Warning! TOTV may have been hacked - maybe

[MartinSE]

Just logged in for today and was greeted by a swarm of dialogs claiming I was infected and that I should update my Flash player. Both signs of an attempted hack. If you see these under NO circumstances click on ANY of them, even. to close them. Just close your browser. If it repeats, close your browser and clear your browsers history.

If this is only happening to me, then I apologize.

[EdFNJ]

Just logged in for today and was greeted by a swarm of dialogs claiming I was infected and that I should update my Flash player. Both signs of an attempted hack. If you see these under NO circumstances click on ANY of them, even. to close them. Just close your browser. If it repeats, close your browser and clear your browsers history.

If this is only happening to me, then I apologize. I doubt it was TOTV, more likely your computer. I assume you ran an AV or Malware program scan after? Have you had all your shots? ;)

[paulat585]

Happened to me too. Be careful out there.

[kp11364]

Me too - when going to "Today's Posts" I've been redirected to an online game site and a site for graphics cards. It's NOT my PC as it's been updated with the latest AV and anti-malware as of yesterday.

I used to be a webmaster and the search engine here is based on PHP. I had a similar search program on my old site(s) and more than once the program was altered by hackers.

[RICH1]

Just happened to me …. Tuesday afternoon/ evening…COULD BE THE REDS

[CoachKandSportsguy]

same and just ran a scan by malwarebytes, and nothing on my computer.

I also locked the malwarebytes control panel for changes and for brute force attacks

I agree that it might be on the TOTV side as well

windoze guy

[Stu from NYC]

same and just ran a scan by malwarebytes, and nothing on my computer.

I also locked the malwarebytes control panel for changes and for brute force attacks

I agree that it might be on the TOTV side as well

windoze guy

If it is on their side hope they will tell us.

[Mrprez]

Just happened to me just now. From the home page drop down menu Forum>Todays Posts. iPad Safari.

[Mrprez]

Maybe the hacker can fix that “misdirected” fault thing while they are in there.

[EdFNJ]

Just happened to me just now. From the home page drop down menu Forum>Todays Posts. iPad Safari.

Happens on my iPad, iPhone 13, iPhone 12 and iPhone Mini 13 following your instructions but not my PC or my 2 laptops probably because I have (too many) AV & MW apps running on them. It's probably one of the pop up advertisers from the company they pay to put in all the "random" ads that pay for the forum pushing through spam or malware to get you to buy something. I followed it all the way through on my iPad and it took me to the Apple App store which blocked it to purchase an app. Likely typical spam advertising like comes through email. It's happened here before but I doubt this forum can be hacked because it serves no purpose unless maybe Putin can find use for TOTV to spread his "news." ;)

[daniel200]

Flashplayer has been dead for long time now. It is no longer updated or supported. So the message you saw is not coming from your operating system. It is a fake message from your browser trying to get you to download some malware.

The first thing I would do is close the browser and then delete your browser history and cookies. Then reboot your system. Then you should run Windows Defender (assuming you have a Windows machine).

Hopefully, that should take care of the problem. Windows Defender is very good at detecting malware (as long as you keep your Windows machine updated)

[EdFNJ]

Maybe the hacker can fix that “misdirected” fault thing while they are in there. Yea, that is totally annoying.

[BrianL99]

same and just ran a scan by malwarebytes, and nothing on my computer.

I also locked the malwarebytes control panel for changes and for brute force attacks

I agree that it might be on the TOTV side as well

windoze guy

All the Malware & AV Software in the world, won't protect you from lack of vigilance when opening links or visiting problem sites.

I've been on this site 5 or 6 times a day, without a whit of a problem of any kind. I don't run any AV programs on my Mac ... I just pay attention.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Not seeing this phenomenon. Do any of the people who -were- affected use an adblocker?

If not, then you might have -previously- received a virus from an ad on this website, and it activated today.

If anyone remembers the Ides of March virus, you'll know what I mean.

[Keefelane66]

I keep going to a VPN request repeatedly. What happened couple of days ago when TOTV was down?

[MartinSE]

I doubt it was TOTV, more likely your computer. I assume you ran an AV or Malware program scan after? Have you had all your shots? ;)

Yes, actually, I go further than that. I run all my web browsing and email in a virtual sandbox, so if a virus happens to get passed my 2 firewalls It won't get out of my sandbox.

But, I cleared it (the sandbox) and tried to reload into TOTV and it happened a second time. I reinitialized the sandbox a second time and it was okay. So, I expect you are right, I don't know where it was from and actually I have spent more time on it all ready than I planned.

But, it did ONLY happen here. Which is interesting, especially since a day or two ago I was getting server timeouts trying to log into TOTV. So, dunno. But, glad no one else is affected.

[MartinSE]

Maybe the hacker can fix that “misdirected” fault thing while they are in there.

The misdirected fault is a timing issue. It should be able to be fixed by the site developer.

[MartinSE]

Flashplayer has been dead for long time now. It is no longer updated or supported. So the message you saw is not coming from your operating system. It is a fake message from your browser trying to get you to download some malware.

Yup, sort of what I recommended. It was OLD out of date type of attempt to get a click.


The first thing I would do is close the browser and then delete your browser history and cookies. Then reboot your system. Then you should run Windows Defender (assuming you have a Windows machine).


Yup, good advice, I am on a Mac (I am a Mac developer) and I run all internet access (email, browser, etc) in a virtual (VMWare) sandbox. So, I just reset the sandbox and tried again. The fact is happened after that leads me to believe it is here and not my machine.

Someone made a suggestion that I think is probably good, that it was an infected advertiser. But, it appeared to be triggered by clicking the "Todays Posts" option - for what ever that is worth.


Hopefully, that should take care of the problem. Windows Defender is very good at detecting malware (as long as you keep your Windows machine updated)

Absolutely, I would go so far as to say Windows defender (free) is better than almost if not all costly anti-virus on Windows. I run Malwarebytes on MacOS, and highly recommend it. But then I go further ands sandbox my setup several ways. Too much time invest in my work to take a chance on ransomware.

[MartinSE]

I keep going to a VPN request repeatedly. What happened couple of days ago when TOTV was down?

Yeah, that is what I was thinking about also.

[Papa_lecki]

Happened to me all day, when I select todays posts

[Velvet]

I just couldn’t log on to TOTV for about 18 hours on my iPad. I never log off so I thought the site was down. When it came on again, all seemed ok.

[davem4616]

I sometimes try to get my head around what drives these hackers to do what they do.....and quite honestly, I just can't seem to understand why people would purposely try to destroy something that others rely upon

is it for kicks...is someone paying them to do this....is it a cult populated with people that have been shunned??

what is it?

spending time to willfully disrupt others and cause grief, harm, etc....is just unbelievable....

if you don't have values, nothing else really matters

[midiwiz]

I doubt it was TOTV, more likely your computer. I assume you ran an AV or Malware program scan after? Have you had all your shots? ;)

don't know why you doubt it, this site is extremely hackable.

[Keefelane66]

Just logged in for today and was greeted by a swarm of dialogs claiming I was infected and that I should update my Flash player. Both signs of an attempted hack. If you see these under NO circumstances click on ANY of them, even. to close them. Just close your browser. If it repeats, close your browser and clear your browsers history.

If this is only happening to me, then I apologize.
This is the only site I access on my tablet keep getting switched over to app site to install vpn or increasingly get misdirect error.
Started since their outage.

[midiwiz]

I sometimes try to get my head around what drives these hackers to do what they do.....and quite honestly, I just can't seem to understand why people would purposely try to destroy something that others rely upon

is it for kicks...is someone paying them to do this....is it a cult populated with people that have been shunned??

what is it?

spending time to willfully disrupt others and cause grief, harm, etc....is just unbelievable....

if you don't have values, nothing else really matters


As a former hacker turned cyber security expert I can easily tell you why.

A hacker makes the choice based on many different items. First off you find sites that look easy to upset. Second you look at content, and quite honestly the content on this site is very inviting especially the way it comes across to an outsider. Third - what causes more annoyance.

Most 'social hackers' get a rip by tossing off a site that they know will annoy people quickly. However by the description, this is an 'advantage hacker' they know you guys are (sorry) easy. They can tell by post flow and content. I can tell because many on here come across as technically clueless, that makes you an easy target.

So what do you do then as a hacker, misdirection. granted the misdirection on this one could have been a million times better. They could have replicated some of the site so it slips by you and traps you where they want you - YOUR information. can be an IP address, moniker, anything.

Please do not say you are safe because you have NORDVPN, you are far from safe or secret. A VPN is rather easy to hack into, especially when all VPNs in the US are required to keep accurate logs of everything you do on the internet - and I mean everything. Should a hacker gain access to any of those logs - they now have more information about you than you care for them to have.

So basically those are the brief reasons of why.

[MidWestIA]

Flash is well known to get hacked if you have it uninstall now

[TOTV Team]

There appears to be an issue with the main homepage. The forums themselves are ok. Our team is working on this and we will update everyone. Thank you for your patience.