Forum moderator kills members

This has been proven to be a HOAX
A sick joke IMO.


Wow - Is all I can say.

Here is a thread on the forum the moderator worked on: http://www.pirate969.org/mboard/showthread.php?t=18735&page=1&pp=50




Here is a news story on the incident
Internet Argument Leaves 2 Dead, 2 Injured (http://www.radpin.com/BBCPortal/Americas/dyngen1341/mboard52505.htm)

San Diego Based Message Board Is Cause for Mass Murder Arguments on Internet message boards are nothing new, and often are a central component. But in San Diego, California an argument turned deadly on 25 May 2005, resulting in two murders, and two other attempted homicides.

"We've always had a lot of arguments and disputes on this board, but nothing like this, and I really don't think anyone saw it coming," said Radley Pingay, administrator of pirate969.org (http://www.pirate969.org/), in an email response.

"Bruce was always a little hostile, but so many people are like that online, it's hard to tell what's real and what's just shenanigans." Bruce is not only the username of the suspect in the double homicide, but is also his first name.

The online argument started in a thread (link (http://www.pirate969.org/mboard/showthread.php?t=18735)) discussing a local band promoter. Bruce Pastuer, now wanted on two counts of homicide and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, was one of the participants in the discussion.

The thing about this story is that it spread like wildfire for a short while before it was exposed as a hoax.

Why?

1. because I think we've all reached a point where nothing in this world surprises us anymore

2. because anyone who has ever been a moderator on any forum has once or twice fantasized about having the power to do this :D

I plead the fifth!

The guy who was killed lives about 10 blocks from me.

It wasn't difficult to discern it was a hoax since I had read about it previously in the local news site and the article says they hadn't determined cause of death. The guy on the forums said he shot him. Obviously, it didn't add up.

:)

weirdos

an update

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/4550077/detail.html

some moderators do have a rather extremely dampening affect....

I've been on boards where three moderators or more contribute to a thread...

(I'm not thinking of DMOZ when I write this, since there every one is a moderator, or thereabouts.)

some moderators do have a rather extremely dampening affect....

I've been on boards where three moderators or more contribute to a thread...
Is this a bad thing? :confused:

Oh....

I guess not....

I've just been banned a lot for having my web site in my signature. My site is mainly information. I have brain damage because of extended low B12. Hard to believe, but true; and not uncommon.

So, I did a web site to warn people.

But, I added a link to order methylcobalamin, because when I used to be a Realtor,there was never time to go out and shop...

So, I'm a tad skittish around moderators...

Here's the thing, if you're going to ban me for using my signature, better to know up front... :D

I was about to post that most forums have a "rules" page that will tell you the regulations regarding live links in signatures...

Then when I went to look for the link to "rules" on this forum, I couldn't find one...

Joey?

I read the rules before I joined. I didn't think it said I couldn't have a link. Plus, there's a link function where you do your signature.

But, as I see, it, you are already wondering if you should ban me.....

See what I mean?

As an aside, I saw R.D. Lainge in Chalk Farm, once.

:confused:

Sorry, ConsiderThis. You've lost me here. Why would I be thinking of banning you? What did you do?

As for R.D. Laing, I'm not a fan of his work, personally... are you?

See, I joined the DMOZ forum (which I love the color of... speaking of vBulletin)
and I worked really hard on my questions in the Submission forum. Both questions got little map pins, so they were good questions.

I had seen that "everyone" had a signature, so I used mine.

But then about three days later, just when I was really into developing my site in relation to directory standards, and when I was busy fashioning my next question, they deleted my signature, so I demanded they remove my threads, which obviously wasn't happening, and I got banned shortly after I said it appeared that they were a White Lunch Counter....

so, in retrospect, I suppose it wasn't just my signature...

though, I would not have stayed if I couldn't use it.

After all, if it is taking 3 years for a site to be accepted into DMOZ, then anyone with a good, content rich site should use the site in their signature and only post where signatures are allowed.

Right?

I'd seen him on telly. He had a record or something. The woman interviewing him was making fun of him part of the time (I'd never heard of him) -- so next day I said to my friend that I thought I'd hang out in Chalk Farm till I met him, because he had handled the interviewer so well, and I thought he'd understand some of the problems I was having.

Turns out my friend's friends were best friends with him. So I was off to an appointment, 25 quid. He was excellent. I mean really amazing.

But... I should be working on my site....

This isn't DMOZ or The Resourceless Zone, ConsiderThis. trust me -- this forum has no connection with DMOZ/RZ whatsoever, as far as I know, and I doubt that most people here would even want such an association.

So whatever happened to you over there has no bearing on anything going on here.

oh, cool.

:)

Yeah we're way better and nicer then those other places for sure! :)

i have no idea what you all are talking about..

however, i dont think i am missing much

I think a more proper truth is that "Moderator kills forum" :eek:

I have seen it many times in real life, idiotic moderators that have no business as moderators!

CBP and Fathom are great examples of this, they ruined WPW and SEO Chat, CBP is one of the biggest idiots on the forum circuit PERIOD!

In every case it is the administrator or forum owner that is out of touch with reality and appoints numb skulls as moderators, this is the death wish for a forum that comes true all the time!:eek:

Censors suck, moderators and administrators that don't even understand their membership and listen to input from goof ball members are the worst of the bunch and their forums deserve death for sure!

Someone will have to explain what happened at SEO Chat for us who never went there (I visit and a member of other sites). Let alone some other sites that's talked about here.

Sure would go good with a bowl of popcorn, too. ;)

Chris

SEO Chat was a great forum started by Darren Ward - at it's peak, arguably one of the best. He sold it to the current owners. That began the slow but now rapidly accelerating decline into silliness and obscurity and utter pointlessness.

If you haven't yet been there or not recently, spare yourself the effort - don't bother.

Sounds exactly what happened to Webhostingtalk when Matt sold it to Rackshack, and now it's current money hungry owners. Ruined a wonderful little community and now it's polluted with scammers and $4/mon UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH crappers. :(

Chris

Yes - sounds similar. I think when a forum becomes a corporation or is purchased by one or is started by one, the problem is that money and advertising revenues become the #1 priority, rather than forum content or the forum community.

WebmasterWorld. SEOChat. WebProWorld. No doubt there are others...

First you notice the ad-heavy pages start taking longer and longer to load. Then the admins and moderators start censoring everything in sight to avoid upsetting advertisers. Then they start putting increasing restrictions on where you can post. etc. etc. etc.

In the end, anyone who is actually intersted in the forum community leaves and the ones who are left are self-promoting scammers and know-nothings with nothing to say and an endless appetite for saying it anyway.

Exactly what happened! The good moderators like Chicken left and started their own forum, while the rude, crude and "touchy" admins stayed.

Read a whole soap opera by how much....

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=136328&highlight=WHT

Yes, moderators can really KILL a forum all right!

Chris

Yikes! I see people recommedning ThePlanet.com there - home of some of the worst scum in the known universe and with an open door policy for hackers and viruses.

See Blacklist theplanet.com - haven for hackers and viruses (http://www.bandofgonzos.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1881).

I also had a thread on this somewhere at DigitalPoint.

I won't go so far as calling them scum, they do have a cheap and fast network. Folks who want dedicate and can't afford $300/mon bills really don't have much choice but to deal with TP (or it's resellers).

What I did find on their network was most of the hacking/cracking traffic comes inside their network. :shock: So need the IDS installed immediately!

Chris

What I did find on their network was most of the hacking/cracking traffic comes inside their network.
Exactly. And when I sent them IPs and logs showing them that and asking them to take action to stop the assault against my sites, they did absolutely nothing and refused to even reply to my emails.

I call that irresponsible. It borders on criminal.

We had a contact within one of the government organizations and forwarded everything along to that department but unfortunately there wasn't enough to proceed legally against theplanet.com at that time. Be that as it may, if their attitude about harboring criminal activities within their network is that cavalier, it's only a matter of time before theydo get hit and badly.

It is sad that so many good forums were ruined, but when managers lose focus and don't understand the members that post very well these things happen (bad moderators are appointed that ruin the forum) and they end up in destruction!

That is good for forums that are managed by experts who understand that this (the forum game) is a very long term thing when it comes to success!

Flash in the pan managers and those that think forums are a get rich quick type of business are doomed from the start!

Censorship and bad management of threads (locking and removing good threads with no reason) is the beginning of the end for any forum!

As far as "The Planet." guys, they and their data centers can go to hell, I would not do business with them or their resellers as their are many better options available with companies the value the "internet network" and are not a threat to the health of the network!

I won't go so far as calling them scum, they do have a cheap and fast network. Folks who want dedicate and can't afford $300/mon bills really don't have much choice but to deal with TP (or it's resellers).


You mean like this site? :D

Now that is the best joke in the history of this forum and ironic too Buff! :p :wave:

Joey may ban us all now :) :p :wave:

Now that is the best joke in the history of this forum and ironic too Buff! :p :wave:

Joey may ban us all now :) :p :wave:

vBulletin.com and vBulletin.org also use The Planet. The reality is that virtually every major host has issues.

Yep. If a web host doesn't have issues, everyone would be using only one as it would be perfect.

No host is perfect, and no host is free from vandals who'd exploit their service.

Chris

That's not the point, the point is The Plant as a data center letting hackers and frauds run servers out of their facility!:eek:

That happens at any datacenter.

How does anyone suppose to clean up crime? Hasn't been done, and probably never will. Besides, there's no such thing as a safe server, let alone datacenter. As long as data/hardware can be public/access the public, it can and will be exploited.

That's the point.

Chris

So you feel that it is alright for the Russian mafia to operate out of The Planet's data center or hackers out of Turkey :confused:

I didn't say it was all right -- but acknowledged that NO datacenter/web host is or will be free from the junk. It's the nature of the beast of open access.

Chris

Okay. I agree that any hosting service CAN be infected. However, when given clear and repeated evidence not only that their servers were the source of a DoS attack AND the IP addresses of those who launched the attack, I would expect a REPUTABLE hosting service to take some action to shut that site or groups of sites down. ThePlanet.com did nothing.

By the way, I was far from their last victim. They continued to launch hack probes and DoS attacks from ThePlanet on other sites.

How is that acceptable to anyone?

If an employee commits an act of harassment and the employer is fully aware of the harassment and does nothing to stop it, in Canada that employer is held equally liable. Why should the same not apply in a case like this?

The actions of ThePlanet.com clearly indicated that they were receiving hosting fees from these pukes and not from me or the other sites they were attacking - and they were more interested in continuing to take the hosting fees than in doing something to stop criminal activities.

That to me is the antithesis of an ethical and moral business model.

It is sort of like a hotel that rents a room to bank robbers or dope dealers! :D :wave:

Okay. I agree that any hosting service CAN be infected. However, when given clear and repeated evidence not only that their servers were the source of a DoS attack AND the IP addresses of those who launched the attack, I would expect a REPUTABLE hosting service to take some action to shut that site or groups of sites down. ThePlanet.com did nothing.

What site or groups?

And you are aware that servers do get hijacked, right? It could well have been they investigated and discovered some servers were compromised. If so, they don't pull those accounts.

It's really hard to distinguish a planned attack or a victim's computer was compromised and used. Someone bragging "I'm going to pull your site down! HA HA!!", doesn't equate that the servers used to ping a site down are his, or his little po'boy group.

Chris

It is sort of like a hotel that rents a room to bank robbers or dope dealers! :D :wave:

That's about every hotel on Earth!

Chris

Chris, do you remember the bot attacks on the forums that wiped out a bunch of them :confused:

http://www.vbwebmaster.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60

Well it hurt a lot of forums and a lot of the attacks came from The Planet's data centers!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4117711.stm

Wednesday, 22 December, 2004, 12:14 GMT

Santy worm makes unwelcome visit

The vulnerable software is used by thousands of sites
Thousands of website bulletin boards have been defaced by a virus that used Google to spread across the net.

The Santy worm first appeared on 20 December and within 24 hours had successfully hit more than 40,000 websites.

The malicious program exploits a vulnerability in the widely used phpBB software.

Santy's spread has now been stopped after Google began blocking infected sites searching for new victims.

The worm replaces chat forums with a webpage announcing that the site had been defaced by the malicious program.

Soon after being infected, sites hit by the worm started randomly searching for other websites running the vulnerable phpBB software.

Once Google started blocking these search queries the rate of infection tailed off sharply.

A message sent to Finnish security firm F-Secure by Google's security team said: "While a seven hour response for something like this is not outrageous, we think we can and should do better."

"We will be reviewing our procedures to improve our response time in the future to similar problems," the Google team said.

Security firms estimate that about 1m websites run their discussion groups and forums with the open source phpBB program.

The worst of the attack now seems to be over as a search conducted on the morning of the 22 December produced only 1,440 hits for sites showing the text used in the defacement message.

People using the sites hit by Santy will not be affected by the worm.

Santy is not the first malicious program to use Google to help it spread.

In July a variant of the MyDoom virus slowed down searches on Google as the program flooded the search site with queries looking for new e-mail addresses to send itself to.

Chris, did you read the thread at the BoG and the one at DigitalPoint?

No offense but I really don't want to go through that whole sorry saga again here. There were several sites involved and several of them were at ThePlanet. All that information was provided to them. They did nothing.

Let's even give them the benefit of the doubt for a moment and say that it wasn't their customers but that their customers site's were compromised. Are you suggesting in that circumstance they are off the hook in terms of taking any action?

A month after the first series of attacks, Santy hit. And yes, I know that was a world-wide threat. I also know that server-level blocks were available to stop those attacks and to disable infected sites. Care to guess what proportion of THOSE were coming from ThePlanet?

Their servers were leaking like sieves. That creates a danger for the rest of the internet community. IMO, this is an issue of responsibility and ThePlanet.com made it clear they were not willing to accept any at all.

No, as I just read what you linked to, and don't know anything about Digitalpoint.

If a computer was hijacked it's not the owner's fault that XYZ did the bad things (they are at fault for not keeping their server patched). It's not very hard to get your first server compromise, even pros experience it -- just takes one thing overlooked, and BAM, it's exploited.

Server upkeep relies on server owners to upkeep them. In order for TP to offer those cheap servers they had to do 2 things: make them self-managed, or manage them at considerable cost to the server owner. In the USA what counts is the price, and that's why TP is sooooo popular -- you can have a decent server for less than $250/mon. Just three years ago that would've been unheard of.

Can't get rid of the crappers, as they'll like roaches that'll crawl out of the woodwork at anytime. Turn on the lights and they scamper away, but datacenters/web hosts can't keep them on 24/7 (as guess who's going to pay for it??).

Another thing, what did the other datacenter/web host had in place to prevent/curb DDoS attacks? Too little? Nothing? It's a two way street -- if both don't do their job, bad things will happen, too.

Chris

The server our sites were on WAS patched quickly. And steps were taken immediately tp add a second layer of protection to the actual sites. That didn't stop the bombardment of attempts, which I note again originated at ThePlanet.com and which I note again were fully reported to ThePlanet.com.

You are obviously okay with this, Chris. Frankly, that baffles me. But I guess it's all good until you are the victim and you find out that the source of your attack is ThePlanet.com.

Do a search for ThePlanet.com - in case you think mine is an isolated complaint, I think you'll find that there's a very long list of complaints against that service.

Beyond that, I've made my points. If in all good conscience you can make excuses for those sorry bastards, I doubt that I am going to change your mind about them.

Chris, do you remember the bot attacks on the forums that wiped out a bunch of them :confused:

http://www.vbwebmaster.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60

Well it hurt a lot of forums and a lot of the attacks came from The Planet's data centers!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4117711.stm

Wednesday, 22 December, 2004, 12:14 GMT


I don't have a phpBB board as I've seen how unstable and how exploit friendly that forumware can be. It's wide open to exploits, and it's no wonder it was targeted.

And I thought this site was a vBulletin webmaster one, not phpBB? :eek:

Chris

1. the Santy attacks, in case you missed it, also targeted vBulletin forums
2. only very old non-updated installations of phpBB (2.0.6 or earlier) were actually vulnerable and at the time the current version, if memory serves, was 2.0.11
3. vulnerable or not, vBulletin or phpBB,the worm hammered at the door repeatedly and rapidly and created a DoS situation
4. there were both server level and software level patches available within 24 hours that if applied killed the DoS attacks
5. it turned out in fact to be a vulnerability in PHP, not phpBB, that was at the root
6. this forum is primarily about vBulletin forums, that's true, but in this particular thread we were discussing hosting and in particular the irresponsibility of ThePlanet.com

Addendum:

I don't have a phpBB board as I've seen how unstable and how exploit friendly that forumware can be. It's wide open to exploits, and it's no wonder it was targeted.
That is absolute bull**** and in making that statement you demonstrate clearly that you know nothing at all about either phpBB or about the Santy exploits, how they worked, and what they did.

DidgitalPoint (remember that) is a vBulletin forum. It too was hammered by Santy, as were many other vBulletin boards.

The server our sites were on WAS patched quickly. And steps were taken immediately tp add a second layer of protection to the actual sites. That didn't stop the bombardment of attempts, which I note again originated at ThePlanet.com and which I note again were fully reported to ThePlanet.com.

Why not? Because a decent datacenter/carrier will reroute traffic.

If your datacenter is multihomed, an attack on one frontend won't stop your site. Techs can reroute traffic on another pipe. I know Verizon can and does that, and I'm sure other networks (if asked) will help if it's a wholesale DDoS attack. If they have a good Cisco style firewall, it can just turn most of the traffic off at the source -- no sweat.

The story just doesn't add up, Ministrel. There's pieces missing in this story. I take it it's wasn't a 22,000 computer DDoS attack, more like maybe 22? If so, your datacenter should've been able to handle the bombardment.

You are obviously okay with this, Chris. Frankly, that baffles me. But I guess it's all good until you are the victim and you find out that the source of your attack is ThePlanet.com.

No it's not that I'm "okay" with it I HATE CRAPPERS. But I'm a realist too, and the story doesn't match up with what I know about networking and what it can and can't be done.

I don't have any site that a crapper would want to bother with, it's just too much time and effort to try to take my little dev site down. And I don't advertize it, making it very difficult for them to find where it is in the first place.

Until I learn a lot more about INSIDE security (and designing the sweetest honey pots for crappers to get stuck and die in), I'm not putting up a open access forum. Private ones for special interests, sure, but not a mega forum for every 15 year-old wannabe script kiddie to visit. I take security dead serious, and won't open a forum until most security measures are in place (and more than just IDS and a firewall). Besides if I do, I'd like to watch them play to watch what they do (studying roaches leads to knowing which strength of RAID to spray on them). :D

Experience as a member of forums has taught me to NEVER open a forum unless it's not only secured on the outside (with hardware), inside (with software and unique deterrants). The datacenter also has to have Cisco firewalls too (as the enterprise versions can take even a 22,000 computer DDoS attack). TP has enterprise hardware that protects it from the OUTSIDE, and that is what I care about. Inside the network attacks I'm not held liable for (that's TP's responsibility), and will secure with my own equipment/software.

Do a search for ThePlanet.com - in case you think mine is an isolated complaint, I think you'll find that there's a very long list of complaints against that service.

And every other datacenter on the planet. None are free of crappers.

Beyond that, I've made my points. If in all good conscience you can make excuses for those sorry bastards, I doubt that I am going to change your mind about them.

I make no excuses, other than reality. Datacenters can't prevent every attack (and why I'm very, very, very proactive on security), and if you think they can, there's a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell ya!

Chris

*sigh*

Completely missing the point. I give up. Too tired to say it all again.

Addendum:


That is absolute bull**** and in making that statement you demonstrate clearly that you know nothing at all about either phpBB or about the Santy exploits, how they worked, and what they did.

DidgitalPoint (remember that) is a vBulletin forum. It too was hammered by Santy, as were many other vBulletin boards.

No, what's BULL is this idea of TP being the worst thing on the planet. I've SEEN the weekly defacing a phpBB board can get -- despite being up-to-date on patches. It's like a sieve, full of holes.

BTW, read this...

http://www.whois.sc/digitalpoint.com

Now what do you see not right there?

Then talk to me about "not knowing" about security.

Chris

No, what's BULL is this idea of TP being the worst thing on the planet. I've SEEN the weekly defacing a phpBB board can get -- despite being up-to-date on patches. It's like a sieve, full of holes.
Absolute bull****.

BTW, read this...

http://www.whois.sc/digitalpoint.com

Okay. And? Your point was?

No, bull, Ministrel -- weekly defacings. Just ask anyone who was on the Hannity phpBB board 3 months to the 2004 election! There's no need to exaggerate.

Secondly, my point is Digitalpoint is still insecure. Twofold. Now look at their domain registry info carefully and tell me the errors it shows. Then talk to me about what's secure or not. There's 2 fat exploits right there!

Chris

No, bull, Ministrel -- weekly defacings. Just ask anyone who was on the Hannity phpBB board 3 months to the 2004 election! There's no need to exaggerate.
1. 2004? What version were they running then?
2. I doubt that I know anyone who is a member of the Hannity board... :rolleyes: The one guy that I do know about who posts there lives in his car, as far as I can tell...

Secondly, my point is Digitalpoint is still insecure. Twofold. Now look at their domain registry info carefully and tell me the errors it shows.
1. suppose you tell us what you see there that bothers you?
2. you are aware that DigitalPoint is a vBulletin forum, right? not phpBB?

Ministrel, stop for one moment and reread your post again.

You're arguing with me about what phpBB version (use the wayback machine and you can read the versions just fine), then telling me I don't know lick about security but you can't even find the security flaws in digitalpoint's domain registry info! If you knew anything about server security you'd have had it corrected like yesterday -- as it's an open door for FUTURE exploits AGAIN!!!!

Here's a freebie: what's wrong with this?


Server Type: Apache/1.3.20 Sun Cobalt (Unix) mod_ssl/2.8.4 OpenSSL/0.9.6 mod_auth_pam_external/0.1 mod_perl/1.2


Chris

1. I don't think I ever said you know nothing about security. I think what I said is you obviously know nothing about phpBB or what the Santy attacks were all about. If you did, you wouldn't be making those ridiculous statements about phpBB.

2. Are you somehow under the impression that DigitalPoint is my site? It isn't. It is owned, as I imagine you saw, by Shawn Hogan and hosted on his own server.

Obviously I do know something about phpBB, since I used it before getting a vB. Secondly whatever flavor worm/trojan/virii that'll come out again it doesn't matter -- it's designed to cause problems.

And I didn't claim you owned that site, but pointing out to you the security flaws that INVITE yet another server compromise. Having the Apache signature on is like asking hackers/crackers over for dinner. Worse, they're using an expired SSL cert., which in itself leaves little confidence the site is secure for ecommerce.

Now preview ASO's domain listing...

http://www.whois.sc/asmallorange.com

Notice, SSL is up-to-date and the Server config shows just Apache (even I'm doing that on my little dev site, and even removing Apache!)? TP network too, and we take measures to prevent crappers from crapping our sites (I even use a blind service for my domain names to prevent datamining). So it explains that whoever has Digitalpoint they're just left their gate open for any 2 bit crapper to "have fun" at their expense.

So before coming back sprouting folks don't know lick about security, investigate the matter before doing so, as it'll come back like this!

Chris

So before coming back sprouting folks don't know lick about security, investigate the matter before doing so, as it'll come back like this!
And before you go off on a rant next time, READ THE DAMN THREAD!

Please show me where I said you didn't "know lick about security". Anywhere.

READ!

What I said was you don't know anything worth knowing about phpBB versions and vulnerabilities or about the Santy attacks or about the DoS attacks on my forums. That statement obviously still stands. Why? Because your statements about phpBB and the attacks do not fit the facts.

READ!

I know phpBB is full of holes. Here, eat this!

Current phpBB vulnerabilities (from Oct, 2005)...

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/15246
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/15243
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/15170

vBulletin (from Oct, 2005)...
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/15296

Fixed...
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/15296/solution

'nuff said!

Chris

Yes I like vBulletin better, but at the same time some of the largest forums in the world use phpBB, it is much better for those who want to code and custom design, for non coders vBulletin is the better option for sure, simply because of support!

At the same time there are some great coders hanging around the phpBB forum and if you are a great programmer you should not have a ton of problems keeping your phpBB forum up!

You have to stay on top of current threats for sure!

But all software has flaws, FireFox has problems too!

Here, eat this!
:rolleyes:

How old are you, Chris? Are you a high school student?

Some sources of information about a few of the suspicious, criminal, or otherwise sordid activities and enterprises that call or have called theplanet.com servers "Home":

http://antiphishing.org/phishing_archive/12-07-04_Ebay/12-07-04_Ebay.html (eBay phishing scam)

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41938 (Hamas site promoting suicide bombings)

http://www.petitiononline.com/paypalwf/petition.html (an anti-Semitic website)

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/2614.htm (probable hacking attempt or virus)

http://www.wvmountainhome.com/blog/ (probably virus or hacking attempt)

http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0406/msg00039.html (Al-Qaeda website)

http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-October/msg02854.html (probable hacking attempt or virus)

http://mlcastle.net/covance/complaint.txt (threat of legal action against theplanet.com)

http://www.linode.com/forums/archive/o_t/t_330/spam_blocklist.html
Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2003
Monkey.com's "Proxy Hijackers List" contains what looks to me like all of ThePlanet's IP ranges (or at least a VERY sizeable chunk):

12.96.160.0/21 theplanet.com
12.156.0.0/21 theplanet.com
64.5.32.0/20 theplanet.com
64.5.48.0/20 theplanet.com
64.46.160.0/19 theplanet.com
65.247.184.0/21 theplanet.com
66.28.25.0/24 theplanet.com
66.28.26.0/24 theplanet.com
66.28.110.0/24 theplanet.com
66.28.111.0/24 theplanet.com
66.28.113.0/24 theplanet.com
66.250.65.0/24 theplanet.com
69.41.224.0/20 theplanet.com
69.56.128.0/18 theplanet.com
209.223.234.0/23 theplanet.com
216.88.118.0/23 theplanet.com
216.185.96.0/19 theplanet.com
216.234.224.0/19 theplanet.com

http://www.five-ten-sg.com/blackhole.php?ip=69.93.90.50&Search=Search (blacklisted for refusing to removbe spammers)

http://www.toastedspam.com/stupid/disptext/4tests.com_0001 (spammer)

http://status.cites.uiuc.edu/status.cgi?ENTRY=STAT001382&CAT=SECURITY (blocked securioty breaches)

http://banspam.javawoman.com/doc/theplanet.com_spambot.log (spambots)

http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive/Citibank_3-31-04.htm (Citibank phishing scheme)

http://www.artsackett.com/blog/2004/07/28 (more spammers)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1296520/posts (Hamas terrorist websites locations)

http://www.kloth.net/internet/badbots.php (numerous soambots originating from theplanet)

http://haganah.org.il/harchives/003294.html (two more Islam terrorist sites that were shut down by theplanet.com)

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=1911 (theplanet.com hosted the fake Traffic Power SEO forum)

Funny, folks will just say that these criminals have equal access to the internet as they do to the telephone networks until they get thrown in jail. :eek:

So until the government enforces laws and restrictions are put in place on data centers this will continue, but you would think that companies like the Planet.com who promote security in their advertising would give a **** about the network itself (the security of the internet) and webmasters whose sites are being attacked and high jacked! :eek: