Slitherine

<p>Today, our first day back at work we suffered a major distaster on slitherine.com. The website went down, but in addition all the files and databases that support it have been lost. The really bad news is that the automated backups for the last month have also been lost. We have managed to get the site back up and running now by re-uploading the entire site.</p>
<p>Because the online backups were lost we have had to revert to a local backup from the 5th December 2008. This means that any posts, new members, news items, forums added or edited since this date have been lost. Obviously this is a major problem and we can only apologise for the inconvenience. We know many of you spend many hours writing on the forums and it must be very frustrating for you, but all we can say is that we understand your pain.</p>
<p>At this stage it is not clear exactly what happened but we are working hard to find out and ensure it never happens again, but our best guess at present is that we were hacked. As a precaution all passwords have been reset and we are changing the system to do regular local backups in addition to the online backups we were relying on.</p>

From a former net admin (back in the Dark Ages of Novell), my sincerest sympathies.

This kind of thing does happen, but that doesn't make it any easier to take. If you were indeed hacked, may those responsible perish soon of terminal hamster-nibbling.

It looks like some lost forum content is available cached on Google, e.g. http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:t3r ... cd=5&gl=us for the " Eternal Empire Late Byzantine - a good list lurking there? " thread.

I don't know if there is any way to recover it en masse but at least it may be useful if someone is looking for particular lost topics.

I doubt it (I started the thread so can opine thus)

admin wrote:At this stage it is not clear exactly what happened but we are working hard to find out and ensure it never happens again, but our best guess at present is that we were hacked. As a precaution all passwords have been reset and we are changing the system to do regular local backups in addition to the online backups we were relying on.</p>

So much for cloud computing.

admin wrote: <p>At this stage it is not clear exactly what happened but we are working hard to find out and ensure it never happens again, but our best guess at present is that we were hacked. As a precaution all passwords have been reset and we are changing the system to do regular local backups in addition to the online backups we were relying on.</p>

Not being one to point the finger but may I suggest:

McNeil
Hogmanay
Barolo
Dancey Dancey
Server

As words that would perhaps explain things?

You dont think he has access to the server do you!

Frankly, if you offered him access to "the server" and all he got was a computer, I think he'd be disappointed, especially at Christmas time.

Paul

iainmcneil wrote:You dont think he has access to the server do you!

Servers
Goats
England goalposts

Just building a list of things he's not allowed near

ahh, obscure english sports humor

I was wondering wtf...

No Possum

They are refering to minor difficulties I have been associated with, but they cant blame me for the Server

I thought these were American girls who brought you a steak!!

JDM