• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Data Breach

Share this page

Basil

Basil

Administrator
Staff member
Boss
Online
I just received notice from a company, vertical scope, informing me that they had experienced a massive data breach. This company owns and operates hundreds of automotive and tech related web sites. Apparently I had registered on a couple of the sites they own. What is disturbing is that they apparently had the user data for all of their sites accessible in some central location so that the hackers were able to access the data for all of their sites. Also, this breach was done back in February, and they've known about it for months, but are only now informing users. As a side note, this company had at least twice contacted me wanting to purchase British Car Forum. Very glad now that I did not sell to them!

PS: It is always a good idea to change passwords regularly and use passwords that are complex (I know it's a pain, but...) Recommend you use passwords that are minimum of 10 characters long and a combination of user case, lower case, numbers and special characters.
 
If it is available to the outside world, it can be hacked. Just depends on if someone feels the effort is worthwhile. Being in the IT business and working at a company that had it's own breech nationally reported its one of the things you try to prevent but have to recognize that it'll never be 100% foolproof. The only way to stop a hack is to not have data available online directly or indirectly. I keep personal stuff on a stick so when it isn't needed it can be physically separate from the computer and possible outside access. Not perfect, but better than always there.
 
mikephillips said:
If it is available to the outside world, it can be hacked. Just depends on if someone feels the effort is worthwhile. Being in the IT business and working at a company that had it's own breech nationally reported its one of the things you try to prevent but have to recognize that it'll never be 100% foolproof. The only way to stop a hack is to not have data available online directly or indirectly. I keep personal stuff on a stick so when it isn't needed it can be physically separate from the computer and possible outside access. Not perfect, but better than always there.
Click to expand...

I agree. Th only thing we can do is try to make it as difficult as possible for them. I have a 24/7 server monitoring and management service and when I first set up my server, they went through an extensive "hardening" of my sever. However, as I'm sure you know, nothing is foolproof. Hackers can look for things like php exploits to gain access to specific web sites, if not the actual root server (I'm continually installing patches for new weaknesses discovered in the forum software).
 
Vertical Scope is a big problem.
They wanted to basically "own" auto websites and forums....offering more money than the founders thought it was worth, and a lot bit.
They bring in their own moderators and henchmen, seen so many folks "banned" for not acquiescing...and those receiving cash were limited by agreement from starting anything new for a specified number of years.
If I recall, trying to sort out where they really were ended up with some post office box in a mall in BC. But that was then. Might be Toronto now.
They often (but not always) add the highlighted words as hyperlinks in posts (automatic) that flash into popups for advertising if you pass your cursor over them.
They are in it for the advertising bucks, sort of like MS has done with 10...take your data and sell it to advertisers.
Makes me wonder if this wasn't on purpose.

They started in trying to snag model railroad forums a while back..got a bigger one I was a plank owner on...and I haven't been back since.

ANY forum I participate in that goes Vertical Scope (and just imagine getting a vertical scope...colonoscopy standing up) I am gone.

Good resistance, Basil.
 
TOC said:
Vertical Scope is a big problem.
They wanted to basically "own" auto websites and forums....offering more money than the founders thought it was worth, and a lot bit.
They bring in their own moderators and henchmen, seen so many folks "banned" for not acquiescing...and those receiving cash were limited by agreement from starting anything new for a specified number of years.
If I recall, trying to sort out where they really were ended up with some post office box in a mall in BC. But that was then. Might be Toronto now.
They often (but not always) add the highlighted words as hyperlinks in posts (automatic) that flash into popups for advertising if you pass your cursor over them.
They are in it for the advertising bucks, sort of like MS has done with 10...take your data and sell it to advertisers.
Makes me wonder if this wasn't on purpose.

They started in trying to snag model railroad forums a while back..got a bigger one I was a plank owner on...and I haven't been back since.

ANY forum I participate in that goes Vertical Scope (and just imagine getting a vertical scope...colonoscopy standing up) I am gone.

Good resistance, Basil.
Click to expand...

Yeah, like I said, they approached me at least twice (maybe more) wanting me to sell for what they sad would be a good price, but I told them I was not interested and did not start this forum to make a lot of money. Thanks but no thanks. Have not head back from them since then. For the record, I do NOT sell any user information to anyone for any purpose.
 
Basil said:
Yeah, like I said, they approached me at least twice (maybe more) wanting me to sell for what they sad would be a good price, but I told them I was not interested and did not start this forum to make a lot of money. Thanks but no thanks. Have not head back from them since then. For the record, I do NOT sell any user information to anyone for any purpose.
Click to expand...

Yeah....you don't, and none of the original forum owners on sites I was part of did...but VS does. And you have no choice.
 
Hard passwords, changing them often and not using the same one for multiple sites is necessary today. The problem is remembering them. The answer is a good, secure password manager. I guess I'm an old skeptic (old for sure) but I don't trust this "cloud" thing. Also not sure I trust unknown, off-the-shelf software with something so important and personal. So I wrote my own password manager and find that I really like the whole idea. I am finally beginning to follow the advice I gave customers for many years.
 
Bayless said:
Hard passwords, changing them often and not using the same one for multiple sites is necessary today. The problem is remembering them. The answer is a good, secure password manager. I guess I'm an old skeptic (old for sure) but I don't trust this "cloud" thing. Also not sure I trust unknown, off-the-shelf software with something so important and personal. So I wrote my own password manager and find that I really like the whole idea. I am finally beginning to follow the advice I gave customers for many years.
Click to expand...

My passwords are never the same on any two sites, are always very long and complex BUT - I have a secret system that allows me to (usually) remember any password or any site.
 
Back
Top