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URGENT: Malware Warning

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ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 03 Sep 19, 21:17Post
As you are all too aware, we are no longer in control of the netairspace[dot]com domain. And the hits just keep on coming.

As of this evening European time, whoever is in control of that domain is using it for drive-by malware installs. In Chrome, I was able to close the offending tab easily enough; in Firefox I had to kill the entire process through Windows Task Manager to make it go away - and all the tabs including that one came back on restart.

While efforts continue to regain control of the .com, I strongly advise you to:

  • Remove any bookmarks pointing to netairspace[dot]com
  • Clear netairspace[dot]com URLs from your browser history
  • Check carefully any links to netAirspace from external sites, especially older posts in our own Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Links within the site should be OK, except text links in older PMs and forum posts. Embedded photos in these PMs and posts should be OK because of how they're stored and generated, but I can't guarantee it at the moment. If you're on a desktop machine, hover over the link and check where it's taking you.

As soon as I have finished doing the needed research, I will do a global search-replace within the posts and PMs to update all references to the .com. This may have unintended consequences.

If you do find a link to the .com that is not in a PM or forum post, please let me know. I think I got them all already, but may have missed some.

Edit: Global search-replace in PMs and posts is done. No apparent ill effect, although some conversations about domains may look a bit strange. Hopefully I changed only links, not plain text.
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
Allstarflyer (Database Editor & Founding Member) 03 Sep 19, 23:27Post
Did numbers 1 and 2, don't think I have any links via number 3. As far as number 2, I only use Chrome, and the history only went back to early June or so. That's my laptop, I haven't done anything with my Android yet, and have considered replacing it anyway.




In other not-so-encouraging news, https://www.cnet.com/news/what-did-goog ... oogle-com/. Google lost control of the Google domain a few years back and shelled out for it. But they got it back quickly also because they owned the domain service.




I'm sure the owners are on it, but for the rest of us, a couple of sites with some reading about how to regain websites -

https://www.thesitewizard.com/domain/re ... host.shtml
https://www.godaddy.com/community/Manag ... td-p/33548





This might be a website to watch, which details other sites that are into selling websites, in case the main NAS domain name goes back up for sale again. Who knows, maybe checking for the current web host might help.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 04 Sep 19, 16:03Post
I wonder why someone wanted it?
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 04 Sep 19, 16:46Post
Lucas wrote:I wonder why someone wanted it?

Put yourself in the position of someone wanting to get some malware installed. Whatever you do, your domain is likely to get shut down or blacklisted fairly quickly.

So you can set up a brand new domain and hope you can direct a decent amount of traffic to it before it becomes worthless. Or you can buy one that has tens of thousands of genuine links to it, just waiting to be clicked on by real people wanting to see what used to be there.

{bored}
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 04 Sep 19, 17:31Post
Oh, that's the entrepreneurial spirit! The American dream!
mhodgson (ATC & Photo Quality Screener & Founding Member) 04 Sep 19, 18:06Post
So, possibly not too keen on selling the domain back then? {boxed}
There's the right way, the wrong way and the railway.
JLAmber (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 04 Sep 19, 18:26Post
ShanwickOceanic wrote:So you can set up a brand new domain and hope you can direct a decent amount of traffic to it before it becomes worthless. Or you can buy one that has tens of thousands of genuine links to it, just waiting to be clicked on by real people wanting to see what used to be there.


Something I'm currently working on countering.

You may all notice that our facebook page is down and we're not posting on social media. This is because I'm editing all netAirspace content so that our social media no longer hosts dead or potentially harmful links. This is a fairly involved project (at least where facebook is concerned) but we are on schedule to resume normal social media service by this Friday (6th). Thank you all for your patience.
A million great ideas...
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 04 Sep 19, 18:34Post
mhodgson wrote:So, possibly not too keen on selling the domain back then? {boxed}

We'll see. I can't say as much as I would like to here, not least because this is a public forum and they may be reading.

JLAmber wrote:I'm editing all netAirspace content so that our social media no longer hosts dead or potentially harmful links.

Sterling work, John. We all owe you a debt of gratitude.
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
ShyFlyer (Founding Member) 04 Sep 19, 21:58Post
I was afraid of this when I saw the WHOIS results yesterday. {vsad}
Make Orwell fiction again.
vikkyvik 05 Sep 19, 13:34Post
JLAmber wrote:Something I'm currently working on countering.You may all notice that our facebook page is down and we're not posting on social media. This is because I'm editing all netAirspace content so that our social media no longer hosts dead or potentially harmful links. This is a fairly involved project (at least where facebook is concerned) but we are on schedule to resume normal social media service by this Friday (6th). Thank you all for your patience.


Understood. But I do wonder - how are we getting word out to people about 1.) the new .cc domain, and 2.) not to click on any links to the old .com domain?
JLAmber (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 06 Sep 19, 11:35Post
vikkyvik wrote:Understood. But I do wonder - how are we getting word out to people about 1.) the new .cc domain, and 2.) not to click on any links to the old .com domain?


1) There are pinned posts on both twitter and facebook directing people to the .cc domain as well as this notice pinned to the top of each forum. All social media headers, profile pictures and links have been edited to direct to .cc . Short of hiring a banner dragger for a global tour, there's not a lot more we can do.

2) Other than editing/removing all .com links, pinning notices on our social media and forums, engaging with several other sites who carry links to our images and directing all new traffic via the .cc domain? Perhaps we could get the pm notification emails working and send out a global pm?
A million great ideas...
vikkyvik 09 Sep 19, 15:35Post
JLAmber wrote:
vikkyvik wrote:Understood. But I do wonder - how are we getting word out to people about 1.) the new .cc domain, and 2.) not to click on any links to the old .com domain?


1) There are pinned posts on both twitter and facebook directing people to the .cc domain as well as this notice pinned to the top of each forum. All social media headers, profile pictures and links have been edited to direct to .cc . Short of hiring a banner dragger for a global tour, there's not a lot more we can do.

2) Other than editing/removing all .com links, pinning notices on our social media and forums, engaging with several other sites who carry links to our images and directing all new traffic via the .cc domain? Perhaps we could get the pm notification emails working and send out a global pm?


Valid points, and I don't know what else you could possibly do (global PM might be good if it works). I don't visit the NAS Facebook or Twitter, so don't tend to see a lot of that (didn't know what was up with the site for several days after it was first down, when I finally thought to check the FB page).

I do, however, support hiring a banner dragger for a global tour.
 

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