Verticalscope owner of the "other" CTX700

randy1149

New member
Was hacked and more than 45 million passwords and personal information leaked on the internet: Verticalscope hack

This is why so many web sites where making everyone to change their password.

Here's Vertcialscope Corporate web site: http://www.verticalscope.com/

I received an email from Verticalscope about the hack FYI:

Notice of Data Breach​

You may have heard reports recently about a security issue involving VerticalScope. We would like to make sure you have the facts about what happened, what information was involved, and the steps we are taking to help protect you. VerticalScope owns and operates a number of community websites. You are receiving this email because you are a registered user of the following community website(s) involved in the data breach:
xxxxx.com

What Happened?

On June 13, 2016, we became aware that February 2016 data stolen from VerticalScope was being made available online.

What Information Was Involved?

Community member usernames, email addresses, hashed passwords, community userIDS, community website, and the IP address the username originally registered with.

What We Are Doing

We have invalidated passwords of all VerticalScope user accounts. We have posted a site security notification on each site updating users on the potential risk to certain accounts, the password reset and steps we are implementing to improve security. We have implemented stronger password rules (passwords now require a minimum of 10+ characters and a mixture of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols) along with automated account password expiries to encourage more frequent password changes. We will remind our users to use good password practices (not using the same password for multiple online accounts and using unique strong passwords). We are in the process of implementing additional safeguards to detect, alert and mitigate any future brute force attempts, and have notified our third party vendors that interact with our various forum API's of the February breach to allow their own security teams to investigate. We are continuing our investigation and will be collecting information to provide to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

VerticalScope is taking steps to strengthen account security. We were already using encrypted passwords and salted hashes to store passwords, and our new password controls are intended to further strengthen user security. We are taking steps to investigate and test new encryption and security technologies to further protect our users.

What You Can Do

To keep your account as safe as possible, we recommend that you regularly change your VerticalScope community password, and that you use a unique password for each of your online accounts. Using the same password for multiple online accounts significantly increases your chances of being compromised. Even though the passwords stolen in February were hashed, we recommend that if you were using (or are currently using) your VerticalScope community password across multiple online accounts, that you change your password for such other online accounts. We encourage you to regularly review your accounts and report any suspicious or unrecognized activity immediately.

For More Information

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Community Management team by email at [email protected] or on the website that you frequent. A support thread has been created on each website, and our support teams are on there to help you through the process and answer any questions you may have. A Notice of Data Breach is also available on community websites involved in the data breach.
 

randy1149

New member
I don't post either, that's an independent decision by each of us. My reason for the post was to show the size of the competition has to support it.

VericalScope is a HUGE Canadian company in the internet owning hundreds of motorcycle web sites. Check it out. It can explain the why's of the "up yours" attitudes that the mods all seem to have. As long as the site is making money VerticalScope could care less of who the mods piss off. Quality and integrity are not high on their commitments to the members.

That can also explain why the mods post way too often than required to maintain a web page. jfc has over 6000, and Rebel13 over 3000. It would not surprise me if they are not on the payroll, they would have to be considering the number of post these guys put up. I don't see them doing what their doing for free. Getting paid also explains they don't get banned themselves and most time support each other when attacked. ctx700forum.com is piece of a cooperate cesspool.
 

Woodswoman

Member
It would not surprise me if they are not on the payroll, they would have to be considering the number of post these guys put up.

No. Vertical Scope does not pay its moderators or administrators. I know; I am one, on another VS-owned site. I don't make a dime.

The programming vulnerability that permitted the hack of VS exists on many, many web sites around the globe. A number of work-related sites I interact with recently enacted new password policies for fear of being attacked the same way VS was attacked.

Cheap insurance: If you use the same password on this site that you do on the VS-owned CTX700 site, change your password here.
 
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randy1149

New member
It's not my intention to criticize VerticalScope or put any blame for passwords being hacked... it happens every day and to some of the hardest internet sites.

Well if they're not being payed it doesn't change the way that forum is run. If you consider the time required by these 2 mods posting over 10000 times certainly can make up for a good part time job.
 

Merlin III

New member
It's not my intention to criticize VerticalScope or put any blame for passwords being hacked... it happens every day and to some of the hardest internet sites.

Well if they're not being payed it doesn't change the way that forum is run. If you consider the time required by these 2 mods posting over 10000 times certainly can make up for a good part time job.
Yes, if they are not getting paid, then there is, as was said to Official Krupke in West Side Story, a "social disease" at work here. :)
 

ofdave

Member
I belong to 3 Vertical Scope forums, the "other" ctx under an alias and triumphRat from my triumph days-a good forum with much shared knowledge about the Triumph bikes.
and Stromtroopers from my V strom days, also a good forum with a great off topic section (no politics) and great Other Bikes section.
It is interesting to see that these (as well as the one where Christine is a mod) do not have the sourness and modgod attitude of the other forum. Those 3 are, to me, why one joins a forum. I believe the admin who run those forums are not the same as the ones who let the ctx forum get out of hand.
In this day of connectivity hacking is becoming the norm. Maybe it's a good idea to change passwords on a regular basis.
I do that with my bank every couple months.
 

Woodswoman

Member
I believe the admin who run those forums are not the same as the ones who let the ctx forum get out of hand.

Unless things on the other CTX forum are very different than they are on VolusiaRiders.com -- which I sincerely doubt -- ownership does not get involved with decisions about who becomes a moderator, nor does it pay strict attention to forum content. Vertical Scope is pretty laissez faire, unless laws are broken. Its job is to keep the forum highly available, in order to reliably serve out advertising content. It doesn't make value judgments on whom is appointed to the (unpaid) staff.

So the persons responsible for the unfortunate tone over on the other CTX forum are its volunteer moderators. Period. It's a useful reminder to me as a moderator about how a good site can go bad.


Non-sequitur: Over on VolusiaRiders.com, we had a godawful problem with politics. It got so bad that, as a last resort to banning the persistent offenders, our senior staff asked Vertical Scope to create a sub-forum called "Current Events," and we move ANY politically hot post into it. The rule for stuff posted in that sub-forum is that anything goes as long as it doesn't devolve into crass personal insults or threats of bodily harm. We have 8 or 10 active forum members who no longer post about motorcycles at all, but only go into this "sandbox" to sling the mud of political ideology at each other. These guys seriously need to get a life, IMO. But they're out of the hair of the regular membership, who'd rather bullsh** about bikes and talk about what they did over the weekend.


In this day of connectivity hacking is becoming the norm. Maybe it's a good idea to change passwords on a regular basis.
I do that with my bank every couple months.

Yup. Cheap insurance.

The forum software used here is of the same kind that Vertical Scope uses. So it could be equally vulnerable. I'll gently repeat my suggestion that all members here also change their passwords, and set them to something not identical to whatever they use on any VS-owned forum.
 

randy1149

New member
Well well... seems we hit a nerve on the mods on that other site... "FOR THE RECORD." Seems as if nobody would come tell the mods what a great job they've been doing... so the mods had to do it themselves. They want us to feel sorry for them and what a tough job it is? There was one member had the (at time of this post) courage to say "I don't think they are doing their job." Expecting to get banned... but I don't think so. What that members post did show is how the members feel about the penalty you pay when you don't fall in line EVEN when THEY are WRONG, with threats, banning, lying and removing posts created by the members.

Those Dip$hits knowing members are not happy with them instead starting a thread asking the members and what they can do to fix the problems... they start a thread telling us what a great unappreciated jobs they've been doing.

Rebel12 and jfc, NO your not doing a good job, you two are the leaders of the pack discrediting the whole forum, that people are jumping ship to other forums. You two should resign as a good start, and create some credibility the web site needs. Trying to "Trump" up some empathy with the threads you started won't fly. Yes you two are demagogues.
 
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ofdave

Member
well said Randy
I really think those two arrogant, know-it-all mods got talked to by admin. jfc has toned it down a good bit but rebel-not so much.
And then there's the mod from the northwest who has ramped it up to become the new "expert". He's a joke also. He once went 300 miles on "backroads" in Oregon at night in 3 hours in a Honda Accord (100 mile an hour average) Right, and I can do a handstand on one finger.
When I hear/read the impossible things some people claim to have done, I can never believe another thing they say.
 
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