Harmony Central down for five days

[burk48237]

Note I am not attempting to denigrate or attack HCF, and I don't blame their administration for what happened, and please don't use this thread for that purpose, It is against TB rules

Harmony Central forums have been down for five days. Evidently they have been the victims of serious internet attack. I frequent there for their guitar and off topic discussions because of their different rule structures, but I wanted to bring a few points in for question here:

1) First a word of warning, if any of you frequent there be very careful of your email. HCF has posted this on Twitter:

Someone without authorization temporarily gained access to the Harmony Central site. That person or persons also gained access to our stored member information, which includes e-mail addresses. If you have provided us with other information, like your date of birth, we have also stored that information. Our stored information also includes member passwords, which are protected by multiple levels of encryption.

As noted above, our stored passwords are protected by multiple levels of encryption. However, out of an abundance of caution, we recommend that you reset your password as soon as Harmony Central is available.

Also, as always, please remain cautious when responding to e-mail communications. Please remember – no one from Harmony Central will ever ask you for your password or log-in information. No one from Harmony Central will ask you for a credit card number, or Social Security number, or anything of the sort. If you ever receive any message supposedly from Harmony Central asking for that or any personal information, note the sender, delete the email immediately, restart your computer, and alert us to the situation. Never click on any links or attachments contained in an email of this type.

2) Mods, Have we had any of these type of attempts here? If you are a supporting member here you provide much more info then at HCF where credit card numbers or paypal are not used.

3) For those of you who frequent other boards / forums is this type of activity common? I understand hackers going after commercial info on a commercial site, But I'm not sure I get an attack on a site with no commercial value.

[john turner]

yeah, i got that email too. scary stuff.

we've never had any intrusions into our database of any kind that -i- am aware of. if it had happened, you can be sure that paul would have informed us quickly.

i'm a member of quite a few boards, from game-related forums to profession-related ones, and i've not had this kind of thing happen before to my knowledge.

[CertifiedLurker]

HC being down is the main reason why I'm back here. TBs civility was getting to me so I had to take a break.

[TBrett]

I got the email, as I'm a member of HCF, as well. Sure enough, later the same day, I started receiving spam in my email for the first time ever with my current account. Coincidence? I think not. I think I'll delete my profile with HCF, as I hardly ever use the site these days and because I infinitely prefer the good folks at TB. Good thing they didn't have any info on me beyond my email address!

[MadMan118]

Hacker is a term that started decads ago that referes to a computer programmer. The people that broke into the security at HCF are called hoodlums.
That aside HCF and TB as well are rather large sites and that makes them large targets as well. Most of the low lifes have little motivation to do this than just to prove that they can. Commerical and govennmental level computer attacks are quite serious, and the motive there is obivous.

[rx jr.]

so everyone scattered to Talkbass.com, theopenjam.net, or thegearpage.net

where else did they go??? that place was a MONSTER@!!

[Holy War]

Originally Posted by rx jr.

so everyone scattered to Talkbass.com, theopenjam.net, or thegearpage.net

where else did they go??? that place was a MONSTER@!!

Ya, I mainly post here and HC. There are HC refugees all over the internet now haha. TGP, Rig-Talk, TB, UG, etc etc.

The place must have crashed seriously hard for it to have been down this long though...

[iamlowsound]

Some people probably ended up at 7string.org. It sucks when forums go down, I was a regular on a forum that has had a bunch of hosting issues and it has been down since September.

lowsound

[modulusman]

Hopefully they get back up and running soon. I miss arguing with some of the posters over there.

[L-A]

Originally Posted by MadMan118

Hacker is a term that started decads ago that referes to a computer programmer. The people that broke into the security at HCF are called hoodlums.

Crackers. They manage to break a fence, dance around the hole, and they're gone. The harm is in finding out your site's weakness by the break they cause.

[rx jr.]

Originally Posted by Holy War

Ya, I mainly post here and HC. There are HC refugees all over the internet now haha. TGP, Rig-Talk, TB, UG, etc etc.

The place must have crashed seriously hard for it to have been down this long though...

ugh... UG.

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

Some people probably ended up at 7string.org. It sucks when forums go down, I was a regular on a forum that has had a bunch of hosting issues and it has been down since September.

lowsound

i only go to sevenstring.org for serious 7 string discussion. i just can't fit in there, they take TEH BR00TALZ waaaaaaaay too seriously

[Holy War]

Originally Posted by rx jr.

ugh... UG.

I agree

not trying to start an inter forum war here

[rx jr.]

Originally Posted by Holy War

I agree

not trying to start an inter forum war here

still, my opinion stands. I just avoid that place... no need to stir anything up.

[modulusman]

Hc is back up and running.

[rx jr.]

awesome, the toilet is fixed!!