Greetings:

Well, I woke up this morning to a nasty little surprise - the RFCafe.com server had been hacked. My AirplanesAndRockets.com website is on the same virtual private server hosted by InMotionHosting.com. The welcoming screen below appeared. Fortunately, the hacker, TiGER-M@TE, is no more malicious than to place index.php files in the root and next level folders that replaces and/or commandeers the index.htm, index.html, or default.htm files so that unless a specific file name is requested, the terrifying HACKED screen is presented! Trust me, there are few more horrific experiences as a business owner than to learn that your supposedly safe confines have been breached.

An IMPORTANT aspect of this hack is that NO virus was involved, only a firewall breach occurred. InMotionHosting is addressing the issue as I write this.

A quick Internet search turned up lots of info on this infamous hacker, who, as mentioned, is out for the sport of it - not to cause real harm. In brick and mortar terms, it's akin to having someone pick the lock on your store and hang a huge sign on the window letting everybody - especially you - know that she could have done real damage if the desire ever fills her (just being non-sexist here - women can be as evil as men). TiGER-M@TE has touched the lives of many, including no less than Google, Amazon.com, Yahoo, Microsoft, and host of others. I was able to find multiple accounts of people having been hit last night, including at least one other whose website was hosted by InMotionHotsing.com.

According to the time stamp on the index.php file, the attack occurred at 5:35 AM, so I was able to fix it within a couple hours.

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- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster