Hello All,

As many of you have noticed, the VATSIM website has been down for most of
the day. We are still experiencing technical problems with the server on
which it is located.

As a result of these technical problems, it has become necessary for VATSIM
to regenerate all passwords for its members. This will take place over the
next 24 - 48 hours. You will be able to obtain your new password from the
VATSIM website by using the lost password function at this link:

http://cert.vatsim.net/vatsimnet/statcheck.html

The link currently does not work and will not work until the new passwords
have been created and we turn the database back on. You should have no
problem retrieving your password if you have maintained your email with
VATSIM. If for some reason you have not kept a valid email with VATSIM, you
will need to email membership@vatsim.net and request that your email be
updated. Please do not email the membership department until the above link
is operational.

VATSIM apologizes for any inconvenience.

Richard Jenkins
Communications BoG
VATSIM

Hello All,

As many of you have noticed, the VATSIM website has been down for most of
the day. We are still experiencing technical problems with the server on
which it is located.

As a result of these technical problems, it has become necessary for VATSIM
to regenerate all passwords for its members. You will be able to obtain
your new password from the VATSIM website by using the lost password function
at this link:

http://cert.vatsim.net/vatsimnet/statcheck.html

You should have no problem retrieving your password if you have maintained
your email with VATSIM. If for some reason you have not kept a valid email
with VATSIM, you will need to email membership@vatsim.net and request that
your email be updated. Please do not email the membership department until
the above link is operational.

VATSIM apologizes for any inconvenience.

Richard Jenkins
Communications BoG
VATSIM

Hello All,

I would like to thank everyone for their patience in this endeavor. We are
processing the mail as fast as the eight of us can. I would ask that if you
are emailing for an address change that you include some basic information
so we can determine who you are.

1. Name

2. VATSIM ID

3. New Email


Also I would like to take a minute and make a few comments. If in your email
to get your address changed, you feel it is necessary to yell, curse, threaten,
berate, make unreasonable demands, or send the same email 10 times. I can
just about promise you it will land in the "will respond in 30 days file".

If you send an address change in another language besides English, we must
send it to be translated. This extends the turn around time.

A large amount of mail from the South American Region has not been processed
yet. The individual responsible for processing that mail is missing in action
somewhere. We apologize for any trouble that may have caused. We are now
tracking down that mail and reprocessing it with other people.

Thank you for your patience.

Richard Jenkins
Membership BoG
VATSIM

Hello All,

I imagine some of you are wondering why VATSIM needed to change all 55,000
passwords last week. Without getting into all the details and flooding you
with technical information, I will try and give you the basic events.

First, I would like to thank all the membership staff for putting in some
very long hours and handling a very large amount of email. These people
have all come through for the members and we owe them a big thank you.

Membership Staff:

Ed Hemsley

John Binner

Robin Walker

Bill Pappert

Eddy Chen

Blayne Murphy

Piotr Nowicki

Lluis Del Cerro



What Happened?

On June 2nd we discovered that break-ins had occurred on several of
VATSIM's servers. The intruder installed a "backdoor" on four of these
servers so that he could continue to use them without detection. After some
investigation, the Network Staff determined that our FSD software was not
compromised and could remain online. FSD is the simulation support software
that runs on the servers and permits pilots and controllers to see and
interact with each other. All web services were turned off, however, in
order to protect the master database and other VATSIM resources. This
temporarily stopped new registrations, promotions, and prevented divisions
from downloading updated rosters.

While the intruder did not appear to show a great interest in the FSD
software on the servers, there is no way to guarantee that he did not steal
members' passwords. As result, senior VATSIM staff members decided that the
only way to ensure the security of our members' records was to regenerate
all passwords. This is why your password was changed and you were required
to retrieve a new one. This also demonstrates why it is so important
thatmembers keep their email addresses on file with VATSIM up-to-date.

All four servers were repaired and put back online within a matter of hours
without major disruption to the members. In addition, we have made several
changes to our security procedures in order to reduce the risk of such an
incident in the future.

We hope this helps you understand what happened a little better.

Richard Jenkins
Communications BoG
VATSIM