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Churnet Valley Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by Sheff, Dec 6, 2013.

  1. lil Bear

    lil Bear Part of the furniture

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    Can we ask that all users of Twitters please report the "Compromised" post on the CVR Twitter Account?
    We are trying to get the account suspended, but as the hacker holds the password its proving difficult.
     
  2. goldfish

    goldfish Nat Pres stalwart

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    It's pretty difficult to 'hack' a Twitter account, assuming 2-factor authentication is on.

    Presumably this is a disgruntled or mischievous (and then some) person who's either had access to the account, or been given it (eg public computer left logged-in or password left lying around - and even then, 2-factor should have blocked malicious access).

    Anyway - reported. Good luck sorting it. Maybe ask other railways and local interest groups to tweet some supportive messages ('CVR compromised - railway open, check website for latest info,, police aware'-type thing). Might mitigate the impact and put pressure on the culprit to come clean…

    Simon
     
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  3. goldfish

    goldfish Nat Pres stalwart

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    It looks as though the misleading tweets have been removed from http://twitter.com/cvr_official now, but the profile and background pictures still say 'We're closed'… I guess it might be that Twitter have removed the dodgy posts but haven't given access back to the account holders, but if CVR are back in control, I'd change those pictures ASAP.

    Simon
     
  4. Bean-counter

    Bean-counter Part of the furniture

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    Look like the hacker has played a very clever game of stating the account had been hacked, then issuing more statements about the Railway being closed until further notice (which are presumably untrue from the comments on the main website).

    A chilling illustration of the risks of using social media as major marketing tool.

    Steven
     
  5. goldfish

    goldfish Nat Pres stalwart

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    Disagree - it's an illustration of the risks of not protecting your accounts and passwords particularly effectively, but organisations don't have a choice about using Social Media these days. I suspect that the CVR did post the 'we're hacked' message, but before the malicious user (I doubt that it was really 'hacking'… which implies some sort of technical skill) realised that they could just change the password and lock the CVR people out of their own account.

    Simon
     
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  6. Sheff

    Sheff Resident of Nat Pres

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    Clicked Simon's link. Account still hacked and tweets still there just now.
     
  7. goldfish

    goldfish Nat Pres stalwart

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    Oh balls, sorry! Presumably they're not showing for me because I reported them…

    Simon
     
  8. lil Bear

    lil Bear Part of the furniture

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    Correct, if you report a tweet Twitter then 'hides' the tweet to your account but can still be viewed by others.

    The Hacker has changed the Password & Default e-mail address, so no-one from CVR can now access the account.
    They altered the account to CVR Rip-Off to seemingly gain attention, then put it all back to make a tweet everything had been sorted before yday announcement the railway is closed.

    I can confirm though the railway IS NOT closed, and we are open for business as usual with our Popular 1940s Event this coming weekend.

    The Hacker has demanded that we erect a plaque at Froghall in return for the access codes but as no-one has ever heard of the person they want the plaque in honour of, we are taking it as a simple prank. Police aren't interested as no criminal offence has been committed, and Twitter are proving more than useless at getting the account shut down.

    All we can do is continue to encourage people to report any further posts and hope Twitter start doing something, all rather frustrating for those of us at CVR though!
     
  9. 84A

    84A New Member

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    A pretty sick (and juvenile) prank though - just hope that not too many people who were planning to attend over the coming weekend have been put off by it.

    I don't have any experience with twitter myself, but would probably suggest setting up a completely new twitter account. This could be linked from the main website and also other forms of internet media the railway uses in order to steer people away from the hacked account. The sooner this is done, the more widespread it will become with the hope that it will `bury' the existing account (or at least make it look non-official any more).

    Either way, I certainly hope a plaque isn't erected at Froghall for Mr I. Troll!
     
  10. Fred Kerr

    Fred Kerr Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    Are the police correct ? I suspect that since the hacker has made demands - it is blackmail and that's a criminal offence; I would also check the Telecommunications Acts as I suspect this is an offence which the late Lord McAlpine may have identified when falsely accused of child offences on Twitter and sued the perpetrators for 5-figure sums ! Since the hacker has cost the CVR money it needs to identify the culprit and sue (Small Claims Court ?) for lost income AND cost of time spent identifying the hacker and all associated costs of repairing the damage - and that's a civil matter which the Small Claims Court is especially set up to handle.

    And why make the effort ? Because until someone makes the effort to take action Twitter hackers will think it fun without realising the damage that can be done - especially since so many commercial organisations use twitter as a basic part of their public relations and therefore interfering with the account effectively means interfering with the organisation and its reputation !
     
  11. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Can we stop calling him a hacker please? that implies he has intelligence involving some computer skills, I suspect our man has just typed in the password...

    Anyway, best of luck in getting it sorted, I understand how frustrating it must be. Sorry I can't help I don't twit, but good to see other people have gone on to correct things.
     
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  12. lil Bear

    lil Bear Part of the furniture

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    A Hacker is someone who breaks into a computer system or network. As that is exactly what has happened that's exactly how we'll describe them!
     
  13. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Do you know whether he just logged in with a password he somehow knew, or he actually did something clever? I wouldn't classify a burglar who came into my house as breaking in if he had the front door key :/

    And if he did do something clever, he should be termed a cracker, not a hacker, as hackers just hack in 'cos they can, crackers do it for malicious intent, which is clearly what's going on here.
     
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  14. jnc

    jnc Well-Known Member

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    This is a bit off-topic, but you pushed one of my hot buttons. (And apologies for the off-topic...)

    The original meaning of 'hacker' had almost nothing to do with that. A bunch of witless juvenile delinquent wanna-bes started calling themselves 'hackers', and the media fell on the term with glee and helped spread it.

    Noel (who was a 'hacker' back when it only had one meaning)
     
  15. Corbs

    Corbs Well-Known Member

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    I would guess that the person either guessed the password, or formerly knew the password (in other words an inside job). You must protect your passwords online, and never use an easy to guess one! By the looks of it, it's someone with an axe to grind against the CVR.
     
  16. FJR8642

    FJR8642 Member

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  17. Corbs

    Corbs Well-Known Member

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    Beautiful photos, although if I were to be a pedant (and I am), nearly everything in those three photos is representative of the 1960s! Could have been a cold/vietnam war weekend?
     
  18. ilvaporista

    ilvaporista Part of the furniture

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    Nice photos and some good news after the upsets. Did they have plastic beer glasses in the 1940's...
     
  19. lil Bear

    lil Bear Part of the furniture

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    Despite someone's best attempts, the event proved to be hugely popular with early indications being revenue was actually UP on 2013 event.

    It did help that The Sentinal (Stoke Paper) ran an article on the Twitter hack in their Friday edition, and commented how it was coinciding with one of the line's more popular events (which the War Weekend is, being one of Top 3 biggest events of the year normally).

    Now to look forward to some Cauldon Action this weekend!
     
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  20. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Has the twitter problem been solved yet?

    On a more different note, I found amongst my Grandad's collection of books the other day a guide book to the churnet valley line published in 1974. You may know that the society had several attempts to start a steam railway in the area, their second attempt was to establish a basis of operations from Leek. I was interested to read this little bit:

    After this happened the society planned to set up a base of operations at Oakamoor, using the tunnel as storage for standard gauge stock whilst running a 10 1/4 inch gauge railway for revenue to buy std gauge track.

    Apart from the fact that they were essentially given Cheddleton station after it was hastily listed prior to demolishment, does anyone know why the Oakamoor proposal was scrapped?
     

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