Issues with the site

[David_In_CA]

Hi all,

There are some issues going on with the site, and it looks like at least one account has been compromised. If you are having trouble logging in, please know that we are trying to work out what's going on. Please be careful not to click on any links sent to you by any other users -- even if you know them well.

 

[Pryn]

Thanks @David_In_CA! No sooner than I posted my last message last night, I was banned from the site. I couldn't read anything or message an administrator.

I figured what I posted wasn't that bad so it probably had to do with the ongoing battle with the bots and security issues.

Glad to see my expulsion was temporary. The site seems to run running as normal on my device right now. Thanks to the tech team's vigilance!

 

[David_In_CA]

J_A deserves the credit. I noticed a few users, but she found more and actually took action.

 

[Pryn]

Thank you, @j_alexandra. You are growing into quite the tech maven!

 

[j_alexandra]

<takes a bow>

 

[ProgressNotPerfection]

I was banned from the site. I couldn't read anything or message an administrator.

Me too! I couldn’t log out; I couldn’t change my password; nothing. But as soon as I was un-banned this morning, changing my password and setting up two factor authentication was the first thing I did.

 

[ProgressNotPerfection]

<takes a bow>

Well-deserved!

 

[joy]

Thanks for fixing!

 

[DanceMentor]

Interesting. I have removed some privileges from some users who may have had their account compromised but I din't understand exactly what happened, and will be studying this.

 

[raindance]

Thanks for the help, j_a!

I was banned too. From what I remember, just before being banned last night, I expressed condolences to Cal on the loss of her dog. And attempted to like a post on the lessons thread. Pretty much the least controversial things I've ever done on DF (and I try to play by the rules here anyway!).

I couldn't log out or view anything other than the banned message either. What I was able to do, though, was access DF on a different browser (where I wasn't logged in). In that way, I could browse as a logged out user, and I could see that DF was still operating and read threads if I wanted. By this morning I could see the issues thread as well. Just mentioning that in case it's useful to anyone else in the future.

Another option that might work to force a log out when needed could be clearing browser cookies, but I have some useful cookies (preferences saved on various sites) so I didn't go that route.

 

[DanceMentor]

Yep, I have found what happened now. Took some time. Someone hacked into a moderator account, and banned more than a dozen people. That account for now is super limited, and cannot do much here.

There were several more people that had been banned and now this is completely resolved (lifted the ban). Thank you so much for catching this!

I do have "worse case scenario" backup plans, and we have lots of backups of the database and the files for this site spanning many years at multiple locations. We are safe.

 

[Cheshire]

thank you so much j_a!!

 

[joy]

I do have "worse case scenario" backup plans, and we have lots of backups of the database and the files for this site spanning many years at multiple locations. We are safe.

I appreciate that. Thank you!

 

[Pryn]

I couldn't log out or view anything other than the banned message either... By this morning I could see the issues thread as well. Just mentioning that in case it's useful to anyone else in the future.

Same issue here. I had just echoed raindance's condolences on the loss of Cal's dog - and I was banned. (I thought that might be a little harsh of a reaction. Lol.)

I stay logged into the site on two different devices, so I was just stuck and couldn't do anything or navigate much on the site, except seeing privacy policy, terms/rules, help, and home. Contact us was not an option while banned.

I had to just wait until it was resolved. (I didn't know if the site was still running or not until j_alexandra worked her tech magic and everything was back to normal this morning.)

I'm so glad this whole situation was able to be resolved so quickly.

 

[DanceMentor]

Same issue here. I had just echoed raindance's condolences on the loss of Cal's dog - and I was banned. (I thought that might be a little harsh of a reaction. Lol.)

I stay logged into the site on two different devices, so I was just stuck and couldn't do anything or navigate much on the site, except seeing privacy policy, terms/rules, help, and home. Contact us was not an option while banned.

I had to just wait until it was resolved. (I didn't know if the site was still running or not until j_alexandra worked her tech magic and everything was back to normal this morning.)

I'm so glad this whole situation was able to be resolved so quickly.

Yes, this was so weird. I was dealing with my mom in the hospital last night, but I saw the message from one of the moderators this thankfully.

The good thing also is it caused me to review some of the system settings the overall set up, and I think I’ve made even more improvements! I really appreciate everyone’s help too. It’s hard to catch everything on a big site like this.