Updated: 18th October 2010

Issue with FTP5 Server Network

This is an update on the network issues with FTP5/dedicated/VPS servers that has taken these services down today. The network is being brought back fully online at 9:00pm tonight when all servers will be back online and normal full service will be resumed.

Once this has happened we will give a full reason for outage so you can see step by step what has happened today. We can’t go into great detail now as we need to work on getting things online as our priority, so our response to support requests and phone calls might not be up to our usual standard and we ask users to use this page for information.

Please also note this is only a network issue all servers are online and no data is at risk, we also will check every server when its network comes back to make sure it reconnects without any issues.

Once back online if users have any queries let us know and we are very sorry for the service levels today.

Issue with FTP5/VPS/Dedicated Server Network

We are currently looking into an issue with the network used by ftp5/VPS/dedicated servers as this is offline, we will come back to users when we have more details but it should be back online very soon.

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This update is to make you aware of a security issue that we have found
some of our users are experiencing recently.

We have found that many users use the same password for accounts and
databases. If there is an out of date script or program on the account, a
hacker can potentially gain access to the database password stored in the
scripts configuration files.

Recently we have found that if a database password is found, the hacker then
tries to login via FTP to the account. If successful, they gain complete
access to that account.

If you run scripts or programs such as phpBB2 or OSCommerce, please ensure
they are always up to date. New security vulnerabilities come out regularly
and they must be patched to ensure the integrity of your account.

If you no longer are using a script, please remove it from your account to
prevent it from being abused.

Lastly, if your database password is the same as your account password,
please change this ASAP. You can change your account password on the
"Account Details" page on your control panel. Database passwords can be
changed in the MySQL Manager on the "Web Tools" page.

All Accounts

*****KEEPING SOFTWARE UP TO DATE*****

A point we would like to bring to users attention is keeping
software up to date. For example form mail scripts, forums and content
management systems with the last version of the code available. This is
important as old code can contain vulnerabilities that allow hackers to
abuse your web sites and possibly attack us. You do not have to worry
about server side software like PHP, MySQL and Apache as we will keep
this up to date for you.

This is regarding the popular OSCommerce shopping cart and
PHPBB2 forum software that you may use. There are some vulnerabilities
for these software packages that require URGENT attention. If you use
any of these packages please read this. If any of your users or
developers use these software packages, please forward this E-mail on to
them.