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'Incalculable' tragedy: 4800 Aussie sites evaporate after hack

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Lovelee
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« on: June 21, 2011, 06:03:59 pm »

At least 4800 Australian websites have been lost with no chance of recovery following a break-in at Australian domain registrar and web host Distribute.IT.

The hack attack caused so much damage that four of the company's servers were "unrecoverable", the company said, leaving thousands of website owners in the lurch.

"The overall magnitude of the tragedy and the loss of our information and yours is simply incalculable; and we are distressed by the actions of the parties responsible for this reprehensible act," Distribute.IT said.

As reported by Fairfax Media last week, Distribute.IT was hit with a "deliberate, premeditated and targeted attack" on its servers last Saturday but it is still struggling to work out exactly what happened or how much data was stolen.

Security experts warned that thousands of websites were vulnerable to being hijacked and extensive private data were at risk of being stolen.

Customers hit the Whirlpool forums to complain that Distribute.IT had not adequately responded with information about the break-in and that the hack "has probably killed my business".

In a statement published today, Distribute.IT said it had been working around the clock in an attempt to recover data from its affected servers.

"At this time, We regret to inform that the data, sites and emails that were hosted on Drought, Hurricane, Blizzard and Cyclone can be considered by all the experts to be unrecoverable," it said.

"While every effort will be made to continue to gain access to the lost information from those hosting servers, it seems unlikely that any usable data will can be salvaged from these platforms.

"In assessing the situation, our greatest fears have been confirmed that not only was the production data erased during the attack, but also key backups, snapshots and other information that would allow us to reconstruct these servers from the remaining data."

The company said 4800 websites were affected and since it did not have the capacity to transfer the domain names to other parts of its platform, Distribute.IT had no choice "but to assist you in any way possible to transfer your hosting and email needs to other hosting providers".

http://www.theherald.com.au/news/national/national/general/incalculable-tragedy-4800-aussie-sites-evaporate-after-hack/2202063.aspx
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guest49
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« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2011, 06:28:59 pm »

the people responsible for attacks like these, should have a bounty placed on them similar to the old American west - Wanted dead or alive.  Preferably dead, to eliminate years of litigation.
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Im2Sexy4MyPants
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« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2011, 01:20:01 am »

It will be a false flag event

Problem Reaction Solution

America wants more controls on the web, they want to roll out their next control freak web it's called Internet 2
then they can decide what we can or cannot watch,they will give us more of the corporate fake news,like ABC,CNN,FOX,BBC,Yahoo,Facebook and other government one eyed controlled media

And the UN wan't's us to pay them $$$ for the latest form of our brainwashing.

The Next World Web will be Totally Controlled By America's corporately funded government  giving us big brother on steroids...   
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Are you sick of the bullshit from the sewer stream media spewed out from the usual Ken and Barby dickless talking point look a likes.

If you want to know what's going on in the real world...
And the many things that will personally effect you.
Go to
http://www.infowars.com/

AND WAKE THE F_ _K UP
nitpicker1
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« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2011, 06:30:33 am »



Now that a disastrous possibility has been confirmed will we see a return to hard copy records storage and newspaper/magazine advertising for businesses?
(Makes using "Cloud" a poor choice, doesn't it!)

Page 2    4800 Aussie sites evaporate after hack
ASHER MOSES
21 Jun, 2011 02:51 PM

At least 4800 Australian websites have been lost with no chance of recovery following a break-in at Australian domain registrar and web host Distribute.IT.


The hack attack caused so much damage that four of the company's servers were "unrecoverable", the company said, leaving thousands of website owners in the lurch.


"The overall magnitude of the tragedy and the loss of our information and yours is simply incalculable; and we are distressed by the actions of the parties responsible for this reprehensible act," Distribute.IT said.


As reported by Fairfax Media last week, Distribute.IT was hit with a "deliberate, premeditated and targeted attack" on its servers last Saturday but it is still struggling to work out exactly what happened or how much data was stolen.


Security experts warned that thousands of websites were vulnerable to being hijacked and extensive private data were at risk of being stolen.


Customers hit the Whirlpool forums to complain that Distribute.IT had not adequately responded with information about the break-in and that the hack "has probably killed my business".


In a statement published today, Distribute.IT said it had been working around the clock in an attempt to recover data from its affected servers.


"At this time, We regret to inform that the data, sites and emails that were hosted on Drought, Hurricane, Blizzard and Cyclone can be considered by all the experts to be unrecoverable," it said.


"While every effort will be made to continue to gain access to the lost information from those hosting servers, it seems unlikely that any usable data will can be salvaged from these platforms.


"In assessing the situation, our greatest fears have been confirmed that not only was the production data erased during the attack, but also key backups, snapshots and other information that would allow us to reconstruct these servers from the remaining data."


The company said 4800 websites were affected and since it did not have the capacity to transfer the domain names to other parts of its platform, Distribute.IT had no choice "but to assist you in any way possible to transfer your hosting and email needs to other hosting providers".


The significant data loss has raised questions from backup experts as to why Distribute.IT did not appear to have offsite backups of customer data.


Distribute.IT has still not been able to get its website back online and it is using a Google Blogger account to update customers. Its phone lines have been ringing out and its email is down, forcing the company to use a temporary Gmail addresss - distributeit888@gmail.com.


Rob McAdam, CEO of security firm Pure Hacking, said the issue was a "catastrophic problem" for those with websites hosted by Distribute.IT.


"If these clients of Distribute.IT had no other backup other than what was at Distribute.IT, they would then have to rebuild their site - from scratch," he said.


"From the Distribute.IT blog post, it appears that they have lost all of the content for these web sites and any associated backups that Distribute.IT kept."


James Turner, security analyst at IBRS, said: "This could be the nightmare scenario that every small/medium businessperson working on the internet has in the back of their minds. If the attack is as described then the malice behind it is appalling."



On the Whirlpool discussion forums, where there are over 60 pages of posts discussing the Distribute.IT hack, customers were livid at finding out their data was gone forever.


"I think I'm in shock ... I have lost everything .... I couldnt possibly replicate all those years of work again ... my whole lifes work is gone down the drain," wrote one.


This reporter is on Twitter: @ashermoses
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Magoo
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« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2011, 06:41:07 am »

It must be very upsetting to lose everything but surely there must be a back up system in place for the data the site contains.         I am surprised at the number of people with home computers who still do not use a good anti virus or back up ( externally) their computers and put themselves through enormous grief.
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Lovelee
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« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2011, 10:14:40 am »

When I read this I started thinking about our own site .. I hold the entire site on my computer and Daz has a copy too .. Im surprised that so many are unable to recover at least the site. 

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Lovelee
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« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2011, 10:15:04 am »

When I read this I started thinking about our own site .. I hold the entire site on my computer and Daz has a copy too .. Im surprised that so many are unable to recover at least the site. 

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Laughter is the best medicine, unless you've got a really nasty case of syphilis, in which case penicillin is your best bet.
sickofpollies
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« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2011, 11:06:43 am »

The company has obviously never heard of disaster recovery. Admittedly it is more designed for situations of natural or physical building disasters (e.g. arson), but this programme would have worked in this scenario.
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nitpicker1
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« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2011, 11:25:16 am »

 
the link names the site as distribute.IT

This domain may be for sale ... any offers ?

http://www.distribute.it/

http://www.sedo.co.uk/search/details.php4?domain=distribute.it&language=e&et_sub=138&partnerid=14460&et_cid=13&et_lid=17473
distribute


Under "Computers" there is a heading Data Recovery 
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Lovelee
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« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2011, 11:35:55 am »


the link names the site as distribute.IT

This domain may be for sale ... any offers ?

http://www.distribute.it/

http://www.sedo.co.uk/search/details.php4?domain=distribute.it&language=e&et_sub=138&partnerid=14460&et_cid=13&et_lid=17473
distribute


Under "Computers" there is a heading Data Recovery 

Isnt that 'data recovery' just for your own puter? 
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Laughter is the best medicine, unless you've got a really nasty case of syphilis, in which case penicillin is your best bet.
sickofpollies
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« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2011, 11:50:03 am »

I feel sympathy for Distribute IT's customers. I have none for the company as they're obviously incompetent.

Data recovery can be for any storage type. However the simple data recovery strategies (like the police would use as part of their criminal investigations) that can be implemented on a personal computer are generally inapplicable on a server (disaster recovery servers excluded). Plus I imagine in this hack the crackers deliberately re-wrote everything.

Distribute IT OTOH should have daily tape back ups at the very minimum. Their customers, in the worst scenarios, should only lose one or two days work (depending on the timing of the attacks). With the ability to do hot back ups this should be a no-brainer. They should have had this policy in place in case of non-malicious breakdowns anyway (hard drive failures et cetera).

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nitpicker1
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« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2011, 12:09:50 pm »



Isnt that 'data recovery' just for your own puter? 

It would have been. Shame they didn't seem to think it neccessary for their own.

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Lovelee
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« Reply #12 on: June 22, 2011, 12:17:28 pm »

Im surprised they didnt have back up somewhere .. seems the number one thing to do.
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sickofpollies
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« Reply #13 on: June 22, 2011, 12:44:41 pm »

Senior managers, accountants and other clueless people don't understand disaster recovery plans. It costs money to have "redundant" servers and that is generally all they see. They only under the importance of disaster recovery when the proverbial goes through the fan and by that stage it's a little bit late.

IT companies have no excuse to hide behind when it comes to DR or the lack of it.
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