HA shut down after mail server was hacked by spammers!
Posted: January 19th, 2016, 11:39 am
Announcement:
Hi all,
Earlier today, this site went down for a few hours because my account was deactivated by Bluehost! I got an email about it from them, saying that SpamHaus.org blacklisted my site and asked me to call them about it. It was rude for them to deactivate my account without warning. So I called Bluehost TOS department. They told me that my site server was used to send out large volumes of spam mail using a technique called "snowshoe spamming".
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-snowshoe-spamming.htm
Bluehost reactivated my account, but they warned me that if it happens again, I'll have to find another webhost. Apparently, someone hacked into our mail server and used it to send out tons of spam mail. I'm not sure how. Maybe by hacking into my account or email or installing malware on this site. Either way, they instructed me to deactivate my mail servers until I trace down the malware using one of their programs, or another way. So I've done that for now. This means that you won't receive any email notifications from the forum for now, until I get this thing fixed and sorted out. Then I'll have to check the mail server logs to see if it's still sending out spam. I'll also have to change my webhost account passwords too of course, in case those were hacked as well.
I'm sure not how this happened, or whether dark forces are targeting this site, or whether we were just the victim of a mass snowshoe spam attack that was widespread across many IP's and not specifically designed to target us.
Any of you know anything about this or have any suggestions? I'll update you all if I find out anything.
Hi all,
Earlier today, this site went down for a few hours because my account was deactivated by Bluehost! I got an email about it from them, saying that SpamHaus.org blacklisted my site and asked me to call them about it. It was rude for them to deactivate my account without warning. So I called Bluehost TOS department. They told me that my site server was used to send out large volumes of spam mail using a technique called "snowshoe spamming".
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-snowshoe-spamming.htm
Bluehost reactivated my account, but they warned me that if it happens again, I'll have to find another webhost. Apparently, someone hacked into our mail server and used it to send out tons of spam mail. I'm not sure how. Maybe by hacking into my account or email or installing malware on this site. Either way, they instructed me to deactivate my mail servers until I trace down the malware using one of their programs, or another way. So I've done that for now. This means that you won't receive any email notifications from the forum for now, until I get this thing fixed and sorted out. Then I'll have to check the mail server logs to see if it's still sending out spam. I'll also have to change my webhost account passwords too of course, in case those were hacked as well.
I'm sure not how this happened, or whether dark forces are targeting this site, or whether we were just the victim of a mass snowshoe spam attack that was widespread across many IP's and not specifically designed to target us.
Any of you know anything about this or have any suggestions? I'll update you all if I find out anything.