Can anyone get to avast forum today?

It's just a forum and news sites yet again make sensational news like how can this happen to a security firm and why are they relying on 3rd party software. Why not!? Should they write a new proprietary software from ground up for something as insignificant as forum? Of course not, that would be straight idiotic and wasteful. Besides, who gives a fart if they get our usernames and e-mails. Pretty much anyone can guess them, so why should anyone care again? Only problem are passwords which you shouldn't use the same for everything. And that's about it.

 

Well, that's one way of looking at it... the who gives a fart mindset.
But the stigma attached to a security firm having its forum hacked is undeniable. It looks quite bad.
If you were to ask Ondrej Vlcek if he gives a fart, chances are excellent that he'd raise his hand and say, yes, sure I do.
As a forum member, given the choice between someone hacking my username and email, or not, I would also give a fart. It's a PITA to have to reset that stuff, and unlike you, I believe it reflects very poorly on the company.

 

It actually doesn't look bad, it looks HIDEOUS.

Any security firm hacked, in any way, isn't a security firm I would do business with. Period. If they cannot secure their own kitchen, then they cannot secure YOUR kitchen. That's just the facts of the matter really. Norton for example has been hacked several times, and in one case the hackers got some of the SOURCE CODE for their AV.. Who in their right mind would use Norton in light of that? Sorry but Avast looks foolish right now, and fanboism won't save it.

 

Too much drama. Hackers aren't going to get avast source code by hacking the support forum.
What happened is bad for their image. HIDEOUS is over the top.
Fanboism, as you correctly state, will not erase the damage.

 

Of course it is something that shouldn't happen to a security firm, but Not only Avast forum has been hacked. It also happened in the past with Kaspersky, Avg, Avira and so on. This way you shouldn't trust any security firm.

 

Most of the biggest players on the market have been hacked in some form so far (Kaspersky, ESET, Norton).

 

Wtf!? "Outrageous", "hideous" and god knows what else. It's a 3rd party forum software hosted on avast! address. They didn't code the forum software and i can't possibly see a reason why would anyone blame them for getting hacked (or blame them for not coding their own). No one does that, because it's pointless. And even if they replace SMF with phpBB or Innvision or whatever other board software, EVERY single one of them can potentially get hacked, even if kept up to date. One thing is their internal software for users accounts, licenses and other stuff taht is often indeed coded by them (along with the entire backend infrastructure), but forum software, give me a break and get real. You're making an elephant from a tiny mice.

Saying such heavy weight words as "hideous" just shows how clueless people are to make a sensational news or to look cool. The fact that only hashed passwords were stolen shows they were handling the data properly. Most of noobs store passwords in plaintext and no one even complains over it because no one knows they even store them in such insecure way... but hey, ignorance is bliss...

 

From what I have read, the 3rd party software was out of date. Was it the responsibility of avast! to update it or the 3rd party software?

 

Hey RejZoR, tell me this.
Do you agree with the following?

 

I give a fart

even if I'm careful enough to have different passwords
many people aren't

ultimately it is Avast's responsibility

 

Of course vlk, Vince Steckler, and avast care (or gives a fart for lack of a more grown-up term).

Taken from the avast blog and emails that were sent out regarding the hack.
"We realize that it is serious to have these usernames stolen and regret the concern and inconvenience it causes you. However, this is an isolated third-party system and your sensitive data remains secure."

-----

Hindsight is 20/20. I wonder when the forum will be back up? I know it has been down since Saturday.

 

Great. You know that and I know that. But I am interested in whether RejZoR knows that. He is quite adamant that no one should care, and so I wish to hear his response as to whether or not he believes avast corporate officers care. Unless his position is, they care but we shouldn't?

 

Well on a positive note, I'm sure we'll see a faster, improved and more secure Forum when they are done.

 

To blame a forum owner for getting hacked is just plain shortsighted stupid and foolish, especially when the normal and extra protection methods have been put in place ( try pointing the finger at the hacker ) the moronic comments made by some people here who clearly don't have a clue what their talking about with words spilling out of their mouths short of brain function is amazing

 

Still, it must be embarrassing for a security company to advise it users to change their passwords as a result of a vulnerability on their forum caused them to be possibly compromised elsewhere.

 

I dare say it would be embarrassing for them but with the persistence and skills these script kiddies are showing now days it is no surprise if any forum gets hacked, it happens on a daily basis, no different to virus protection really as the AV companies are always playing catch up to the latest nasties out there.

 

Agreed, and most members who use forums like this are aware of that.....If we look outside that box to the Joe (I don't know a lot about computers) it must be unsettling....Picture this, they use the Avast forum once to ask a question, and maybe receiving a reply then haven't ever needed to contact Avast again must be worried with the warning email they suddenly receive from Avast, who they are depending on to keep their computers safe.

 

If they received the email from avast then it also explains that only the main forum was affected, it has nothing to do with the AV.

 

Here comes the lynch mob mentality........

 

Yep, sure does look that way. Hang Avast at the yardarm.

 

I assume by lynch mob you're referring to people calling others who express their thoughts as ....

just plain shortsighted\ stupid and foolish\ moronic comments with words spilling out of their mouths \short of brain function.


How about allowing people to express their views as THEY see them without insulting them?

 

Very true.....What about HBGary Federal's digital infrastructure? Here is a firm that specialized in analyzing vulnerabilities in computer security for companies and even some government agencies..... And they got hit as well.



The fact still remains that Avast! is a really good and effective piece of software.

 

Embarrassing? They haven't written the forum software themself. So, why exactly should they be embarrassed? They just had to notify users because that's the polite thing to do (because some use same password everywhere). Nothing else.

Only thing that's strange to me is that they haven't redirected forum URL to their blog news about the hack. It would make sense to redirect users who try to visit currently unreachable forum to let them know why forum is not where it should be. Instead you just stare at a browser which is timing out when you try to open the forum...

And yet again i have to point out these biggest players did not get hacked. It was a 3rd party forum software that got hacked and technically has nothing to do with them. They secured it as much as it is in their power, but as far as software vulnerabilities go, it's beyond their control. Like i said, they didn't write the forum software.

I know there were hacks, but i don't remember any where their actual software would get hacked, resulting in stolen licenses, user personal information (home addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers etc). The worst that happened was stolen source code for Symantec and Kaspersky if i rememeber correctly, but that was some old outdated code for versions from years ago and even those were stolen from some 3rd party and not from developers themself. I remmeber people were all loud back then how they got hacked, but it wasn't their fault again if some stupid 3rd party couldn't keep their data secured. Panda only had a distributor/promotion page defaced which was yet again not connected to any Panda infrastructure at all.

So, bottom line, if you're not a shortsighted blind sloth, you can see the trend. And that trend is that security firms actually are quite very secure and only things that got hacked so far were rather insignificant and no real data was compromised.

 

I realise why I recognise your name now, you're a regular contributor to the Avast forum, its your
circuitous and pejorative style of writing that gave it away.....I'm out of this thread, my opinions on the matter stand...I needn't express them ad nauseam.

 

Excellent suggestion! After all, this IS a discussion forum. Has everyone forgotten that opinions differ?
And by the way (this not aimed at clubhouse1), saying that avast will suffer reputation damage as a result of this hacking is not necessarily the same thing as saying that avast deserves it.