Sterling Auctions Site Up *DO NOT BID at this time*

[oldjudge]

What auctions use simple auctions?
“the threat actors do not work on weekends”—really? This is a nine to five job? Better hope that they have not taken off for a Christmas vacation.
Once you pay a ransom to unlock your site what is to prevent these people from not turning it back on and simply asking for more money? What can you do to safeguard your site from ransom ware and why wasn’t it done before?

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

What auctions use simple auctions?
“the threat actors do not work on weekends”—really? This is a nine to five job? Better hope that they have not taken off for a Christmas vacation.
Once you pay a ransom to unlock your site what is to prevent these people from not turning it back on and simply asking for more money? What can you do to safeguard your site from ransom ware and why wasn’t it done before?

I got hit with a crude version of this stuff several years ago. Nasty bug on a state gov't web site. I elected to wipe my hard drive and start over with a back-up. I lost a bit of data and some time and some IT costs but did not pay the extortion demand.

So what can Simple Auctions do? There should be back-ups kept elsewhere so that when the one is locked the data can be restored with only a small disruption and loss. The back-ups should run frequently, at least daily. Or the data can be stored on a cloud-based app which makes this sort of attack meaningless, more or less. If they had a single server with no back-ups, shame on them.

Also stop downloading porn.

[Fred]

In simple terms, what is the exposure to bidders of auction houses that use the Simple Auction service?

As mentioned before, what auction houses use the Simple Auction platform?

There are several auction services that are probably similar to Simple Auctions, so the assumption here is that any one of them could have had this happen to them.

[Throttlesteer]

True, and the smartest thing to do is bring everything down when you realize one of the sites has been hacked.

[sb1]

Apparently it has impacted email accounts for Simple AH clients as well. I have not been able to send or receive emails at my two brockelmanauctions.com email accounts. Anyone needing to contact me can PM me here, until they are restored.

Scott

[BRoberts]

Originally Posted by Fred

There are several auction services that are probably similar to Simple Auctions, so the assumption here is that any one of them could have had this happen to them.

This is a ridiculous assumption. True, any website or platform can be compromised. But to assume that because one auction service is "similar" to Simple Auctions that auction service is just as vulnerable is missing the point. If the people running auction platforms do things like implement proper security, have proper monitoring software and upgrade their software when they see red flags (as Simple Auctions saw throughout 2020) then it's not a case of "this could happen to anyone."

[philo98]

Ive been in contact with a few of the AH's and it seems they will be up and running this afternoon.

[swarmee]

It was mentioned on the other board that it might be illegal currently to pay ransomware extortion. So not sure if this opens up the site to federal issues.

[bobfreedman]

Originally Posted by swarmee

It was mentioned on the other board that it might be illegal currently to pay ransomware extortion. So not sure if this opens up the site to federal issues.

Only if the hackers are on the OFAC list which these people are not. We have received the key to unencrypt the files but it will take a long time to unencrypt all of the machines and nodes etc...

Bob

[drcy]

Originally Posted by swarmee

It was mentioned on the other board that it might be illegal currently to pay ransomware extortion. So not sure if this opens up the site to federal issues.

Never heard of that.