Hey,
If you haven’t been reading the
news, about a month ago, a
a well known web security firm
made a post about this.
At least 150,000 vBulletin forums
have been hacked. What’s
scary is that up to 90% of those
forums don’t even know they are
infected.
More recently, one of the world’s
most popular vBulletin forums,
ubuntuforums.org, was hacked.
Lots of forum admins think
it can never happen to them…
They are invincible…
Remember when you were a kid?
There is a difference, though:
You don’t have to seek out
trouble!
Trouble can and will come to
you the moment you enter
Google’s index.
What’s worse is that MOST
of the time, hackers WILL
NOT…
*surprise surprise*
…alert you to the fact
that they’ve been there.
When they do get caught
it’s because of a mistake
on their end.
After all, your community is
an easy source of fresh email
addresses and passwords.
You’re doing all the hard work for
the hacker by gathering this data.
Why kill the golden goose?
Oh, and YES, I said passwords.
vB’s salt and encryption mechanism
mean NOTHING if your user database
is stolen. In 2013, these most of these
passwords are reversible!
That’s not all.
These are email addresses and
passwords most of your members
use everywhere, leaving bank
accounts, confidential emails…
… and other sensitive personal
information available at the click
of a mouse… to someone who has
no life, all because your forum
wasn’t safe.
What if you were a member and
all of a sudden someone hijacks
your email account?
How would you feel not knowing
how or why it happened, and not
knowing what the hacker took off with?
That would surely ruin your day.
What would be worse is if you
found out which forum was hacked
and knew the admin was negligent.
Heck, you might not even care if the
admin was negligent. You lost something,
you’re pissed off and it’s not your fault.
It has to be the admin’s, right?
If the losses you incurred were severe,
who knows what action you and others
might take against the admin of the site.
That’s not something you want to
go through as an admin, or a member.
I want to make sure this doesn’t
happen to you.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though.
Some forums out there do the right
thing, and take proactive and serious
action to make sure this doesn’t
happen to their community.
As a subscriber to these emails, I’m
extending to you a Free security audit.
There is no commitment on your part and
there is zero risk to you.
Simply reply to this email and we’ll arrange
a date and time to perform your audit.
Steven