PLEASE READ THIS, My Appologies Everyone!

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Unimatic1140

Unimatic1140

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Hi everyone, so in my nearly 21 years of running this website for the first time ever we got seriously hacked. Russian hackers (yes IP addresses confirmed the attack came from central Moscow) somehow gained access to the website and deleted everything from the server on automaticwasher.org. I spent quite a long time on with tech support and they helped get things under control however with the entire site files completely gone I had to restore the site from the latest backup. With over half a million upload member post photos alone, not to mention all the other files it going to take nearly 2 days to restore the site. I have the site up and running now, but it's going to take well into tomorrow to get all the pictures copied back onto the server. So many posts will be missing pictures until they are all re-copied back up to the website server.

Why the hackers wanted to delete everything from the site is beyond me, it would make more sense to not make yourself known if you're trying to run something nefarious from someone else's server and stay under the radar. If hackers can hack the Department of Defense network, they sure would have no problem with little mom & pop websites like aw. I sure hope this doesn't happen again but I can't promise that. I don't think the hackers specifically targeted aw, I do believe they casted a wide net out there and we got caught in it this time unfortunately.

My apologies for the site being down everyone, I did my best to get it back up as quickly as I possibly could. Since it's been restored there may be some bugs in bringing it back up, I'm not sure but time will tell. FYI, while all the data is update to date I do believe the last 10 days of pictures uploaded to the most recent postings were not backed up and will be lost.
 
I can't thank you enough! :)

Good always triumphs over evil. No need to apologize, as it was not you who hacked and deleted the site!

You deserve thanks and praise for restoring a site with over 1 million posts in less than 24 hours, a substantial feat, in addition to having the contingency planning foresight to back-up the entire site. Something that honestly would have slipped my mind. Despite me knowing you always need an independent back-up.

With that said, I can't thank you enough for all you've done and the fact you are always on top of things 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 365 days a year. I acknowledge and appreciate this in full. I love this site, and the fact it was gone for 20 hours made me feel a void making me realize just how much I tend to take the wholesome things in life for granted.

I hope all the bugs get worked out with ease, and I hope this site never gets hacked again.
 
Robert you are always so gracious!! I personally don't think an apology was needed. This was something beyond control. You mean so much to all of us and not having access to this sight for about 24 hours reinforces just how much a part of my life is this site. Thank you for everything you do seems such an insufficient sentiment.
 
Echoing what Bob said - no apology is necessary.  This was completely out of your control!  I hope my dissing Kruschev on an old thread about a GE washer/dryer combo seen in one of the "Kitchen Debates" in 1959 was not responsible... LOL 

 

Great work as always, Robert.  I am having flashbacks of times in my former life when we had to do complete system restores to recover after a serious system failure, so I have an idea of what kind of work is involved!
 
Thank you Robert for all your hard work. Step back; breathe; everything will be fine. I love coming online here a few times a day and reading all the fun stuff everyone does. I met a few friends online from here and some in person.

I was in IT for over 28 years and have been in similar situations, but mine were not caused by a hacker but system conversions. I remember it as if it was yesterday. We were converting the entire company from Lotus cc:Mail running on a Novell Server to Lotus Notes on a Microsoft Server. On April 12 just after 18:00 We thought we lost the entire corporate email system we had for the past 3 years. Job ran 20 minutes and said complete. Wow that was fast. Lotus Server, noting there, Novell server, everything gone. Luckily our parent company had an unlimited 24x7 Service Contract with Lotus and we were included in it. Called, Lotus investigated and OH! there is a slight bug fix we need to give you. New script ran until midnight and everything was back. I retired from IT in 2006 not sure If I would want to be still working in it. Did some consulting for a while. No just like helping out friends and family.
 
Ahead of Schedule!

Robert, you facilitated a remarkably fast recovery, which serves as a testament to your level of expertise in this field!

 

You are highly appreciated by so many of us here.  There was no need to apologize for the acts of Russian thugs.  The old USSR is still very much alive and well under the leadership of the last couple of decades.  I hope you don't get hit with another headache like this, courtesy of those slobs.

 

Ralph

 

 

 

 
 
Thanks Robert!!!

No need to apologize! You do so much for all of us to help bring this wonderful group of friends with many common interests together. I can’t thank you enough for all you do! I felt like an addict that couldn’t get my fix while the site was down, LOL.

I sure hope that this doesn’t happen again, its way too much extra work for you to have to take on. I for one would be more that happy to make an extra contribution if you were to make that option available and if it would help you out with any extra expenses that you may have incurred to get AW.org back online.

A Great Big Hug to You!
Eddie
 
Robert, thank you so much for all that you do and giving us our community back!! Your hard work and dedication is much, much appreciated and I certainly don’t take it for granted. I’m breathing a sigh of relief. This is about the only site on the entire internet I really care about. No need to make any apologies. Thank-you. Thank-.you.

Barry
 
Yes Robert,

many thank's! I don't see what hacking this site would get them. Maybe I am missing sonmething like trying to get personal finacial data?
I got yelled at today for using my credit card for a small overseas purchase and not Paypal. Even though the German shop uses a secure safepay. Knowing Germans it is bonded like Paypal, because they are less trusting than we are. of course I guess there is no guarantee of no identity theft. Hubby trusts Paypal because they are bonded and the sller doesn't see your credit card numbers. Hubby says once you click send, the credit card numbers are on the web.
 
Thanks everyone for your kind comments.

Did they get our personal information, like email address?
Hi Paul, that doesn't appear to be the case especially with them coming in and the first thing they do is wipe out all the data! It was more likely was to highjack as many servers as they can get their hands on to do god only knows what kind of naughtiness.

I don't see what hacking this site would get them.
I'm sure they know absolutely nothing about the specific content of the sites they hack, vintage washers or not. As I said above if they cast a wide net they are bound to get lots of hits and use those server for their own dirty deeds. I'm sure they absolutely couldn't care less what the websites they're destroying are about.
 
Thank you Robert!

Oddly enough, Vacuumland didn’t seemed to be hacked since it came up as usual without any errors.

Seems like technology isn’t wanting to cooperate since there’s been a lot of hacking along with the shortage of computer chips and other various electronic components.
 
You did a great job getting it back up again so quickly - far faster than some commercial websites that have had major hacks.

 

These things seem to be random / opportunistic.

 

I would strongly advise we all change PW over the next few days!

[this post was last edited: 2/17/2022-20:36]
 

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