Security, Stats and Would You Like a Ride?
Valerie Booth is a website architect and private pilot; when not working, Valerie writes about the internet, business, flying, travel and blogging.
There are some days when work should be verboten. I’m not so sure I’d even want to fly on those kind of days - especially when 24 hours begins to stretch into 48 going on the next multiple and work life has not gotten any better!
Friday began as another innocuous day.
I finally had the time to get back to updating the Website and was looking forward to completing changes in design as well as extending the Bowman Eagles Flying Club Order ct-off Date. Having moved over to Macromedia Homesite+ recently and aquired a laptop to boot (ha!), I’ve been a very happy web developer - imbued with a renewed sense of purpose.
But some twisted soul in Germany decided three days ago that the Stats program I run on another domain was fair game for her/his scripting antics, which generated the “we have a problem” telephone call from my Hosting/Server/Programming/Engineering Guru. Â
Now, we all know when your Web Host calls you, that’s not good (well, actually, that’s great but the news he bears is not great).
So, instead of updating the Website, I go off chasing knowledge to find out what happened, the extent of the damage
- anything compromised?
- how many domains does this affect?
- what needs to be done about it. Â
Welcome to the Web.  And a big “Thank You” to the person who thinks exploiting other people’s programs and websites is jolly good fun.  May you grow up and not be the victim of your own twisted genius.  Would you like to go for an airplane ride?
[1] The Website
[2] Bowman Eagles Flying Club
[3] AWStats - the Stats Script
[4] iDefense AWStats Security Advisory
[5] Webmaster World’s Report on AWStats
[6] Internet News on AWStats
[7] Abexis Hosting Solutions
