In the past I have had some problems with "hackers" gaining unauthorised access to some of my forums and causing malicious damage. These events have been the only things that have ever made me seriously consider quiting being involved with running online communities. If feels pretty bad to see someone deliberately vandalize something you have sweat blood and tears over. Each time it can take days of solid work to recover and secure everything. It can also cause a serious loss of cash.

Each time I've found myself unable to take any real action against these hackers. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of what legal recourse is available, if any or of any successful examples of people getting prosecuted? It really gets to me that these people can freely vandalize my property and waltz away scott free.

One thing you can do is get into contact with their internet provider so they can't get internet access.

More often than not, you're not going to be able to do anything to punish a hacker...reporting them to their ISP is not likely to do anything, because their ISP is more than likely not going to care...and that is assuming that the hacker is stupid enough to hack you directly instead of through a proxy. Taking them to court would involve a whole lot of time and money...which is probably not worth it...and even if you do have the time and money, the odds of a court accepting your case is probably slim - unless your website is huge and the hacker(s) caused substantial damage.

What software are you using? I would simply suggest to always remain up to date on your forum software...patch any security holes that you are aware of....and make frequent and regular backups - both on an off the server. I'd say that 75% of hacking is due to outdated software or lack of caution on the owner's part...if you do everything that you should be doing to prevent hacking, it should not become a major problem - if somebody does hack you once and puts up some kiddie message, just restore your backup and patch whatever they exploited...if it becomes a recurring problem, then sure, you could take it to court...but it better be a big problem, because that's going to cost you a pretty penny.

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My undestanding is that in fact it is the FBI that investigates and prosecutes hacking as it generally takes place over state lines - aside from the immediate hope of getting them banned by thier ISP's I do believe you ought to file a complaint.

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Exactly first of all you would have to press in their county

Second you must be able to show a good amount of quantifiable damage (not just, 50 people count post for an hour)

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There is no legal action that you can have to fight a hacker. Because even that the laws of every country can protect you, it is really costly to suit someone, especcially if this someone is from another country...

Hackers at most times are kids, but they know how to erase their footprints.

The only thing you MUST do is to make secure your server/software, and change your password frequently. Also be sure not to login to admin accounts from places that you don't own, and have a good antispyware program....

Oh and as we talk about forums, if you use phpBB, check for updates very very frequently because this piece of software is full of security holes...

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This is the only thing I hate about internet basically... It's like a world of evil and good but with no Police. People usualy hate police in the outside world, but when they get on the internet and find out that there site was hacked, their probably begging that there were some kind of cops to get your site back! Too bad the only thing there is to do is kind of punish the hacker (report ISP), but not help yourself. Along with that, sometimes it's hard to retrieve the hacker's IP .

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I find it amazing that these "hackers" can spend so much time causing great damage.

They are obviously clever people - surely they could put there knowledge to better work, and find proper employment!!

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You made a good point there, the freedom of the net is one of the things that make it great but it has it's downsides.

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You should ALWAYS hide your vBulletin version (located at footer), even if you don´t upgrade the software. Different vBulletin versions have different security flaws.

For instance, Admin Fusion's footer is:
While my boards have:
Which version I´m using?

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