UPDATE: We were hit again by hackers on Saturday morning with even more computers for another 90 million attacks. Our multiple layers of security kicked in and fought back the attackers. We went down for a short time but were able to return to full capacity within minutes. We fully expect them to try again on Sunday, but we’re ready.
Last Wednesday, we ran an important story warning our readers of a scam targeting RV buyers. We guess we hit a nerve. Apparently, the hackers didn’t like the exposure because Friday afternoon they tried to shut down that story! Attackers used what’s known as a DDOS (pronounced Dee-Doss) attack on our site. Basically, they hit us 30 million times from about 20 different countries around the world. They sent thousands of computers to that one story so that no one else could get in to read it.
Luckily, this isn’t our first rodeo. We have multiple layers of security and one of our providers caught on to the attack and mitigated the effects after just a few minutes. We then turned on our “Are you human” challenge for a while to whittle down the number of attackers. Even with all of this, our site still went offline for a few minutes Friday as it was overwhelmed by the noise of all of those attackers.
We’ll keep bringing you the news you need
This is what it’s like to be a news site today. We try to bring you news that is important for our readers—like these scammers swindling good people out of their hard-earned money and ruining the reputation of an RV seller. The scammers try to silence us by taking our site offline. Who knows what they will try next? But we’re on alert here, and we won’t stop bringing you the news and information RVers need.
We’re in discussion with our security vendor and ISP to see if we should forward the information we have to the FBI. We’ll be sure to update you if this develops further.
Interesting, huh?
EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s a significant expense to us to provide the multiple layers of security we need to keep our site up and running. Please consider providing RVtravel.com with a voluntary donation to help us fight scammers who try to shut us down to prevent you from reading stories they do not want you to see.
##RVT1146
OMG! That’s freaking crazy. We all need to be very vigilant with our online security. Sadly, we have to be that way. But great job catching it early and mitigating the effects. Keep up the honest unbiased journalism I know and love.
Keep up the good work! Sux that this is the new norm. People have nothing better to do? Go Glamping!
Keep the “Are you human?” Factor turned on full-time.
Hi Tom, while it’s a useful tool, it also slows down access to our site and eventually Google penalizes us for that. So we adjust our security to respond to the current threat environment and balance that against possibly confronting our loyal readers with unnecessary challenges. It’s a balancing act to be sure.
-Kim
Thank you, Kim! Congratulations on mitigating the attack so well! Apparently everyone at RV Travel is studly (sorry if this seems uncomplimentary, in fact is the highest compliment I can pay due to going to school in horse country, aka, Kentucky, and being forever affected 😉 ). 🙂 I also hope they get that fake RV dealer site shut-down soon. Continued success, Kim, and thank you for your vigilance! 🙂
Personally speaking, I think hackers should suffer extreme penalties when caught; like 20 years in the pen.
My punishment would be much harsher and would guarantee they never did it again and we wouldn’t have to pay for their incarceration.
Well yeah but in this day and age who’s willing to really go after the culprits? Most institutions of authority can barely stay afloat,look at the post office, FDA, FBI oh! and SSA Offices ok I’m gonna write my Representatives in wait their still out fact finding😠
The hackers are mostly from other countries or living here under false pretenses. How are we supposed to prosecute them?
These are the same people that send illegitimate emails and phone calls. With the advent on VOIP calling, it is easy for them push a phony caller ID.
As far as emails, anyone in the world can open a Gmail account, or multiple accounts.
Google doesn’t have any restrictions on who uses their service.
Kim, if you’re not already on Cloudflare CDN, highly recommend. DDOS happens daily to sites covered by them, and once setup, they automate almost the entire process to mitigate and protect you.
Sorry that RV Travel is going through this, but keep up the great work!
– Howard