Cooperative Distribution Community Rallies to Support Ken McArthur

http://www.AffiliateShowcase.com/?52345 has been restored.


Affilitate Showcase was the victim of a vicious hacker who
managed to wipe out all data and backups on the server
for  http://www.AffiliateShowcase.com/?52345

Obviously this criminal act of terrorism cannot be tolerated
and we should all pull together to arrest such destroyers.

The Cooperative Distribution Community Rallies to Support
Ken McArthur, who was victimized by a stealthy but brazen hacker.

On the afternoon of Thursday, May 12th, a person or persons
with more brains than heart managed to acquire root level
access to our main database server.

They also gained root level access to our main web servers
for AffiliateShowcase, LearningFolder, The LearningFolder
 Blogs,
jvAlert and the web servers for a number of our clients,
both corporate and non-profit organizations websites.

These servers included websites for organizations that
supply much needed
services for victims of abuse and crime, troubled teens,
social welfare
programs and much, much more.

Many of these people have been our clients for literally
decades and the
information stored in these systems was the result of
literally thousands of
man years of effort, not only on my part, but the part
of tens of thousands of
other customers.

Despite firewalls, corporate level antivirus software,
constant scanning for
unauthorized entry, backups and operating system security,
with cold precision
they managed to systematically erase almost every file on
all of the systems.

The first indication of problems was that key websites
were no longer
responding. I attempted to check the main server and found
that it would not
boot.

After my attempts to restore the operating systems were
unsuccessful I called
in outside experts and after many, many hours of attempting
to restore the
operating systems and data, we discovered the extent of
the the damage.

Naturally, while this was going on, over 300,000 clients
who were affected by
the outage, began calling and e-mailing the office and I
had no way to contact
you and let you know what was going on.

Almost every file on the systems was gone, including our
automatic backups,
source files and client files.

The one small glimmer of hope was that key database files
were still intact
probably because of the fact that they were in use at the
time of the attack.

I'm sure that you are asking, "What about the backups?"

Yes, there were backups, but the attack managed to find
most of them and wipe
them out too.  The only sources left for recovery were
files that were stored
on systems that were not connected to the main network.

As I am painfully aware this is a very trying time for
you as your
AffiliateShowcase site was temporarilly unavailable and
not knowing what is
going on can be worse than hearing bad news.

Please know that I am doing everything that I can possibly
do to restore full
service to all of my clients.

Here's the status for AffiliateShowcase Members:

The AffiliateShowcase site, requires several elements to be
at full recovery.

1. Key data is stored in a SQL Server Database.  This
includes all of the over
3,000 affiliate programs, your personal links,
membership information and
internal AffiliateShowcase data.

2. The PortalCube component that provides the features
for the system.

3. Source files, HTML and ASP pages that drive
the system.

4. Customer data files that are uploaded by our customers
and stored on the
webserver -- generally custom logos, pictures, PDF files
and traffic ebooks.

Here is what we have been able to do so far:

1. We have moved the entire database system to a new
server and successfully
recovered all of the core SQL Server data for the
AffiliateShowcase system.

2. We have successfully recovered the PortalCube component.

3. We have installed a recoved a backup copy of
source data files, customer
data files and restored that backup onto a new web server.

So, what does that mean for you:

1. The main AffiliateShowcase site is now back on line.

You should be able to reach your personal site at:

http://www.AffiliateShowcase.com/?52345

2. All of the 3,000 plus affiliate programs, your membership
data, referral
information, your personal links, custom HMTL coding --
in short everything in
the SQL Server Database has been recovered.

3. Most of the source files -- ASP Pages, HTML pages --
have been recovered,
but some are out of date and may need to be reworked.

We are continuing to work to restore additional systems,
but I wanted to get
this update out to you as soon as possible.

LearningFolder and jvAlert systems have not been fully
restored yet, but we are working hard to make it happen.
Your loyalty and support have made it possible for us to
weather many storms        before and we will weather
this one also, but we can't do
it without your
support and encouragement.


It is CRUCIAL that you remain with us in this time
of trouble.
Our customers
have been the backbone of all that we have done for decades
of service and we
value each and every one of you.

I know that many of you will be sending me your encouragement
and offers of
help, because that is the type of wonderful people that
we have in the
AffiliateShowcase Community.  You are the most understanding
and giving people
that I can imagine.

The biggest thing that you can do to help is to continue
to be patient and
understanding.  This recovery will require some time and
countless hours of
effort, but we will recover and we will take all possible
steps to make sure
that it never happens again.

If I'm a little slow to respond, please forgive me and know
that I am working
constantly to make things right for you.

Thank you for your understanding.

All the best,

Ken