We got hit by this last night:

http://forums.invisionpower.com/topic/2829...entry1794928%22

We've patched up the forums with the flood control update from IPB. If you received any spam messages from new users such as "jurdreda" with topics like "Important! New Forum Rules!" or "From Administrator" delete the message. Do not open it. Do not follow the link. The link is NOT SAFE.

Just as an fyi this won't stop the problem altogether, it will just slow down the rate at which the offending account can spam the memberlist. The admins will still have to rely on player reports and quickly ban the offender.

edit: My grammar are good

Or just report the IP to the ISP. I found that helps quite a bit if they are not in a distant country.

And I really did think that global war 3 (4?) started because last time I saw the forums offline, GW1 or 2 started, lol.

Ya, a LUEicide. Fun stuff... Not.

I got hit as well. Boy was I was surprised.

i got one from jurdela i think.but you had done a great job and my pc is safe

It's really strange that I noticed this exact same user and message on another forum unrelated to CN and here it is again. I didn't open it or click the link since it wouldn't be a good idea and I hope that it gets put to rest soon.

On the other hand, I would like to say that I appreciate the fast response with which this was dealt with. It shows a lot about the community and the staff at work here.

I was wondering why that annoying flood control was put on.

Its IPB-wide anyone with admin on one of these boards would notice the recent flood information coming out of their headquarters in the ACP. Something about Russians... and I quote

What's the motivation for doing this? I didn't click on the link.. does it make the people money in some inane facet of the internet economy or is it just to cause trouble/viruses?

Dang, I clicked the link before I saw this.

A joke. The link leads to a site providing, shall we say, 'Adult Entertainment'. So ya, don't click it.

Also, WTH are the Russians attacking forums with spam?

my ******* computer's crashing cuza that jerk i'm using my gramps compy right now, whatever that link was too it had viruses like **** cuz my compy usually can withstand any virus

Well, this is NOT the only forum that had such spam attack. Hundreds of IPB forums had such, I got private messages in another about 20 forums - with a bit different link, but it redirects directly to the site that the link in here I got from PM.

Starting a full sweep. My computer is safe but it seemed to have been acting up. Seriously, if I ever see this guy in real life I wont do anything because I am a !@#$%, but I swear to God if I wasn't I would hit him in the $@! with a spatula till his $@! turned orange, not purple.

In all seriousness, even if your computer is protected, I suggest taking a look and checking to make sure - it wont hurt.

Is there a way to link forum accounts to ingame nations?

That would solve a lot of this problem.

I think about the only way you can remotely do that is putting profile fields that are required and you can only get the information from your nation, but even then you have to manually make sure that someone put the correct ones in... Overall I don't think there is. The only way to make sure is a very lengthy process for the admins on the board by using admin approval for all accounts. An Automated verifier would have to be created for this IPBoard specifically... they might be able to purchase one from a programmer of some sorts if they talked to the right people, or asked Invision about purchasing one, but I still highly doubt that even.

While this would indeed solve the problem, the only way I can think of that this would be possible is if the forum was built into the site for the game, that is, you must log into the game to get access to the forum.
However, I am not so sure that IPB would work with this...

The link in the notification email was fine though right? That looked to be just a link to the forum.

Let me just tell you, I private message a lot of people over these forums. These restrictions are KILLING me.

Whoever did this will without a doubt one day a good smack on the $@! with a golf club.

Thanks admin. I received the message from Jurdela, and unfortunately opened it. It took me to an inappropriate site, and shut down my internet for a while.

You guys should download "Spybot search and destroy" if that link really did put a virus on your comps. Its free and effective at wiping out all the bad viruses and stuff. I use it a lot and it blocked the stuff from that site so I didn't get infected.

Thanks, my computer has been acting quite strangely after that incident :s

People need to get a life.

g@lava does this, I don't remember exactly how, but you have to have a nation/empire to register a forum account and confirm it somehow through your nation/empire.

Edit: filter evasion.

Yes its entirely possible. I'll see if I can make a mod or some such to present to admin.

A mod can be as easy as turning off registrations on the forums and using simple SQL to insert user data into the IP.Board's tables.

I suggested this a while back, but if it was "rejected at this time due to impracticalities".

Aye I know, but I'm doing up something that should be able to do everything automatically, should admin so choose, with minimal coding needed.

The registration process in IPB is a bit more involved than just inserting database fields and has a number of checks that would have to be implimented in such a script if we turned off registrations on the forums. However if it is created as a mod to the board registration those checks will be done automatically as part of the normal registration process and achieve the same end result.

Personally, I never got why admin never created his own forum software. I mean, the guy is great at ASP, so why not make his own? Lol.