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December 20, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Attackers have hacked the servers of Australian Web hosting provider MD Web Hosting (mdwebhosting.com.au), embedding malicious code to spawn "link farms" on its customers' sites, according to news site, Australian IT (australianit.news.com.au).
Link farming is the act of exchanging reciprocal links with websites to boost search engine optimization. The Web host says that over the past two weeks it's been the victim of hacking attacks from IP addresses that originated from Russia and Turkey.
"Obviously some companies buy the services of these Russians to find vulnerable websites," says Tom Najda, MD Web Hosting business services manager. "These link farms were linking back to pharmaceutical websites which are obviously looking to boost their Google ranking."
The hackers gained access to about five servers which failed to have the correct security profiles. To make matters worse, the company's IP blocking systems and firewalls were not up to par, says Najda. The issue, which was resolved earlier this week, affected only between five to ten percent of its 20,000 customers, he says.
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Comment by Anonymous on Thursday, December 20, 2007
Warning: This attack is on-going and has not been resolved. Tom Najda in the whirlpool.net hosting forum concedes that it will be at least a week before security hardening is complete. This is a root level hack that affects passwords and private data together with embedding a malicious script in your website.
Comment by Anonymous on Wednesday, February 20, 2008
It would have been better if MD had been honest with customers - emailing those hurt, like me, and letting us know. Instead we have spent frustrating hours trying to reach the company only to be lied to by staff who say it's all routine maintenance.
DON'T HOST WITH MD.
Comment by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Second that. All five of my domains are still offline. Server monitor shows an uptime of 6 hours in the last 24. Repeated attempts to have the issue explained or resolved by MD staff have resulted in similar lies. Will be seeking a full refund for contract services not rendered. Avoid MD like the plague.