Just Now: Have the ATS Data Servers been attacked?

Well looks like the server went down. If this was an attack the first thing I want to know is if the admins can tell if anything has been changed. It sure seems to be an attack.

Has any of the information posted by users been filtered or altered in any way?

Was any user lists copied?

Have any links been altered?

Did you get the IP addresses or MAC numbers?

Did any data at all become compromised, for example personal user information?

Why if some one isn't tied to the government, would they attack a site that is more likely to give their side of the story as to why they hack?

If ATS really was hacked and personal info was copied would they tell us?

These kind of attacks are very low rent of some one. I personally hope that it isn't a government funded operation causing all of these attacks on alternative media sites. I hope you can catch these guys ATS.

[edit on 30-4-2009 by LeaderOfProgress]




Mod edit: title for clarity



[edit on 4/30/2009 by kinglizard]

Attack? i just logged in so maybe i didnt see...pretty pathetic attack if it only lasted a few mins...

Or maybe props to ATS for having fast and prompt resolutions to such problems. Most assuredly the servers for all of the posts went down.

I have had no problems whatsoever...and I am ashamed to say I have been on here all day!!

How do you just jump to the conclusion they were hacked. It could have been a number of problems that caused us to loose access to the servers, not just some one hacking them. Also, if they changed peoples posts and totally compromised the sight in the 5 minutes it was down then they are some pretty awesome hackers.

I am sure there is a reasonable explanation for what happened, and remeber these wise words "paranoia will destoy ya".

It probably wasn't anything really.
I t WAS weird for me because I was gaming on another site and in the middle of it the server crashed. I then came here and not a few seconds later this one went down too. I was surprised at first thinking the worst.

I can promise the site went down. You could not access the forums or any threads. It only lasted for about 5 minutes. The error generated was: "Internal-Reason: 132" when you tried to goto the forums.

I was about to star a post I had read and got a 503 error.

I attempted to re access the site and still got the error.

It was back up and running very quickly, maybe 5 minutes tops that I couldn't get on.

i got the

503 server Unavailable

Originally posted by LeaderOfProgress
I can promise the site went down. You could not access the forums or any threads. It only lasted for about 5 minutes. The error generated was: "Internal-Reason: 132" when you tried to goto the forums.

It happens every once in a while ...

It usually has to do with a "load balancer" issue.

Pretty impressive if it only lasted five minutes though, in the past it would take a good 45 minutes.

reply to post by justsomeboreddude


Its always wise to ask if information from this site, due to the breakdown, has been lost, and if yes, what kind of information and for what reasons.
I guess ATS servers are very stable, so its not that usual.

We had a brief outage of an undetermined (so far) nature.

So we don't keep server logs, it will be difficult to track down, however, from what I can see of the database server transaction/error logs, it looks like a simple, and typical-for-ATS problem...

(1) - traffic spike... site slows a bit...
(2) - site slows a bit... members panic and hit refresh...
(3) - site is slow from high traffic & multiple refreshes make it worse
(4) - database server is overwhelmed with the requests
(5) - more members experience extreme slowness... continue to hit refresh
(6) - high traffic and panicking members bring site to it's knees
(7) - database server calls for help (right to my cell phone)
(8) - I pause all process, flush open connections, restore services
(9) - rejoicing in the streets


We've had some mainstream media interest, combined with high traffic interested in swine flu... so there was a brief period of server stress.


All seems well now.

For what it's worth, I got the ATS is down for maintenance screen.

so it could have easily just been a routine thing..

If that is all it turns out to be then great. As we all know though some of us on here are a little paranoid. The idea that some of our info could have been changed or gatherd kind of sends chills down our spines.

Thanks for the info S.O....

I love the mask on your avatar too.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Thanks SO for being on top of everything as usual.

I all to well know the server stress caused by user refreshes.

I logged onto ATS, looked at a couple of things, then got the 503 error. Sooooo, I went to George Ure's site, read todays offering, and by the time I came back here, all was well.

GREAT job restoring things.

Peace

Originally posted by LeaderOfProgress
If that is all it turns out to be then great. As we all know though some of us on here are a little paranoid. The idea that some of our info could have been changed or gatherd kind of sends chills down our spines.

I think some of us have to lay off the Red Bull

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Keep us updated if you find out the "unknown reason" I hope it is only system limits that were being taxed from over use.

P.S. Nice avatar The Masked SkepticOverlord.

reply to post by Clairaudience


Oh cmon. I am sure they have backups in case of database damage. This is a freaking blog site. If you lost a few of our idiotic posts it wouldnt matter one bit. Plus my point was more to the idea that its a little paranoid to worry that someone hacked the site and in 5 minutes trashed the database. Its the internet servers go down crap happens. People can make a conspiracy out of everything.

Do you think anyone in government really cares what we do here. This place keeps a bunch of nuts occupied and lets us vent a bit. If anything it helps prevent trouble. They might monitor posts to a degree, but just to see if someone has totally lost it and might be a threat.