SYS Progress report

Just wanted to post some updates on my themes, my site, and the Skinyourscreen.com community:

Current SYS Site Status
Skinyourscreen.com is broken. All the downloads, tutorials and images are fine, but the site is nonfunctional due to the activity of the MaxPowerhack group of net-hackers and their buddy ErrorHack. Not even the restoration of the MySQL database or the site files has been able to repair what they've done. Frustrating to see a project that you and your friends have invested thousands of man-hours into broken because of some other person's non-related fanatical crusade. C'est la vie.

Many other e107-web-software based sites are also under attack. There were some significant flaws under the previous version of the web-software that have facilitated the compromisation of my server. I don't know how far this reaches, although they have thrice been able to employ it to take the site down. I trust that they would continue to do so even if I reinstalled from scratch.

The Good: SkinWiki and the Skinyourscreen Podcast sites are still completely operational and uncompromised. The only significant downtime these sites experienced was on the 19th and 20th of February, 2006, when a dedicated denial of service attack brought the whole domain down.

Furthermore, since the previous attacks and the subsequent shutdown of the e107-based skinyourscreen site no further attacks have occurred. Though devastating to our site, the work of ErrorHack was still fairly amateur, given the fact that he had to employ existing hacks to e107 published on Russian security sites. He was simply exploiting a technique developed by someone else.

Resolving the SYS Site
First and foremost, I thank all those who contributed their time, talents, interests, personalities, and hard work for the Skinyourscreen.com community. My principle goal now is to ensure that every creative work previously published on the site remains available to the community somehow. That includes every theme, skin, template, graphic, image, tutorial or review that had been available preceding the site attacks.

However, it is evident that the site cannot be maintained using the same server software used since the early days of the site because of security concerns. This means the loss of our forums, chat-box, user accounts and private messenging facilities, which were all previously integrated into the e107 package. This means that Skinyourscreen.com is going to have to streamline to the essential functions: the ability to publish themes, skins, tutorials, and images while providing facilities for users to share their works while giving the community opportunity for feedback on that content.

The following are some options I've been considering. I've been putting together a few web-templates, too to explore these options (hence the iCan mini-icon pack released today). There are likely other options not mentioned here. If you think of something, feel free to comment:

• Reinstall latest version of e107 from scratch and manually reinstall all themes, skins, etc.
• Move the entire site into a Blogger blog and just bring on contributors. The principle SYS domain would just become a repository of files while Blogger provided the front-end.
• Investigate the use of other content management solutions (Xoops, PHP-Fusion, Exponent, TextPattern, ModX, Typo3, DragonFly, JetBox, Geeklog, etc...).
• Create static HTML pages for each theme and the main-page.
  

Obviously, this is all a work in progress.

Skinning progress
I'm now working completely on a Mac. My wife sold my two-year old 2.8Mhz P4 Toshiba laptop to some fellow student friends for $300. With an offer like that, they purchased pretty quick. It's kind of a mixed bag. I didn't want to sell it for that price, but it was to friends who were in dire need of something like that. I'm now without a direct Windows platform I can skin, leaving my LiteStep projects dead in the water.

I have installed VirtualPC for the Mac and installed WinXP, although performance running through an emulation layer is incredibly hampered. It is probably sufficient for testing purposes, however.

So, in short, 2006 is turning out to be a pretty bum year. I haven't even mentioned my academic research, which is roller-coaster as well. Hopefully things get better, especially for our friend Nerio.

iCan mini-icon pack released

I've just put together and released my first mini-icon pack. It was designed principally for use on the web, and was made in the course of an hour for my new blog template using Photoshop 6.0. Included are 26 icons in 16x16 and 32x32 pixel sizes, all in 24-bit PNG format with alpha-transparency enabled (so you can use 'em over whatever colored background you want).

This pack is released for free under the Creative Commons License, and is available for download here.

Nerio in surgery, stabilized

Friends, just received this information abour Nerio... I'll share it with you directly:

Good Morning Mr Richard

Am Philip again,i used an online traducer to talk, sarah charged me to
notify you on any new details about Nerio, and here explanations :

Sad to say that even his situation is stable, Nerio have some critical
shocks to the head, and therfore, he must be operated as fast as
possible, because the caumotions in the head caused a tearing in the
veins, so they must be closed again to avoid a cerebral crisis or other
incidents.
Yesterday, at 23h he just opened eyes and reclosed them he manifested
something but sarah haven't understand something noticeable..

it's a honnor to see what kind of friends you are, you asked on his
conditions better then his real friends, sarah is passing you the hello
from here.
thank you MR Richard, thanks to all his friends from us, we keep
contact.

Again, friends, sincerest thanks for your hopes and prayers for Nerio. He's fighting, he's attempting to communicate. He can make it, friends, he can make it!

Skinyourscreen.com under attack

It's become apparent to me that there is an individual, or individuals, who are determined to keep Skinyourscreen.com offline. Sunday afternoon I discovered that the site was once again comprimised, this time large portions of files were erased, rather than simple removal of the site template. After repairing the data and upgrading the site to e107 v0.72, I felt relatively confident that security would be enhanced.

Tuesday morning the site was closed by the web-host because of a massive dedicated denial of service attack. I am in talks with MidPhase and they are tracking the perpetrators. Needless to say, the incursions did leave tracks previous to the attack that are being tracked in the logs and forwarded to law enforcement agencies.

I can't say I understand why anyone would get so much pleasure out of repeatedly demonstrating that they can take down a hobbyist skinning site. Obviously it is something that is important to the perpetrators, otherwise they would have stopped after the first or second incursions and gotten their laughs. The only clue I have to their intentions is the original hacked banner by Error slopped onto the front-page stating that the "Danes and Swiss will kneel before our prophet," a reference to the recent cartoon in Denmark depicting the islamic prophet Muhammed wearing a bomb in his turban.

Unfortunately, what ErrorHack and his group, MaxPowerHack fail to realize is that they are themselves spitting on their beloved prophet (p.b.u.h.) by their actions. From my readings of the Noble Qu'ran, all members of the islamic faith are to set good examples that they might convert others to the faith. I read of peace being spread to all the children of God. What ErrorHack and his juvenile friends are spreading is malicious, unwarranted, and unprovoked hatred, a response that is anything but godly. Rather than uniting people with their cause, they are simply building more enemies, against themselves, against their cause, against Islam itself.

ErrorHack, there are more effective ways to make a point. Digital Terrorism just decreases understanding. You're a disgrace to the peaceful faith from which you profess to fight.

Update on Nerio and Skinyourscreen.com

Friends, an update on Nerio: Nerio has been airlifted to a hospital in Paris and successfully arrived at 00:30 GMT this morning (Sunday) and his condition has been stabilized, although his condition is still listed as serious. There has been significant head trauma, and once his condition stabilizes further he may be airlifted to a specialist in either Germany or Canada that deals with closed head trauma. Lets all continue our vigil for this dear friend and colleague, praying daily for his safety and recovery, and for the comfort of his family and friends.


Regarding Skinyourscreen.com - it seems my site has been a target for repetitive hacking as of late, and the site is again down. Luckily the satellite sites for skinwiki, the podcast, and this blog are still operational. The existing site is based off of an older e107 content-management system which I have not upgraded due to a burgeoning schedule at my laboratory. Whether it is the work of the same ErrorHack who displayed his lame protest to the Danish cartoon or the work of some other shady unscrupulous moron I don't know - I'm GREPping the raw site logs at the moment to determine whats up and restoring a backup of the site. They can continue to hack, and I will continue to restore. This type of illicit, and illegal behavior by anonymous cowards will not be met by the closing of the site. They can break the site, but they can't break our spirit.

Nerio greatly injured, please pray for him.

I received an email today from a person very close to my good friend and fellow admin at skinyourscreen.com, the humble Nerio, informing me that he has been in a serious car accident and is in critical condition. I don't know the specifics of the accident, nor do I know his exact condition, although it must be grave considering he's in critical condition.

Nerio has been a dear friend, a person of exceptional personal quality and honor since I met him by way of the AstonShell forums. His work has brought him to a distant location, preventing immediate access to him. I call upon our users, readers, and friends of Nerio around the world to pray in faith for Nerio's well-being and speedy recovery. No matter what religion, faith, creed or persuasion you may be, I ask you to call upon your higher powers to watch over and assist our mutual friend since we cannot be there with him.

Thank you.