Some of you may be aware that we between Saturday 7th and Monday 9th we suffered a possible virus attack on a number of our clients. We have directly contacted everyone who we know was involved.

At best this was a simple prank by a child but at worst was a concerted effort to cause damage. In the circumstances I think it was somewhere near the latter.

The attack, on about 10 of our websites, took the form of one or more child like messages left on the guestbook of the website. The guestbook message automatically generates emails to the message writer and the website owner. As the message writer deliberately used a false email address their email is returned to the website owner, but with an attachment which displayed virus like tendancies if opened.

I have managed to obtain a valid email address for the perpetrator and have sent a message requesting that they phone me, I do know that this message has been received but as yet they have not phoned me. I have blocked this email address from relaying messages through the Equestrian Websites server but I believe that they could still continue the attacks under certain circumstances. During the attack they used at least 6 different IP addresses, one of which was foreign, so it would be impracticable to block them, quickly, using IP addresses.

I have made a formal complaint to their Email service provider and they are investigating.

Please be vigilant and under no circumstances should you open any dubious attachments in any Email you receive. If you do receive an Email with an attachment which you were not expecting please contact the sender for verification before opening the attachment and if you are unable to contact the sender, I would advise you to permanently delete the attachment as a precaution.

If you wish to contact me to discuss this matter please do so by Email or by phone on 01443 838399 or use the Discussion or Suggestion pages on this website

Best Regards
Brian Dowding
Equestrian Websites