Site hacking?? What's happening to the interwebs

[Phoenyx]

I added this to blogs because I was actually looking for new areas to submit a blog to. This is what happened. The page I was searching on was on page one on google, and listed on a high ranking blog post of all things. So, going down the list I found a site and clicked it into a new tab and almost got the fright of my life. lol before me on my screen was a skull and crossbones, with detailed information saying the site has been hijacked by such and such. Then I noticed Chrome advising me that I needed to install a plugin from the site and I lit a shuck and got the heck out of dodge before my laptop could be infected.

I'm kinda scared now, not knowing what's going to happen now that I've been on that site. What's happening to the net though, that a page one site has a link to a site thats been hijacked. I don't think they even know the site's hijacked at all. Not just that, WHY are people finding the need to hijack a site at all? I mean why the feathers do they need to hijack a site for when there are SO many ways a person can have their own site online.

I guess I don't really get it at all. I mean why not only hijack a site, but why would you advertise that it has been? it seems to defy all logic. Yea, I'm kinda famous when it comes to over analyzing, I am a severely logic oriented person, but it makes no sense to hijack a site and then tell the world that you did it.

[what4]

Its a trophy for the Hackers is why they put hacked by on the site. It gives them Bragging rights is all I can think of.

[wink0r]

I mean why not only hijack a site, but why would you advertise that it has been?

There may be a contest going on.

I had a break-in on my hosting space, happy new year 2008. Their script left a javascript block on every index page and added the snippet to all .js files in the hosting account.

The first thing that I did was to do a password reset as it appeared that the hacker had FTP access to the space. It took a couple of days to clean up the mess. A visitor had notified me that his Avast AV had sounded an alarm when he tried to visit one of my sites. Shortly after that the hosting company did a password reset and increased the password requirements to improve security. It would seem that they were compromised in some way. About six months later my space was locked for a few hours because I had missed a couple of files in some pages without links from the outside world. The hosting company provided a scan result list showing all the remaining infected files.

Since the download was blocked your computer is probably safe. Chrome probably also snitched the site to Google security, so steps will be taken.

A lot of site hacking is done to distribute malware. The bot nets are hungry and need a constant supply of fresh meat. This sounds more like a young bull/old bull situation. (The young bull and old bull were grazing in the field when the young bull saw a herd of cows in the distance. YB said, "Lets run over there and service one of them." OB replied, "Na, lets stroll over and service them all.")

[Phoenyx]

It just seems so wrong. Yea, I know malware, I'v been the victim of that so many times. Worse when I was still a n00b. lol I even named my desktop after me because of the amount of times I had to re install windows etc. My personal MSN was recently hacked into as well, and it had me stalking the internet trying to find the sod responsible. Who remained never to be caught. It just kinda gets to me that there are people like this around you know? I just hope that this site owner figures out what's going on and can do something to stop it.

Wink0r, you said something about chrome alerting Google? How does it do that?

[wink0r]

DoIP (data over Internet Protocol)?? I don't have real information, but there are rumors that Chrome phones home. If it does infected sites would be one of the numbers on the speed dialer.

[Phoenyx]

DoIP (data over Internet Protocol)?? I don't have real information, but there are rumors that Chrome phones home. If it does infected sites would be one of the numbers on the speed dialer.

That can be a good idea. If it can somehow lower the amount of sites that specialize in viruses etc.

[apexglm]

more and more people are using poorly written clone and warez/nulled scripts also leaving themselves open to attacks

[Phoenyx]

more and more people are using poorly written clone and warez/nulled scripts also leaving themselves open to attacks

With Costs increasing the way they are, I can understand that, but surely there are ways that, even if you're using a substandard script, you can still make sure that you're defenses are at least in place. Or could it be a loophole in scripts?

[wink0r]

I see evidence that indicates that some probably cracked versions of Xrumer may open the user's computer as a proxy. I suspect that at least some cracked software includes some spare parts that are not necessarily mentioned on the download sites.

[Phoenyx]

I see evidence that indicates that some probably cracked versions of Xrumer may open the user's computer as a proxy. I suspect that at least some cracked software includes some spare parts that are not necessarily mentioned on the download sites.

hmm.... and unsuspecting people would not know which is the bad component, carry on regardless, and become a victim.... This all makes one wonder though. How safe is the internet then? When you download something, you need to have a darn good look at what you're downloading. it seems that no matter how many defenses we put up, people will still find a way to get past it, just for their own personal gain.

[wink0r]

The major download sites, like CNet and Download.com, scan all files and provide their certification that they are clean. It is a good plan to scan downloaded files locally before installing on your computer, less important if you absolutely trust the download site. Most anti-virus/anti-malware software adds a file scan option to the context menu. A single file scan only takes seconds so it is a good practice. This also applies to email attachments if you elect to open them at all. Just save the attachments somewhere that you will be able to find them and run the scans.

[Phoenyx]

The major download sites, like CNet and Download.com, scan all files and provide their certification that they are clean. It is a good plan to scan downloaded files locally before installing on your computer, less important if you absolutely trust the download site. Most anti-virus/anti-malware software adds a file scan option to the context menu. A single file scan only takes seconds so it is a good practice. This also applies to email attachments if you elect to open them at all. Just save the attachments somewhere that you will be able to find them and run the scans.

Definitely. After recent events, I watch my email very carefully. Someone hacked into my personal account and decided to send virus infected emails to people on my contact list. I also scan everything, even if its on a disk from a trusted source, Like any software i might install from my monthly PC Format magazine. I mean, they even go as far to tell you to scan everything before installing because one can never be too careful. It just seems really bad that, where Internet Marketers like myself are trying to show people we can be trusted, we have to compete with all the other shadier sorts to prove ourselves. It's not really fair to be honest.