sake. If the website is defaced completely we will put one more together I thought. I sincerely expressed my opinion at that point in time and responded to the hacker by sending a message over to him "Don't know what's wrong with you but yup have champagne tonight for what you have done". I was being sincere, if he thought it was an achievement then he sure should enjoy the occasion and celebrate the victory. What followed next were expletives that can't quite be mentioned here. A sample goes like this "Suck my xxxx Motherxxxx. blah blah blah blah blah....." I just chuckled again to myself. In the scheme of things in this huge world I thought this issue is so minuscule it is not even worth pondering about. I tried to think from the perspective of the hacker but still couldn't fathom why would he be so enraged??? I thought the WWW has really taught a lot of us folks to lose cool often and use the abuses quite frequently. In fact it's now become a fashion and I have a haunch that people feel good when they post an abuse. People love to sport this kind of angry image on the net these days I thought. At that point in time I wanted to write back saying it's just a waste of time abusing me as it won’t make a difference. He had succeeded in doing what he tried to and now the abuses are not going to make a difference to him nor me. I'm sure the feeling of entered and hacked into yet another website makes him feel proud. I can't quite understand that POV simply because I don't feel happy ransacking someone's happy home particularly when I had nothing to gain from it. Just a good waste of precious time. Someone as skilled as this to take over a website was surely in a misplaced profession. I thought this fella can excel in technical field quite well but couldn’t understand why he has taken up ransacking websites as his majors. Well simply put I can't quite think like the hacker. Perhaps I'm way too logical and don't see the fun in such an act. I lost the battle with the hacker that day but I've no shame. There are so many good ones around the globe in so many areas and I'm only a little fish in the huge ocean. The web host took care of the rest of the issues and we are extremely thankful to the web host for that. I had to spend couple of my nights working on this website to bring to it to what it is right now. I just feel the hacker and myself were both wasted completely in this useless exercise. P.S : Want to be surprised, go to youtube and enter PHPNUKE hack to see a tutorial on how to hack a PHPNuke website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files umm.... im not into hacking... so i think ill pass over tht youtube thing... anyways, did u finally get to tht meeting on time? and seriously, what do these ppl get frm this hacking stuff... a sense of satisfaction? the same feeling tht drug addicts get after a dose? sheesh... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Posted May 21, 2007 Author Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files Yup Aqua, was on time for my meeting as always. The hacking wasn't on my mind for long after that. I got over it within minutes and knew the web host will take care of the rest. This instance didn't occur to me till about this date again. I just wanted to pen down this instance today when I had some free time. Otherwise with a busy life style the hacker attack is in the back burner anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhondy Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files Fascinating, Ravi. It was great to get an insight into your reactions when this happened, because you were the first among us to find out. I love to read little personal accounts like this. It's like sneaking into someone's diary. Here's hoping it never happens again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhondy Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files Way to go, Boss! :yeah: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Posted May 21, 2007 Author Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files Yup same here, perhaps we got a bit too popular Nevertheless we are here to stay come whatsoever. I assure the website will be back up and running not with standing how many times the hack attempts are made. Such attacks only makes us more determined to keep this afloat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurker Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: That was a fascinating read Ravi. So this was a well-intentioned hacking. Irrespective of who/what/how it was done, it was done with a thought out plan and not some random action then. I can only imagine how you must have felt at the time. I mean I get pretty pi$$ed if I get to know someone has altered a column or so in a database table and here we are talking of entire website. That aside I have never quite understood why would someone be such a low life so as to hack? Hacking, putting simply, is getting your unwanted nose where it does not belong. Be it hacking your girlfriend's hotmail password or breaking into a databse, it is a malicious & illegal act that is often done by cohorts who are extremely wanting when it comes to self-confidence. Or as in this case perhaps trying to make some quick bucks on a website which is great fun for a lot of people. Ah well. xxx PS: BB the other day when I was writing the article I thought I would drop you a line about some stats based article/section. Seeing as you did last time, plus you are always good with that kind of thing. Good to hear that you were thinking along the same lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Posted May 21, 2007 Author Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files On the same fateful day Geo TV was hacked too, Check out http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=371358&sid=SAS Thanks to bumper for pointing out. Interesting a hacker jailed for hacking was hacked too at some point in time, fugure that :hic: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Kevin-Mitnick-Web-site-hacked/0,130061744,139267188,00.htm I remember even an Indian defence ministry website was hacked a while ago. None is safe but it is good not to keep confidential data on the net. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rajiv Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files It seems like some people couldn't handle the variety of threads we have Someone who is jealous of our progress perhaps Whatever, it may be; it's surely an eye-opener Let me tell you the funny side of it, I was getting "page not found" and I assumed it was the damn modem problem again which prompted me to call my ISP I realized the net was fine, and it was indeed our site only; but in the end I did manage to get an upgraded modem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Posted May 21, 2007 Author Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files I realized the net was fine, and it was indeed our site only; but in the end I did manage to get an upgraded modem Good on ya Rajeev. Lest we got something positive out of this one :flux: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rajiv Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files I realized the net was fine' date=' and it was indeed our site only; but in the end I did manage to get an upgraded modem [/quote'] Good on ya Rajeev. Lest we got something positive out of this one :flux: http://www.2wire.com/index.php?p=8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaurav Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: :ninja: I had to go and buy some smack to take care of my ICF addiction :reddot: I hope hackers never hack my online lingerie shop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apocalypse Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files so now you are going to go past me in bets? :flux: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaurav Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Apo can you e-mail me? I have your address but I am not sure which one is yours. I need to ask you a question. Mera hotmail address brabar same as my ID here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesiChap Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files Wow excellent writeup Ravi. I had 2 uneasy days before I got the message that the site was hacked. Dunno what the fackers get by hacking a site as ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apocalypse Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Re: Hacker Files Apo can you e-mail me? I have your address but I am not sure which one is yours. I need to ask you a question. Mera hotmail address brabar same as my ID here. Emailed sometime back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kabira Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 Bumped for newbies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nova Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 Kabira, thanks for bumping this thread. It was good to read about what happened. Long live ICF :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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