The forum as well as our server have been under attack recently ny many individuals and bots seeking to gain access either by logging in to the server as root or by trying to guess user passwords.
These have reached extreme levels of many per day.
The largest portion have been coming from Chinese ip addresses although other countries are also represented to a much smaller extent.
There have been three cases where the attackers have been successful at guessing user passwords. Recently I posted a warning to users to adopt strong passwords. Some members, especially those who have not logged-in to the forum for awhile did not heed the warning or did not see it.
I have taken the extreme measure of blocking access to the web site from ALL addresses originating in China.
We have a very few legitimate Chinese members, and they have been emailed so that accommodations might be made. I regret the inconvenience this may cause for them.
If additional attacks are noted from other areas, selective CIDR net-address blocks will be imposed.
We apologise for the inconvenience.
-bob
These have reached extreme levels of many per day.
The largest portion have been coming from Chinese ip addresses although other countries are also represented to a much smaller extent.
There have been three cases where the attackers have been successful at guessing user passwords. Recently I posted a warning to users to adopt strong passwords. Some members, especially those who have not logged-in to the forum for awhile did not heed the warning or did not see it.
I have taken the extreme measure of blocking access to the web site from ALL addresses originating in China.
We have a very few legitimate Chinese members, and they have been emailed so that accommodations might be made. I regret the inconvenience this may cause for them.
If additional attacks are noted from other areas, selective CIDR net-address blocks will be imposed.
We apologise for the inconvenience.
-bob