U3DA Phishing and Malware warning in Firefox

[Steinie]

Can everybody ask Prodigy to ask Google to review our site again? This will get us off the list.
Your right Stan that an update should be done also. Lets get us off the list first.

[stan]

I sent Augusto an email about getting off list..

Funny the google bots are always here even as I post but you must request getting off list.

[Finis]

There is an alternative to get off of evil google's list without signing up for their webmaster tools. https://www.stopbadware.org/request-review. I'm busy with work for a while. Someone please investigate in more detail what stopbadware needs to get us off the list.

When I am less busy I'll research making do-it-yourself backups of the site, make one, and then research and try to update the site's software. Or ... does anyone have already have experience with that stuff? (cpanel, updating Joomla, php, phpbb ....)

Who has a full power admin abilities for the forum? The forum itself, like the ultimate moderator, not the host admin. There should be at least two people with such accounts in case Prodigy becomes unavailable.

Edit: 7-29-16 Lots of work so I'm too tired to think or learn about upgrading things for a while.
Edit: 7-30-16 Backup made and stored. Now we can return to this point in case of disaster.

[RAYMAN]

Lost a computer yesterday but not the data on it! Come back to you
about it later...it was a troyan plus the HD has 8300 hours so on its way out!
Dont know if its related to the site! Found that someone made screenshots
of my modeling for printing!!:(... it was in the internet chach folder..
that guy left before he could delete it! Bastard!
Will write up about how I managed to get all the data back!!! You can almost
always do something!!!
Greetings Peter

Ps Working full time on my laptop for image retouching isjust as bad
as the virus! :p

[Finis]

Sorry about your computer Rayman.

I made and stored a backup of the site. We can return to this point if upgrading the software causes a disaster.

I believe stopbadware (evil google's minion that can get us off of the blacklist without an evil google webmaster account) will want to know that steps have been taken to prevent reinfection. For us that means that Joomla has been upgraded. We are running version 3.1.4. Version 3.6 is available. Upgrading phpBB too would be good. Upgrades make us stronger vs. future hacks.

Prodigy must be busy with real life. He is certainly the most qualified to upgrade the forum software but seems unavailable. He should crate other super users, top admins, for all the software so others can do maintenance and fixes like this.

He removed the malware from the front page. It is probably safe to visit and post in the forum now but we are just as vulnerable to infection as ever.

Some of you have accounts for our Joomla CMS right? Are any of you Joomla Admin or Super User level? What level users are you? Please speak up. U3DA needs your help.

[stan]

Everyone is just global moderator status I believe except Prodigy.That would be me, Steinie, froo, and spacekdet. The others no longer come here.

[Finis]

Thanks Stan.

I mean Joomla users not forum moderators. Joomla, a content management system, creates the website that is U3DA's front page. I think Prodigy gave some people accounts for joomla to do things on the front page. Those are the people I am referring to.

Has anyone ever logged in here (link) or otherwise had access the joomla back end? (I sure JamesMC is devising a wicked joke!) If so, regardless of user level or skill or knowledge level, report for duty. U3DA needs your help.

Edit: August 4
Later today or in the next couple of days I will attempt to gain access to Joomla through the mystic arts. If successful I will attempt to upgrade it to the latest version. This may result in the front page being down for an unknown time. Access to the forum at http://united3dartists.com/forum/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; should not be affected. I have a backup made on July 30 in case of disaster. If the upgrade is successful I'll do stopbadware's procedure for removal from the blacklist.

Edit: August 4
I'm in. Upgrade to be attempted after research.

[Finis]

Making a new backup of the site before trying to update Joomla. Updating from the older version to the latest needs an extra step or two. There are instructions at the Joomla site. Once we are modernized updates should be easy. So far I like Joomla. I might use it on a website.

A nuclear option occurs to me. Joomla does not create the forum. It makes the front page, the website. PHPbb makes the forum. I think I could just uninstall Joomla and install the newest version. Then the front page content and style would have to be redone. It could clean a lot of mess that is there now too. Not intending to do that but it could work.

Edit August 6:
Attempting update. The front page may be down for an unknown time.

Edit August 6:
We are now running the most recent version of Joomla. This makes us more secure. Known update issue: The "Gallerie" thing on the front page produced a warning from the Sucuri scanner so I disabled the link. Someone else can fix that. Now to submit the site to stopbadware to get off of the blacklist.

Edit August 6:
Submitted to stopbadware to get off of the blacklist.

[stan]

cool so Prodigy let you fix things.

[Finis]

cool so Prodigy let you fix things.

Time passed after the bad line was removed (thanks Prodigy!) and Joomla was not updated and Prodigy did not communicate ... at least not here. I asked the people who already had Joomla accounts to help but no one did. So I "invented" a new Joomla user "through the mystic arts" for me. The blacklist removal might take days.

I hope Prodigy is doing great and not absent do to any hardship. Prodigy, come to the forum and let your old forum buddies how you are doing!