Cyber Attacks: Update
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By Josh Ogden – 07/20/2010
As you all probably know by now, the last 2 months or so were plagued by frequent malware injection attacks against this website. First of all, I want to assure our readers that the site is now safe to use. I also want to try and shed some light on what happened.
The first attacks appeared in May, and occurred about a week apart. The attacks inject malicious code into our files, probably utilizing a well known PHP exploit in our (then outdated) WordPress installation.
My initial thought was: “this is probably just one of the many WordPress hacks that happen every day, I just need to update my version and it won’t happen again.”
That turned out to be wrong. So I had to conclude that WordPress was probably not at fault, and turned my investigation towards the rest of the site, as well as our hosting provider. Little by little, I started removing features, code, entire sections, and eventually everything BUT the WordPress blog, but the attacks continued.
In fact, the more I did in response, the more frequently the attacks occurred. And the type of attack changed slightly every time, becoming more and more sophisticated. That’s when I began to suspect that we were being targeted by someone for political reasons, rather than just being yet another random victim of the waves of malware that wash over the web every day. I was assured by a representative at our hosting provider that this was probably not the case, but I have learned that these people don’t have any clue what they are talking about.
As of last week, we were getting hit multiple times per day. The faster I restored the site, the faster the attacks came. Make what you will of that.
Anyways, without going into too much detail (I wouldn’t want to tip our hand to whoever else may be reading this…) I had an idea yesterday.
Then, I *did some things.*
The site has remained clean since I did *those things.* If I’m correct, the site should no longer be vulnerable to the methods employed by our assailant(s).
This does not mean, however, that they can’t devise new methods. All I have succeeded in doing (if anything) is sending them back to the drawing board. So, with that in mind, I am going to write up a short piece on End-User Web Security. I will try to share some basic information and countermeasures intended to protect your computer from malware in the event that this website (or any other) gets hacked again.
I want to show you how to turn your computer into a tank, or better yet, an armored taxi cab, like in the movie Escape From New York, so you can drive through the nasty part of town without getting a molotov thrown through your windshield.
This will take some thought so check back in a day or so.
We will also be bringing Giordano’s articles back home. In the meantime, you can read his latest over at our Blogspot page, or at Infowars.com where it was featured (by the way, thanks guys, we appreciate it!)
Ok, stay tuned folks…
-AgentOgden