Autopia Is Back Better than Ever

**tunch123** · 09-10-2010, 06:31 PM

:clap:

Hi Autopians,

It has been a very though month for us. Our site was attacked by Hackers (I call them loosers & criminals because they have nothing else to do better with their lives...).

If you remember at one point our site was very slow and then some of the links was directing to other sites.... Well that was the beginning of the problems. Then gradually it got worse.

Eventually Google flaged our forum as unsafe.

But now that warning is lifted by Goggle.

We are dedicated to keep Autopia the #1 Car care forum in the world. You can see the ranking of autopa is by far way ahead than any other forum out there.

Some of the competition enjoyed our dilemma...well that is too sad!

As I said before: "a store owner getting happy when he sees the next door competition gets robbed!!!!...." That is not nice...

Well folks we are taking better measures and hope that this never happens again.

Please spread the word around.

Sadly I have seen some posts from very few members that are getting angry to us saying; "I will never come back to Autopia...."I am still trying to understand the rational on that...I don`t get it ..Do you?

Well to those who think like that I can only say "GOODBYE!!!".

Because they can not be true Autopians.

Its like saying "this store has been attacked by bad people and I will never shop from there...????" Go figure..

We did not do this intentionally...Even Pentagon & White House was Hacked.....

For those who benefit from the wealth of information on this FREE forum I wish all of you to enjoy,

Thanks for your Support.:clap:

**superchargedg** · 09-11-2010, 02:54 PM

I am def glad its back.

**jopa489** · 09-13-2010, 04:38 PM

I understand the rationale of "I`ll never come back to Autopia" very well. My machine was infected from this site. I work in IT, and if someone gets a nasty virus on their computer and my guys have to fix it, we tell them not no longer visit that website. It`s logical - don`t do things that harm your computer. I understand the circumstances here (and therefore won`t fall into this mentality) but you guys have to consider it from the other side too.

I very much enjoy this site and truly hope we can get activity back up to before this happened. Thanks for cleaning up the code and bringing everything back to normal.

**Up To Eleven** · 09-13-2010, 08:23 PM

There was a thread that discussed the virus issues for several days. Why was there no response from Autopia? It appeared Autopia was either complicit or incompetent.

I`m sure everyone was working feverishly behind the scenes but a prompt response to that thread would have been very helpful.

**tunch123** · 09-13-2010, 09:03 PM

Originally Posted by Up To Eleven

There was a thread that discussed the virus issues for several days. Why was there no response from Autopia? It appeared Autopia was either complicit or incompetent.

I`m sure everyone was working feverishly behind the scenes but a prompt response to that thread would have been very helpful.

I must admit that we are not computer Geeks... and we have NOT handled this crisis in a professional manner.

But we have promised to ourselves on to make it better.

Our team is growing in the IT department and we just hired some more people. We never thought that our site was going to be hacked. This is a new technique hackers used. We consulted to the top firms including Norton and vbUlletin etc.. and none of them has seen anything like this before.

The delay in the process was because the advice we got from professionals was : "Oh... just do this and delete this PHP code and it will be fine ..."....

But kept coming back. The other reason for the delay was, the problem looked like it was cured.

Now we are taking the maximum security measures that is available out there. Lets look forward and I apologize for any inconvenience we caused.

T.G

**David Fermani** · 09-15-2010, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by tunch123

I must admit that we are not computer Geeks... and we have NOT handled this crisis in a professional manner.

But we have promised to ourselves on to make it better.

Our team is growing in the IT department and we just hired some more people. We never thought that our site was going to be hacked. This is a new technique hackers used. We consulted to the top firms including Norton and vbUlletin etc.. and none of them has seen anything like this before.

The delay in the process was because the advice we got from professionals was : "Oh... just do this and delete this PHP code and it will be fine ..."....

But kept coming back. The other reason for the delay was, the problem looked like it was cured.

Now we are taking the maximum security measures that is available out there. Lets look forward and I apologize for any inconvenience we caused.

T.G

Thanks for clearing up the confusion. I`m sure the whole ordeal was pretty frustrating to say the least. I hope people will now accept your sincere applogy and move forward in a positive manner. The forum is here to stay and we should all appreciate what you`ve already accomplished since taking over.

**Alfisti** · 09-16-2010, 12:27 AM

I, along with other members, aren`t receiving email alerts on our subscribed threads for a long time now. Can this problem be fixed please.

**SoCalB6** · 09-16-2010, 01:57 AM

Nice! Good to be back on here!

**dervdave** · 09-16-2010, 03:31 AM

It is good to see, the Original worldwide detailers paradise back up and running well !

**Alfisti** · 09-16-2010, 08:19 AM

Running well????????????

I still get no email alerts. I had to check back on this thread to find 2 more posts after mine.

TG are you doing anything about this? Or aren`t you getting alerts like me?

**Ben@3D** · 09-16-2010, 09:36 AM

We will check this morning and get back to you. Thx for letting us know.

Admin

**Rob Tomlin** · 09-16-2010, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I, along with other members, aren`t receiving email alerts on our subscribed threads for a long time now. Can this problem be fixed please.

Correct, I am not getting email alerts either so I am not able to follow up on threads that I have posted in very easily.

**dervdave** · 09-16-2010, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Running well????????????

I still get no email alerts.

I didn`t say running perfect :grinno:

**WAS** · 09-16-2010, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by tunch123

I must admit that we are not computer Geeks... and we have NOT handled this crisis in a professional manner.

I think this is why some members (I myself almost decided to leave and never return) got, I`ll call it, frustrated. A short membership-wide e-mail or a complete take-down of the forum and a simple splash page saying "Got hacked, working on it..." would have been enough to keep everyone happy. I got the malware myself and I can tell you (since I also work in the IT industry) that was a PITA. Someone like myself who understands how trojans / malware / virii work still spent over an hour getting rid of the problem. I can only imagine what a non-technical person would have gone through (or spent money on).

That said, I do understand that you guys aren`t necessarily computer-geeks. I hope that in the future, if this happens again, someone on your staff (or one of your consultants) has some common sense and advises you to take down the board temporarily while the issue(s) gets fixed.

Thank you for the statement and the apology. I love Autopia and I hate the thought of having to go elsewhere and never returning because of some clown`s idea of a fun time.

**Alfisti** · 09-17-2010, 01:01 AM

Originally Posted by admin

We will check this morning and get back to you. Thx for letting us know.

Admin

Thanks admin. Please let us know asap as this is causing me (and others) great concern. We don`t want to leave Autopia but we can`t follow discussions so it`s becoming pointless.