hello, Few hours ago my server was just hacked and formatted. Now i need to know what is the best plan of action would be for this. I am still working on getting the IP. But i'd like to get this guy sued and possible jail time as FBI are very strict on this. Thanks for your advice.
How big is your site? Are you hosting the server somewhere else or paying someone else to do it? If it is hosted somewhere else have you contacted support and asked them if they knew anything about it? If your site is fairly small it is unlikely that the FBI will care/actively do anything about it. It doesn't hurt however to report it to the respective authorities to see if they will do anything. If the hacker isn't just some script kiddie you will have difficultly locating him by the ip. Hope this was helpful.
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I must say, if it was a hacker, they'd be experienced enough to hide/mask their IP, hence making it more difficult for you alone to find them
Its an uphill battle IMO. Suing him, and getting the FBI involved are two different categories. You sue him. Thats civil law. Criminal prosecution is the other. Even by getting his IP, and even if the IP points directly at his house, you still have to prove that he did it. Try reporting it first. You could also get a lawyer to request the logs from the server company or the internet provider company see if they'll turn them over. I suspect they may only turn them over in the event of a criminal investigation. Any server compnay I know and loathe to turn over their logs to customers, in case they end up getting sued for negilence.
First, if you're in Canada, as it says in your header, the FBI isn't going to be much help. Assuming you were in the US, you'd need to contact your local branch of the FBI and ask for the Internet Crimes Division. If you're in Canada, I think that the Royal Mounted Police have something similar. I will tell you, from my experience on a case with the FBI internet guys, that what you're talking about may not get them interested. Yes, they don't like hackers, but they have much bigger internet crimes to deal with. If you can find where the hacker is, you may want to see if the local authorities have an internet crimes division. In this day and age, many do. You'll have better luck with the local cops than the feds. Firmaterra, that's a pretty good idea, but you're going to need a subpoena to get them to turn over their logs. In the meantime, if you're planning to pursue the matter civilly, you need to have an attorney contact the IP within 24 -48 hours after it happened to demand that they hold the records of the date and the address pending your obtaining a subpoena for the records. Most IPs state in their Terms of Service that they will only release the information under subpoena, judge's order or criminal investigation. However, they don't keep records for very long. Make sure you have them grab the records before they're erased. In my experience, you've got 48 hours to about a week... If you have other questions, let me know. Deena ___________________________________________________________________________ Any opinions are offered without knowledge of the specific law of your jurisdiction and with only the limited information provided in your post. No advice given here should be reasonably relied upon by you or any third party without consulting an attorney who is aware of all of the facts and law surrounding your situation. Any advice given here is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship in any way.
Thank you for your response. I do plan to pursue this and see what the best course of action will be if any after i talk to an attorney. I will keep in mind the time limitation and ill try to get it done in the morning. I have talked with some other people and they said though i have a Canadian address it doesnt mean they will ignore the request from an attack on a USA based server from a USA based attacker. I should hope i wont be ignored and i do understand they have bigger fish to fry so to speak but those fish will continue to be there and the attacker on my server will soon be hidden in cyberspace and the financial loss caused by this wont go unpaid.
You sure you were hacked? Most hackers get a server and like to either chamge a home page, spam from you..this is a new one to me
yeah, getting the entire hardware formatted - ouch! Hard one. I couldn't imagine reporting a hacking incident over here in Britain - police would just laugh!
You must have installed some untrusted script. That is a major cause of such hacks. Can you track logs of the server or they are gone too.