The Hack and the Rebuilding

[Draper]

On Saturday afternoon, just a very short time after news of the Holy Father's death hit the new agencies, Boredonline was hit with a malicious hack that reveled in the pope's death and was of an extremely anti-Catholic and immoral character. Seton Home Study School was also hit in the same attack. That is the reason that the forums have been down for a few days now.

The significance that this has for everyone is mainly that our entire forum structure was wiped out. All of the topics were not lost however, but unfortunately, they are not in a condition in which they can be publically posted as an archives forum. One reason being that all of the contents of the forums, including private forums which cannot be open to the public were jumbled altogether, and it is just not worth the effort to sift through the hundreds of pages of topics.

I have reconstructed a forum structure, which as you will note does have some significant changes. Several forums were eliminated including SciFi, Junior Members, World History, Personal Debates, and a few others. Two new forums were also created, specifically the Pope forum and the Books/Music/Movies forum was broken into Music and also Movies (book info can just go in Members for now). The Contributer's forum is down for now, but that is not necessarily a permanent arrangement.

I have been personally going through and adding some of the topics from the pre-hack archives, and will continue to do so as time allows. I will probably also get some help from one or two others. I fully understand that some of you have topics on BOL that you really want back, and I am willing to work with that as best I can. If you have a specific request for a topic, I can try to retreve it, I am especially willing to do so in cases such as the writing forum in which some of the contents were lengthy personal compositions. Please send me a PM if you need something right away. I would ask you to wait a little while if it is not pressing, because I will be going back and adding things as it is, but if it is not back in a week or so, send me a PM. I am only doing a few topics that seem more important and more recent.

The security breech has been fixed.

[Draper]

Apparently, the hacker did delete all of the contents of the important information forum, which contained all of the rules, picture guidelines, moderator color directory, private seton forum info, etc.

These rules are still in effect obviously, and we will try to get new copies of this information posted here as soon as we can.



I did want to add one thing though. I know that this hack caused a world of inconvenience, not only to the administrative staff, but also to the members. However, I rejoice that we have been given this opportunity by Christ.

St. Matthew 5:
10 Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake:
12 Be glad and rejoice for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.
13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing anymore but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men.
14 You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house.
16 So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

[Draper]

There also might be some problems with the forum system since I had to build it up from the bottom, I might have forgotten certain things, or some features might have been affected by the hack that we were not aware of. If you experience any difficulties, please let me know by posting here or in the Suggestions forum.

[MangoTrombone]

Thanks Katholish... it's gotta be a lot of work for you. We appreciate it.

[Kelly]

Dont overdo yourself kath. Thanks for everything you do!

[hungryman287]

I appreciate what you are doing, do what you can when you can.

[KatalinaMTK]

Thanks for fixing things Kath!

BTW, interesting signiture you've got there.

[princess tenel ka]

thanks Katholish!

[Moira]

Thanks so much Katholish!!!!! We really are thankful for what you are doing.

[sasha4ever02]

Thank you Katholish and dont worry about time.

[USnavySailor]

Man, sounds like a lot of work. I was surprised at how soon you got BOL back up and running.....

Thank you so much Katholish!

[ColdFury]

thanks, Kath..we really appreciate it

cheers!

[Miranda]

good work and i have the chat rules when/if you need them

[Chorister]

Thanks, Kath. Good work.

[dragonfly]

YOu really must have spent alot of time it. Thank you!!!

[Renholdër]

Why did you split the Books/Movies/Music forum? Just wondering.

And will any legal action be taken against the hacker (if you know who s/he is?)

[Aravis]

Kath, you are so wonderful. Thank you soooooooooooooooooooooo much for all your hard work.

[ColdFury]

I dont believe we know the name of the hacker, so i dont think legal action will be pursued, but i have narrowed it down a bit:

11-17 years old, probably public school student, does not do well in school, is good with computers, and is addicted to gaming, especially online gaming.

[Draper]

Why did you split the Books/Movies/Music forum? Just wondering.

And will any legal action be taken against the hacker (if you know who s/he is?)

I know that many people didn't go to that forum because of the pervasive influence of music that they do not appreciate, so I thought that I could at least salvage could conversation about movies. There really is enough to talk about in each subject anyway.

I cannot comment about action being taken against the hacker.

ColdFury,

11-17 years old, probably public school student, does not do well in school, is good with computers, and is addicted to gaming, especially online gaming.

Some elements of the profile are obvious, but I would not necessarily agree with everything that you put down.

[mimi]

Thanks.

[cinny2]

I suppose it is a very good thing that Mr. Ricks is busy writing his 3 15 page papers right now. *grins a wee grin*

Elizabeth

[Calvin the Incredible]

I've been trying to get on BoL for the past few days and I was worried that mabey there was something wrong with my computer. Thanks so much for getting all this up and running again!

[skitch]

Thanks Katholish!

[Morena]

Thank you Katholish!!!

[tess815]

Thank-you so much for all your hard work, Kath!