Security Breach

Nov 14

Posted by Cameron Jones as Announcements

A very important update for everyone! It appears that earlier today a third party gained access to our mywebpayment.com billing system. Upon determining that there might be a security breach we immediately terminated the access to everyone by disabling the billing website. At this time we're still uncertain as to the total scope of the data they accessed. We are going to be as transparent as possible about what happened, what our plans are to correct it, and also how we plan to make sure that this never happens again.

To start with it appears that the breach was made through some malware/spyware installed on an employee's office computer. His username and password for the billing system were stored in a document unencrypted on his computer. This information was used to access parts of our billing system that, in retrospect, should have been protected better. There are many tools that we can use to limit the access to sensitive information, unfortunately the measures we had already implemented fell short of stopping this specific type of breach.

We are certain that credit card numbers were not exposed, however we do know that a limited number of email addresses and plain text passwords were exposed. We highly recommend that if your PayPal password was the same as your Spry password that you immediately change it. While no paypal passwords are ever provided to us, it is likely that many users have chosen the same password for their paypal account and their account at Spry.Until we have contained the threat of further information exposure, we have disabled all customer access to our billing system. We are in the process of updating billing system and account passwords for all users on Spry.com and Mywebpayment.com. We will email out brand new temporary passwords to all account holders.

Our support team is available 24/7 at 1.888.808.SPRY to help you through any issues you may find with your new passwords. Please direct all inquiries besides billing to hostingsupport@spry.com.

We again apologize for this breach of security. We realize that you have put your data in our hands and that there is a level of trust associated with that. We're working as quickly as we can to plug the holes at this very moment, and will continue to keep all of you updated.

Courtesy of http://web.archive.org/web/20071116154943/http://blog.spry.com/

I just thought this was rather comical.

Hello from Amazon.com.

We now have delivery date(s) for the order you placed on July 15 2008 18:13 PDT (Order# 104-5695331-9806630):

Aesop (Author), Laura Gibbs (Translator) "Aesop's Fables (Oxford World's Classics)" [Paperback] Estimated arrival date: 11/20/2008 - 01/05/2009

It's getting cold again in Alaska, it seams a little earier than usual.

It very well could be related to the lack of sunspots that are occuring. Article

Anyways, looks like it's going to be a cold one this year.

Tonight I was sitting in a Bar in Juneau Alaska called the Red Dog Saloon. I ended up talking to an interesting fellow who as of this time in my life I believe offered more insight to my life then anyone has. It was a rather odd experience that I seemed to absorb more than most conversations I've had with random ass people in bars.

Because I haven't updated you in a while I'll give you a little idea of whats going on in my life now. I recently quit my Job with Byte Networking in search of something other than a stressful, life shortening and demoralizing experience that is IT Consulting. After seeking for just about a year, and knowing I still wanted to live in Juneau, I decided to start searching for jobs within the state government. Given that this is the Capitol City of Alaska, there were plenty of jobs available to me that would pay just as much or more than I was making already. After searching and searching, as well as a couple interviews later, I ran a cross a job with the Department of Labor that was Titled Systems Programmer II. I submitted my MyAlaska Resume to the Online Website and waited for a week for the job to close. Knowing how my Resume was laid out, and how Qualified I am for most jobs of this caliber, I knew I would least get scheduled for an interview.

So a week and a couple days went by and I got an email saying that they would like to interview me, I went to the interview and about another week later they offered me the job. A couple days after that I gave my resignation to my boss over email who was currently on his last day of vacation. Needless to say he didn't take it very well and ended up just terminating my employment as of that date. Which is fine, because I got about a week off until I started my job at the state on May 19th.

The day started just like any other Wednesday. I had to be up and at work by 7 am to do Production changes to the State of Alaska's Dept. of Labor's production systems. I was groggy and slow all day due to the fact that the night before was Rock Band Tuesday down at The Island Pub which is and pretty much always will be my favorite bar. I get off work at 3 on most Wednesday's because I come in earlier, but today I got off at 3:30 because a bunch of developers decided to stop me in the hall on my way out for some last minute Brainstorming/Troubleshooting attempts for the applications they were working on. Tired and burnt out I made way way to the Federal building to pick up my buddy Zaine who recently quit Byte as well and is now working for the Coast Guard. I took Zaine home and dropped him off and headed towards my house. Still tired and now somewhat annoyed, I layed down to take a nap. The phone started ringing at 8 PM and it woke me up. I answered the phone call which was from Mark, one of my roommates, who was asking me if I could come down and help him with some stuff at the Red Dog which is where he Bar tends. He was having some issues with some streaming Itunes Airport application thingy. I told him I would help him out, which usually led to free food and beer which my system seemed to be lacking at the moment and free is always better than having to pay for shit ;).

After fucking with this system for about an hour I decided to give up and propose going another route with it. Since the system was put in place from the previous owners, and it hadn't worked since it was sold, I decided to tell Mark he would be better off ripping it out and resetting it up with his own configuration. That way he could troubleshoot it from the start as opposed to trying to figure out why there configuration wasn't working. He agreed as well as the Bar owner.

As I sat at the bar, which up until about ten minutes before was packed with Tourists about anxious to get back to there boats and head out of town. I took notice of the 2 people sitting at the bar next to me. The one on the right was a girl named Latina, who was just getting off work as a waitress at the Red Dog and was having a beer before she took off for the night. She looked at me and asked "So are you new here"? I replied "New"? She said, "yeah, you know, new to the Red Dog". I briefly explained to here the situation and who I was and the conversations didn't go much further after that. In the midst of that conversation I heard Mark ask the guy sitting to my left if he'd like another shot of Beam. So done with my current conversation, or lack there of, I veered off and started looking around the bar, which BTW is a really neat bar, and if you are ever in Juneau, you should stop in and enjoy the Rich history that it has to offer about Juneau, and it's Mining days.

So as I sit there, drinking my beer, and trying to drown out the music in the background which was kind of driving me crazy due to its really twangy sound that I just couldn't get used to that night, the old man sitting next to me sets his shot on the table and asks me "So are you the guy responsible for the music in this place"? I kinda looked at him and smirked while saying "If I was in charge of the music here, we'd be playing something a lot more upbeat". He replied "Thats too bad, this is good music". Feeling kind of embarrassed about it I listened to the song playing and quickly gathered a response. The song playing was obviously an older country song, I had heard the song before but didn't really know who sang it or what the name was. I figured it was Gene Autrey or something of that nature. As I looked back at the old man, I responded with "I like Country music and all. But I like the more modern upbeat country music more than the older stuff". The old man then went into this long speech about the history behind the song that was playing, and about how I would like the Grandson of the current singers music which I would later come to find out was Hank Williams, and Hank Williams III. He went on to talk about a lot of the family history that led up to Hank III's career, and as I sat there not really wanting to be in the conversation anymore he asked me a question that I don't really remember what it was, but I subconsciously replied with the name Merl(Merl Haggard). The old man stopped for a second, took a sip off his shot of Beam and then looked back at me and asked, " have you ever heard of Billy Bobs bar in Ft. Worth Texas"? I replied with "Yeah, I think I have heard of that place". In reality no, but for the sake and hope that the conversation wouldn't go any further, I figured I'd just say yes.

Well the Conversation didn't stop there. Ask quick as he was to start up with the story about the Williams, he started to talk about this bar down in Texas and how he came to believe it was the best bar in the world. He would go on for about 10 minutes or so, and I'll save you the specifics of it, and bring you too the point of the whole thing. He started talking about brown hamburger buns, and how they were all lined up on a wall somewhere in the bar, and he said amongst all the Brown buns, there was one that stuck out. As I slowly thought to myself, OK where is this going now, the old man said, except for this Silver Bun amongst all the brown buns. He said, "you know what the writing on that Silver Bun said"? I said no. He replied with "Merl Haggard". I responded with "No Shit"! And he said "yes sir" that bun was dedicated to Merl Haggard. So there you have it, because I decided to randomly name drop Merl in the prior conversation, the old man decided to muster up a story about him and share it with me.

The conversation didn't end there. He'd go on to ask me a series of questions about what I was doing in Alaska and so on. Being the self promoting person that I am I enjoyed the conversation from here out and delightfully shared my past with the old man. Towards the end of the conversation the old man looked at me and said, "so your 27 huh? I replied with yes, then he said "I don't mean to pry into your personal life or any thing", I said "ehh, dont worry about it". Then he said "If you aint got it, you don't need it". I sat there kind of shocked about what he just said, cause it came out of nowhere. I've heard similar sayings throughout my years in things like movies and such. But it always seemed non relational to me, and my life. For some reason when this old man said those words to me. I listened to them, and was instantly overwhelmed with a feeling of selfishness about all the things that I have wasted my money on, just because I thought I needed it to satisfy my life somehow. Maybe I never would have been ready to accept what he said in the past. But at that moment it seamed that I was ready. I always knew that I needed to stop blowing my money on whatever I wanted. Don't get me wrong, I save my money, but I probably am not saving enough as I should.

I guess the point of this whole story is that I had what I believe some people call an epiphany. I am still not sure why the old man decided to tell me that, maybe it was just some friendly advice in payment for me providing a little bit of time to listen in on his stories. Or maybe it was just some drunken babel that he's rambled on about several times before with other people in other bars. Whatever it was I took it to heart for some reason and maybe it will give me the boost I need to control myself and what I spend money on in the future.

The old man kind of rambled on for awhile then decided that he should probably go eat since he was not knowingly Hungry, as stated. Then as he got up to walk out the door I looked at him and asked "Hey man, whats your name"? He replied with "Dave", and I said, "Dave, it was nice to meet you, I'm Chris".

DEAN A. RUSCHMANN 1925 - 2008 In the early afternoon of April 1, 2008, with four eagles floating and soaring above his residence, Dean, a Charter Member and past president of Skagit Valley Eagles Aerie #3242 in Burlington was welcomed into the Grand Aerie of Heaven.

Dean, son of Chris J. and Margaretta Ruschmann was born in Hubbard, NB on November 24, 1925 and raised on the farm in Nebraska with his brothers and sister, Marvin, Maxine and Merle.

He married Hazel Winbolt in 1947 and began farming and raising a family on his own. After a bad economic year in 1955, he sold everything off and entered the work force to provide for his family of five. His search for work took him to Iowa and then in 1956 to the fertile Skagit Valley. He held many jobs here from Owens Roofing, Skagit Boat Works, Asgrow Seed Co. and the City of Burlington, at times working a day shift for the city and a night shift for Asgrow to support his now family of seven. He was known and loved by many in the community, the benefit of being a city employee and a community minded Eagle member. He retired from the city in 1985.

Dean is survived by his very dear and special friend of 18 years Janette Carter of Burlington; sister Maxine Rasmussen of South Sioux City, NB; brother, Marvin & wife Dorothy of Homer, NB; his ex-wife, Hazel of Bellingham; his son, Harvey & wife Silke of Mount Vernon; granddaughters, Jessica of Mount Vernon and Misty Silvas of Sedro-Woolley; grandson, Jason of Alabama; son, Randy & wife, Kathy, and, granddaughter Sarah of Burlington, and granddaughter, Mindy Ramos of Silver Lakes, CA; grandson, Chris of Juneau, AK; daughter, Karen & husband, Richard Powell, and grandsons, Jessie and Brian of Bellingham; daughter, Rhonda Murcray, and grandson, Austin of Burlington; grandson, Rick of the U.S. Marine Corps. at WSU; daughter, Lori & husband, Mark Hooker, and granddaughter, Brandy of Burlington and granddaughter, Michelle of Sedro-Woolley; great-grandchildren, Jay of Sedro-Woolley, Matthew and Makayla of Silver Lakes, CA, Anna-May of Bellingham, Michael and Issaiah of Burlington; and many nieces and nephews in Nebraska, Iowa, California and Washington.

Preceding him in death were his parents; infant brother Harvey; and brother Merle.

Memorial services will be held Friday, 11:00 a.m., April 11, 2008 at Burlington Lutheran Church, 134 East Victoria Avenue, Burlington, followed by a reception at the Skagit Valley Eagles, FOE #3242.

Friends are also invited to a reception on Saturday, 12 noon to 5:00 p.m., April 12, 2008 at Skagit Valley Eagles, FOE #3242, 119 North Cherry Street, Burlington, Saturday, April 12, 2008.

Arrangements are under the direction of Hulbush Funeral Home, Burlington.

In lieu of flowers the family requests that you may make donations to either the Eagles Cancer fund, or, Skagit Hospice Foundation, PO Box 1376, Mount Vernon, WA 98273. Published in the Skagit Valley Herald Publishing Company on 4/8/2008.

This is a new game coming out on PS3 from Sega. Its Japanese, but still looks killer.

I was on one of my forums the other day and someone had this as a signature.

It's long but funny.

I used to work their and I think its really funny that this happened. But of course I never used windows when I worked their, I used linux, not saying that it couldn't happen to me, its just unlikely.

http://blog.spry.com/2007/11/14/security-breach

LOL, check out the comments on this page. It's turned into a forum thread!

Good Luck Spry!

Awhile ago I ran into a problem with a couple applications in which replication had been enabled on the Databases and it screwed some thing up. This is a good sure fir way to get rid of replication shit within MSSQL.

Quite a few things have happened since last year. I really don't feel like explaing it all so I will fast forward for you to the last 2 weeks.

It recently started to snow again in Alaska, and like I always do about this time of year, I went out and enjoyed myself with some drunken sleding.

Here is a Slide Show!

I went to my first wine tasting event on Wednesday. Although I had a good time and never laughed so much in my life. I remembered shortly after why I hated wine. By far the worst hangover I have ever had from drinking. It felt like I ate a bunch of cheese with glass in it while hitting my self in the head with a hammer. Not good on the body, but good on the morale.

I also had Caviar for the first time ot this event. I must say, it wasn't bad at all. It was a steamed oyster with some sort of cream and caviar on top. The whole thing was amazing, but the best part was how the Caviar tasted like a Raspberry, which is somewhat odd, because it was mixed with red peppers and not a fruit.