Comments on: Update: Ka-Blam, IndyPlanet, ComicsMonkey Hacked

By: Jeremy Dale

Jeremy Dale — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:53:34 +0000

Hang in there, guys. I know you’re working around the clock to right the ship. Let me know if we can help in any way. I don’t know HOW, but let us know.

- jeremy

By: BarryGregory

BarryGregory — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:08:39 +0000

I highly doubt it, guys.

By: BarryGregory

BarryGregory — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:11:43 +0000

It was certainly malicious … but I don’t think it was intentionally destructive and I don’t think we were targeted for any particular reason. The attack originated in China and given the level of access they achieved they could have done a LOT more damage. What they were trying to do was to install invisible iframes that would download and install spyware whenever someone accessed the script they had altered. Luckily for us, there were a bit ham-handed and left an obvious trail behind. It’s very time consuming to fix what they did, but not overly difficult.

BTW, IndyPlanet is now clean … even though the malware warnings haven’t been lifted yet. We’re trying to get those lifted now and hopefully some time next week they’ll go away.

ComicsMonkey is still a bit of a mess. Steer clear of it still, please.

By: Daniel F.

Daniel F. — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:08:27 +0000

I hate to say it, but I’m with David M.C. I can’t help but wonder if a rival publisher or company caused this.

By: David M.C.

David M.C. — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:40:12 +0000

You know this is convention season. I know I may be reaching but do you think this was malicious? I mean done on purpose versus being random? I mean why Ka-Blam and why now?

-Nate

By: Ted

Ted — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:40:43 +0000

I too am waiting to hear back on a message and waiting for a proof. I understand how busy things must be for you all. Just wanting to make sure nothing fell through the cracks. Im going to Chicago comic-con this year and am looking forward to bring all four of my issues with me. Thanks again for everything you all do.

By: Meg

Meg — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:02:37 +0000

Ouch, I had almost exactly the same thing happen to my comic website a few years ago. I wish you luck in getting it all sorted out!

By: WCG Comics

WCG Comics — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:14:49 +0000

What a drag, guys, sorry. SDCC went great, thanks for your terrific work.

By: Erin Fitzgerald

Erin Fitzgerald — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:50:25 +0000

Was any part of the Message Center affected? I’ve been waiting since the 22nd for a reply regarding issues with my print job for Otakon – I’ve sent two additional messages since then and have gotten no answers.

Good luck with the rest of the cleanup!

By: Anthony Pike

Anthony Pike — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:28:45 +0000

Ah, I just used the contact form to let you know about the stuff on the other two sites but I’ve just now seen your comment around “# 24 July 2010 at 8:36 pm”. So I guess you already know about it.

By: BarryGregory

BarryGregory — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:55:44 +0000

We don’t have any of your financial data … so that’s not a concern at all.

By: Scott "Kidbenicia" Bradley

Scott "Kidbenicia" Bradley — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:10:22 +0000

Oh, man…I’m sorry. This happened to me last year, so I completely sympathize. Happily, it seems that you’ve got it under control.

By: Joey Tripp

Joey Tripp — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:04:11 +0000

Thank goodness I didn’t go to Indy Planet a few moments ago. I saw the Warning and check the google and saw you posted the warning. Anyway thank you all for your efforts. I hope those morons get what they deserve. A nice fat stay in prison!

By: JazylH

JazylH — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:34:39 +0000

I certainly hope all our financial data is safe? I’m glad you guys are working on solving this. Wishing you the best of luck & I hope you find the perpetrators & bring them to justice!

By: hushicho

hushicho — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:22:30 +0000

I’m so sorry to hear about this. I almost got caught up in it myself when I went to check on one of my additions to the IndyPlanet catalogue.

You absolutely didn’t deserve this. No-one deserves this kind of treatment, but especially not Ka-Blam. My sincerest sympathies to this, and I send you positive energy and the best wishes to get everything back up and running as soon as possible.

By: Nate Marcel

Nate Marcel — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:08:26 +0000

You guys do such good work. May all transgressors get what they deserve.

By: David Lillie

David Lillie — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:57:19 +0000

Ick, that’s horrible – I’m sorry you guys have to deal with this sort of stuff, but I know you can handle it. What you’re doing is far too awesome to be stopped by a mere malicious bump in the road.

Actually, just last month my site’s php pages were hacked with something that sounds very similar to this. Not just me either, at least one other webcomic owner has recently had to deal with this sort of thing. Hopefully we’re not seeing the start of a trend or anything. 8 I

But in the meanwhile, you guys certainly have the understanding and support of your customers while you fend off these attacks – we’re behind you 100% of the way! 8 )

By: David M.C.

David M.C. — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:14:39 +0000

This whole ordeal sucks. There was no reason for this! You’re a comic book printer for goodness sakes. We’re covering this on our website blog. We were waiting for Epitaph: Abiding Lilith #1 to hit IP’s online shelf, so I’ll let everyone know what’s up and that Ka-blam back up. I knew this morning, but have to run out so I couldn’t do anything right then.

-DMC

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:06:13 +0000

Leave to someone in China to ruin everything for the rest of us. Glad you guys are on it. Thanks again.

By: BarryGregory

BarryGregory — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:36:59 +0000

Hopefully not, Ted. Ka-Blam’s back up and running so we should be fine there. IndyPlanet and ComicsMonkey are both still down, but we’re making progress. Until we say so here we’d strongly recommend you stay away from both sites. Whoever hacked us (someone in China we’ve discovered) hid tiny little iframes all over the site code. So whenever any page with one of those hidden iframes is called a third party site is also secretly called and some spyware is downloaded. Nasty, nasty stuff. But we’ll have the sites completely disinfected soon and when we do we’ll post Google’s verification that the sites are clean and spyware free so you can visit them again with confidence.