I'm not new: I got locked out of my account

Hey folks on ATS!

I'm back--it's Rukia! I've had issues with login for the past year, but the last few times I was able to do the password reset. This time, not so much. Oh well, no big deal! So to AOL I went, to make a free email address, since Yahoo links with Gmail, now. Weird.

So, since I didn't know what else to do, but hated not seeing avatars and profile images, I made a new account. This account is named for the protagonist of The Old Kingdom Series by Garth Nix. Great books: I'd highly encourage everyone to try them. I've been reading them since I was 11. Garth Nix is still coming out with new books, which is cool.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a formal post to re-introduce myself and to say that I hope I get my old account back, soon. I had a lot of personal art uploaded, so it's unfortunate that I cannot access the uploads anymore.

Does anyone know why this has been going on? I did some skimming on the forum and it looks like it's somewhat of a known issue. What is proper protocol for this situation?

Thanks lovelies!

~Abhorsen

EDIT: Enjoy a picture of my daughter

a reply to: Abhorsen

Welcome back.

There was some stuff that went down in October and everybody was locked out of their accounts. Perhaps talk to a Mod or hop on the ATS Discord (Idk the link - sorry) and someone there (Djarum) should be able to reset your old account for you. If you wanted that.

a reply to: Abhorsen

Everyone had the same problem. The heroic mods have been over at ATS Discord fixing things.

Good luck

a reply to: Abhorsen

check your PMs

a reply to: djz3ro

what's the discord?
EDIT: I found it and I'm in it, now
Discord username: schwazzy

I didn't know we had a discord channel! Cool beans.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

arigato

a reply to: WakeUpBeer

Phew! Here I was thinking I was an anomaly of some sort! I'm glad it's routine. I've been trying to figure it out on my own--not a good idea in this case haha

a reply to: Abhorsen


I will check PM tomorrow. Need to logoff shortly.


But, for more info:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Sounds good! I replied, but I'll message you again just in case. I appreciate your help very much!

Good night

I was just reading Djarum's thread and wow: "So how did we get to where we are now? How am I back on my name? Interesting story... We've got a friend. Said friend is good with computers and was able to look into what happened to us. We were told that the database that holds members' passwords was non functional, as was the database that holds members' emails. So that is why passwords did not work as well as the password reset emails. Both were toast. Let me clarify immediately that we do not know if the damage to those databases was intentional or not."

Interesting. From my knowledge of computers and coding I'd say yes, someone messed up the code intentionally. I've been making websites and such since I was 11, back around Y2K. Anyway, I would consider myself an expert with regards to website design and coding. I do think that someone did this on purpose, most likely, as it's the Occam's Razor answer. A system and coding doesn't just change itself. An authorized administrator typically has the ability to manipulate the FTP source that you're using to upload ATS and all of its components.

Therefore, the culprit is someone who has access to the forum's FTP source.

You're looking for someone who messed up code and caused the system to malfunction. It probably wasn't even a lot of code. I would think removing some brackets here and there or deleting some lines of code partially would be more than enough to cause the problem. It would take less than five minutes to do. I bet that whoever did this has been playing around with it for a while, which would explain why I've had issues with the password and getting locked out as early as February 2023. The next instance was in June. Then the latest one happened in October. It's not a one-off, is my point, which makes it appear to be the work of one of the administrators or (less likely) a hacker. I think it's more likely the culprit is someone who didn't need to hack into the system. Whoever is playing around with code has been doing so freely, which doesn't fit the bill of a hacker who tries to be unseen. Anyway, the person responsible has computer knowledge and might be in charge of certain aspects of the ATS website such as updates etc.

The only way this wasn't purposeful is if the system you use to host the site just changed and user error resulted in not backing up passwords. Like you hired someone who didn't know what they were doing in the FTP source and they accidentally messed up lines of code for email and passwords.

Your system reminds me of one I worked on when I worked at the transfer agency. I was in charge of editing the official verbiage for corporate actions etc and also in charge of fixing bad code that was running rampant through our electronic library of thousands of companies of stock. Bad code in one area that is linked to other programs can easily cause mass destruction and chaos.

So I noticed that this happened twice before this last time in October. I don't know if others experienced this multiple times, but I sure did. I think the owners and MODs need to check the data log and see who has been altering the code or layout. That said, I would be surprised if the person behind this wasn't an MOD or admin.

TLDR: I'm not about to say I know who it could be, but if anything I said rings a bell or sounds familiar, it might be worth looking into further.

Hope I helped. I'd be happy to look at your code and fix things, too. Again, check the data logs to get a printout of who accessed what at what time and what changes were saved. I doubt they're using a VPN, so you should be able to locate their IP address once you pinpoint a smaller pool of possible suspects.

Happy hunting! Kinda reminds me of Mike Tyson's Mysteries or something.

Peace dudes

Welcome back Rukia. We all got locked out, and yes I too like seeing all the avatars and being able to reply I also like to be known as been a member for a long time, I miss my ATS birthday, joined about 10years ago. Was known as Cloudbuster now I'm Cloudbuster1. Gorgeous baby, congratulations, I would not post photos of my children though as this is the start of babies digital footprint that can be hacked for terrible reasons.
Welcome back.

a reply to: Cloudbuster1

True. Good point and I'm aware, but she's just too cute lol. I'll keep up the balloons, actually. As for hacking identities, I used to work closely with protecting that kind of information. Granted, lots of people make public Facebook posts about their newborns with the DOB and other personal data.

The way that most data gets stolen is through bank data breaches. A big one happened this past June, actually. It affected a bunch of SSNs. The PlayStation network was also targeted at that time. Likely to be foreign fraudsters.

If one can afford to do so, getting a financial advisor would be a prudent step to ensure information and account security. They tend to hear of data breaches and such the fastest, as do the global transfer agencies. It has been bad since 2020.

I also was locked out of my old account.
The password was changed and not by me.
The email that I used to create the account is not longer accessible but it was created a=over 13 years ago.

a reply to: Abhorsen

Yea hi

Go here and ask DTOM or DJARMS to sort your account .

discord.com...

I hope you get your account unlocked