Whats with the sudden spike in users online?

[paradroid1793]

I remember before the site said the most users online were 9xx (900 something) in 2020. I just noticed that it says this morning there were 1874 users online. Surely, this has to be bots, usually, it never peaks beyond 100. Sort of interesting.

[OrthoFan]

I think this site is being hacked or something. I couldn't call up the site at all this morning--tried three different browsers and two operating systems. Also, four different online down detectors reported that it was "down." I emailed John and David about it, but so far, "wall of silence."

I was finally able to call up the site about an hour ago, but the page stalled when trying to log me in. I just got through and noticed that the are nearly 3,000 users viewing this site! It also says "Most users ever online was 4304 on Sun Jun 15, 2025 11:38 am," which was earlier today! Something's definitely wrong.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post this message.

[paradroid1793]

Noticed the same thing as well this morning. It was so laggy- right up until around after dinner.

The amount of users online has to be some sort of attack or something.

I haven't gotten any word back from admins in forever, also new users haven't been approved since april. Which I'll forward on soon.

[OrthoFan]

This shows all the symptoms of a denial of service attack (DOS), which means that this site may have been compromised.

Monday -- I heard back from David, and he also noted the high number of users.

[paradroid1793]

Over 2500 users are currently online. 2480 guests. The site has definitely been hijacked.

Still nothing back from Mordeth on the users not being approved, ajax error, and user spikes.

[CarlosV]

What is the risk we incur? theft of personal data? spamming on our emails?

[OrthoFan]

What is the risk we incur? theft of personal data? spamming on our emails?

Based on what I've been able to find, there are some risks associated with "bots" visiting a site, which seems to be the case here:

"..bots can harm websites in several ways. Malicious bots can overload servers (DDoS attacks), scrape content, exploit vulnerabilities, and skew analytics data. They can also perform credential stuffing or spam forms, impacting both performance and security."

Fortunately, based on what David wrote me, he is working on some changes to this forum. I'm sure he'll make some sort of announcement about that shortly.

OrthoFan

[MordEth]

Over 2500 users are currently online. 2480 guests. The site has definitely been hijacked.

The site has not been hijacked. As OrthoFan observed (quoted below), it looks like the site is experiencing a DOS attack, but after routing the site through Cloudflare, I expect that to taper off.

This shows all the symptoms of a denial of service attack (DOS)...

Still nothing back from Mordeth on the users not being approved, ajax error, and user spikes.

If you really want to get a response from me, you’re better off e-mailing or calling me. I do not collect records, machines or music from the era on which this board focuses. I’ve continued to host this site at personal expense as a favor to the members (some of whom I consider friends) after Neophone stepped away. Someday, I hope he returns to his board.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been sick, travelled for work, and have been busy with a number of other headaches. Bumping your own tech support topics murders my motivation to address them, depending on what else I might have on my plate.

Regards,

David

[paradroid1793]

My apologies MordEth. I sent an email about a month back as well.

[MordEth]

What is the risk we incur? theft of personal data? spamming on our emails?

Carlos,

Only logged in users (not bots) are able to see your e-mail (at least from your board settings) unless you include it in a post.

The bots only see the site as someone who is not logged in (or who does not have an account):

As with any other site, I would not post any sensitive information publicly. Better to send via PM or e-mail.

Based on what I've been able to find, there are some risks associated with "bots" visiting a site, which seems to be the case here:

"..bots can harm websites in several ways. Malicious bots can overload servers (DDoS attacks), scrape content, exploit vulnerabilities, and skew analytics data. They can also perform credential stuffing or spam forms, impacting both performance and security."

Fortunately, based on what David wrote me, he is working on some changes to this forum. I'm sure he'll make some sort of announcement about that shortly.

The main issue is the overload we’re seeing (DDoS attack). We’re running the latest version of the board software and I am not currently aware of vulnerabilities that they would be able to attack.

We do not allow guest posting, so worst case, I have more spam new users to not approve.

Regards,

David