Hacking DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Jeff, reading 12:39 on the thread below got me wondering if there was any way to hack DCUM, and if there is, how you would know. Do you ever check for this? Would there be any way to check to see if the site had been hacked in the past? (Like log-ins for email?)

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/368265.page

[jsteele]

First off, 12:39 in that thread (the second 12:39 anyway) is not well-informed about how the Internet works. If a hacker broke into DCUM and identified the IP address of a poster who detailed her security system (or lack thereof), the IP address could not be matched to a house. It could be matched to an ISP or business. The hacker would then have to hack the business or the ISP to try to identify the end user. Even if the business was successfully hacked, that likely would not easily lead to a home address. If the hacker had that capability, he would use the skills for something much easier to turn into real money.

As for your questions, is there a way to hack DCUM? Probably. I would never claim that any website is unhackable. I don't know of an easy way to do it or I would have blocked it. I have a background in network and web security and I know how I would try to hack it. I know there are people more capable than me who could probably do it. I check logs constantly and have a ton of monitoring. In the political forum, there is a thread that I started about catching the Department of Homeland Security running a vulnerability scanner against the site. DHS would never explain to me why that was being done, but the normal reason is to discover ways to hack a website.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:First off, 12:39 in that thread (the second 12:39 anyway) is not well-informed about how the Internet works. If a hacker broke into DCUM and identified the IP address of a poster who detailed her security system (or lack thereof), the IP address could not be matched to a house. It could be matched to an ISP or business. The hacker would then have to hack the business or the ISP to try to identify the end user. Even if the business was successfully hacked, that likely would not easily lead to a home address. If the hacker had that capability, he would use the skills for something much easier to turn into real money.

As for your questions, is there a way to hack DCUM? Probably. I would never claim that any website is unhackable. I don't know of an easy way to do it or I would have blocked it. I have a background in network and web security and I know how I would try to hack it. I know there are people more capable than me who could probably do it. I check logs constantly and have a ton of monitoring. In the political forum, there is a thread that I started about catching the Department of Homeland Security running a vulnerability scanner against the site. DHS would never explain to me why that was being done, but the normal reason is to discover ways to hack a website.

WOW!! And I just entered the lottery for the White House Easter Egg Roll and wondered if that was opening myself up for intense cyber-scrutiny. Scary days.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:First off, 12:39 in that thread (the second 12:39 anyway) is not well-informed about how the Internet works. If a hacker broke into DCUM and identified the IP address of a poster who detailed her security system (or lack thereof), the IP address could not be matched to a house. It could be matched to an ISP or business. The hacker would then have to hack the business or the ISP to try to identify the end user. Even if the business was successfully hacked, that likely would not easily lead to a home address. If the hacker had that capability, he would use the skills for something much easier to turn into real money.

As for your questions, is there a way to hack DCUM? Probably. I would never claim that any website is unhackable. I don't know of an easy way to do it or I would have blocked it. I have a background in network and web security and I know how I would try to hack it. I know there are people more capable than me who could probably do it. I check logs constantly and have a ton of monitoring. In the political forum, there is a thread that I started about catching the Department of Homeland Security running a vulnerability scanner against the site. DHS would never explain to me why that was being done, but the normal reason is to discover ways to hack a website.

PLUS, and correct me if I am wrong Jeff, the IP address for your computer cna change. When you take your laptop with you to the coffee shop, your computer has a different IP address than when you were at your house. You can even change it at your house by turning your modem/router off and back on. In short, your ISP assigns an IP address to your computer when you access the network, cut off the network access and your get a new IP address. So the hacker has to hack into the ISP and then find out who was assigned that IP address at the time the person was posting and then hope that it is a home network. There are much easier ways to find a home to burglar -- like combining facebook or twiter ( people posting things like "we are headed out for vacation") and google map.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of places online where you should be afraid of ID theft. DCUM isn't' one of them.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:First off, 12:39 in that thread (the second 12:39 anyway) is not well-informed about how the Internet works. If a hacker broke into DCUM and identified the IP address of a poster who detailed her security system (or lack thereof), the IP address could not be matched to a house. It could be matched to an ISP or business. The hacker would then have to hack the business or the ISP to try to identify the end user. Even if the business was successfully hacked, that likely would not easily lead to a home address. If the hacker had that capability, he would use the skills for something much easier to turn into real money.

As for your questions, is there a way to hack DCUM? Probably. I would never claim that any website is unhackable. I don't know of an easy way to do it or I would have blocked it. I have a background in network and web security and I know how I would try to hack it. I know there are people more capable than me who could probably do it. I check logs constantly and have a ton of monitoring. In the political forum, there is a thread that I started about catching the Department of Homeland Security running a vulnerability scanner against the site. DHS would never explain to me why that was being done, but the normal reason is to discover ways to hack a website.

Just read this - wow.