It was down yesterday and appears to still be down.  Anyone know what's going on?

Noticed that P411 links are gone from many a provider profile on TER -- one suspects that the ones that are still up (and inoperative, as Roy noted) will be removed soon enough.

That's what's going on.
Nicole said they're working on it.

The same question was on the "Reviewers Only" board. This response was posted:

They are dealing with a Denial of Service attack out of Asia.

They are being hit over and over, by thousands of malware infected computers, which is overloading the servers and bringing the site down. They're working to block the attacking ips, during which time the site needs to be completely offline. Once all of the ips have been blocked, the site will be back up.

Let me see if I have this straight.  Every time someone (like me) suggests that it is poor judgement to give out personal information on the internet, a  few providers, and some hobbyists, go on and on about the safety of giving private information to sites like P411.  But now, that site is "under cyber attack".  Is it a big leap to think that all their information could someday be compromised, and all the names, work information, cell phone numbers, could be sucked out of their database and published somewhere on the internet?  I know the owner of P411 claims that no personal information was taken, but how would anyone know?  And, how would anyone know if it won't happen again?

For all of you who think sites are safe and impervious, this is just not so!!!  Any site can be compromised!  Any information can be stolen!  You are at risk anytime you publish your personal information!  

Sorry if I sound like a broken record about personal information.  But, I think it is an important issue.

she's getting hit by hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions) of fake IP addresses to keep her usual users away.   This particular attack has nothing to do with getting personal information about clients and providers.

I understand what is being said about the IP address attack against p411.  And, that information  may very well be true.  But, if a site is susceptible to that kind of attack, it is not a large leap to an information gathering attack.  Remember, some of the most highly secure sites in the world have had cyber attacks where private information was stolen.  

Belinda, you may continue to consider these sites "foolproof".  But, if you do even the most insignificant research on cyber attacks, you might not be so convinced.  

Considering ANY business is susceptible to "that kind of attack", you outta hole up in a bomb shelter and stop doing business.  Banks and any other institution is susceptible, but, you are equating a mob standing in front of a bank so no one can get in, to someone breaking in the vault.

Any business is susceptible.  (just ask bank of america).  And, yes, information gets stolen. But, having your private information published as associated with an organization which promotes prostitution might cause more embarrassment or eventual legal/employment/marital difficulties.  I do business with many internet sites.  And, Yes my information is vulnerable.  But, I don't think anyone will care that I buy from Amazon.com.  But, my family and friends might find objection if it were publicly announced that I pay money to be included in a sight for hookers and johns.  

So, don't equate loss of privacy with loss of reputation.

Apples and oranges.. One might lead to another.. might.. But, vandalism is not the same as theft and doesn't require the same level of sophistication.

Nothing is ever 100% safe and foolproof.  But it is crazy to assume that not screening and verifying a client is 100% safe and foolproof either.    And, because it is so unsafe, I do multiple methods of verification.  P411 is a very good start and better than nothing but in and of itself, it is not enough, IMO.  

ANY site is susceptible to attack......TER, your bank's website, your credit card's website, shopping online.  They are all vulnerable.   The only 100% safe and foolproof way of life is to live in a cocoon.  I doubt any of us want to do that.

RealP4U, I appreciate that you and I can disagree on screening in a most respectful manner.  Kudos to you, in that regard!!  

have a wonderful day!
BB

The fact that it can happen to any site does not mean that all verification sites are bad. You're making a blanket statement to form fact from a negative opinion( which doesn't make it fact BTW) those like you should probably use it to curl up & take a nap.
Those that are that much afraid of the Internet should probably stay off of it entirely because our info is being blasted everywhere like it or not IMO. But I don't see that happening anytime soon.
All I know is I do my best not to store tangible things like that where it could get into the wrong hands. So far so good.

Shit happens!
No doubt Gina will stay on top of it til it's taken care of.

xoC

I did not say that verification sites are bad. I have never thought them bad or evil. I have simply always maintained that people, both hobbyists and providers, who give personal information on such a site are putting themselves at risk.  If you don't care that all your reviews, sexual preferences, prostitution associated activities could someday be linked to your real name and released to the general public, then by all means give all that information to a verification site.  

And, the site being in Canada offers little protection.  The P411 came from across the world.  

And, frankly, verification is only one of the many risks of this illegal activity.   But, I for one, prefer to limit my exposure to risk.  I know women then they are protecting themselves by using these sites, but that is only a false expectation.  There are so many holes in P411's verification and security process that I could get my dog listed as a top notch hobbyist.  Of course when some freshman at MIT hacks into that site, and publishes client information, my little dog will be very embarrassed.  

Again, MSDynamite, I am not saying these sites are bad.  Just overrated and risky.

P411 is down due to a DDoS attack coming out of China, which is basically a huge amount of computerized traffic, far more than a server can handle. The goal is to render a site useless.

The ddos attack we are experiencing is "massive", and the ISP has blocked all traffic to P411 until it is under control. We've pulled the site completely offline for now.

I am working with numerous tech people to resolve the problem, but taking longer than anyone would like. All I can say is that we are working on it, and we're doing the best we can.

I'm very sorry for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,
Gina

Sorry you are having to deal with such nonsense. Kids will be kids I guess. Looking forward to the site being up & running again & thanks so much for all the hard work you invest in our safety.

Hugs & warmest regards,
Leann

...who over in China has such a bee in their bonnets to set up a massive DDoS attack on Preferred411?  Personal grudge or random trollery?

Anyways, thanks for the news Gina.  Hopefully things will be taken care of soon.

Looks like it's down again after being up for about an hour.  Now there is a message saying a definite down time until 10-18 at 1am

However, I have seen in the past with such attacks that the site may go down and come back up several times before the attack is defeated.

And whether the people responsible for it would be in a position to do much with whatever information they get.  While certainly not impossible, this does not seem terribly risky to me.  Obviously, you feel differently.  To each his own.

Mine was hacked by anon when I had godaddy as my main host .  Did anything in my index database get out? Did any hobbyists get "outed " or have any info stolen? Nope. There was alot of SOAP notes in there too, unfortunately I write things down so only I can make sense of it,  doesn't really do much good to anyone to have it.
I don't hide what I do from anyone.  If someone feels like being an asshole as to go & do that to me they'll not only get ignored,  they'll get laughed at by my peers & fam.

Because unlike most we don't go around judging people or put them down for what they gotta do for a living. That's their life.
Gotta remember I was pretty much raised in & around this industry besides the fact I don't hang with those types that are against me being myself.
Yes you did dear. You implied verification sites are bad because of the personal info being given in order to join them & also formed a fact based on negative opinion when it wasn't.
Re read what you wrote, see how that's making a general statement against them?

If you don't want to join those sites that's up to you.
However its not right to make up other people's minds for them.
Not arguing,  I'm just saying.

Gina, Nicole + others do a damn good job keeping things secure so I believe nothing to worry about IMO I haven't seen anything bad happen as of yet so I figure this;
Just because a bunch of 14 yr old boys & weeboos decide to knock down a server or two doesn't 100% mean they're wanting personal or credit card info so they can ruin peoples lives, Most of it is just a game to them or some kind of political statement they want to make & that's they're way of proving themselves.
It's very annoying & time consuming because those little jerks are gettingore vicious with their attacks
I know because I've had to do the exact same task the techs at P411 have more than once this year. I'll probably be doing it again. Yikes. :s

Gina:  Will Preferred411 extend client memberships in order compensate users for the lost service days? Do you feel secure that confidential client information held in your firm's databases has not been exposed to outside interests?

It's sort of lame to be kicking someone when they are under attack, but now that P411 is back up and running, here's what Gina had to say about the DDOS attack and personal information:

----Start----

P411 was down due to a DDoS attack coming out of China, which is basically a huge amount of computerized traffic, far more than a server can handle. The goal was to render the site useless, not to access the databases. However, I am well aware that any site on the internet is vunerable to different types of attacks, and this is one of the reasons that we keep absolutely no private infomation in our databases, and why the entire site is SSL encrypted.

   What we do keep is: Your client id and your email address, in addition to anything you've entered on your P411 profile.

If you provided us with some private information during the screening process, that information was deleted and destroyed once your membership was approved. Also, as most of you know, we do not do recurring payments. One of the reasons for this is because I do not want to have ANY of your personal information on file, "just in case".

----End----

Can't be any more clear than that. It's hardly news that stuff I put in my Profile for others to see is my own responibility. Of course, it's possible she's just lying through her teeth and spends her evenings rolling around in huge piles of collected private info, but I can't imagine a single reason why she would and many reasons why she wouldn't.

And yes, you are kind of starting to sound like a broken record.

Yes, your credit card and private info is safe.  10.17.12
Many of you have contacted me asking if there was any sort of breach of credit card or personal info in the past few days, and the answer is: NO, there was no breach of the databases and your information is secure.

P411 was down due to a DDoS attack coming out of China, which is basically a huge amount of computerized traffic, far more than a server can handle. The goal was to render the site useless, not to access the databases. However, I am well aware that any site on the internet is vunerable to different types of attacks, and this is one of the reasons reasons that we keep absolutely no private infomation in our databases, and why the entire site is SSL encrypted.

What we do keep is: Your client id and your email addresss, in addition to anything you've entered on your P411 profile.
If you provided us with some private information during the screening process, that information was deleted and destroyed once your membership was approved. Also, as most of you know, we do not do recurring payments. One of the reasons for this is because I do not want to have ANY of your personal information on file, "just in case".
Please know that my interest lies in having Preferred411 operating smoothly long into the future. Your privacy is my number one concern, and the easiest way for me to be able to sleep at night, knowing your information and my livelihood are safe, is by making sure I don't have it at all.

I realize it's been a very stressful few days for everyone affected by this outage. Please shoot me an email if you have any questions or concerns, I'm here to help.