I think this is pretty big news in the world of private servers. Molten WoW is one of the bigger players of private WoW servers. I think we all know them.
But recently, they where taken down. Many things got hijacked and one of those things is their database.
Apparently someone from the inside rang the bell (ie. rogue ambush). None really expected such a huge private server to be ever lose so much in one strike.
However, this is not the first time it happened. I remember other big servers being taken down by Blizzard. Most of them never came online anymore.
Just wondering, but what can we do to prevent this from ever happening to Nostalrius?
Even though there's a little competition between private servers. I don't think anyone would wanted this to happen to Molten WoW. So, I hope for them and their players that they will find a solution. They got my inner support.
Here's the message on, their website:
As of January 22, 2015 all of our databases had been hijacked by (public ref: http://www.companycheck.co.uk) the security administrator Gianfranco Panico (Jeff) employed and instructed by Mikayil Mammadov (Hermes) through a network of companies (incl. Artabazan Ltd., Crossroutes Ltd., Skiddaw Ltd.) operating in the United Kingdom and who have been responsible for safety of all our databases across our server infrastructure, including backup server machines that were operated and maintained by the same individuals. Considering the disastrous scale of community damage and in hopes for a investigation we have come to a decision to provide all information, data and details of Mikayil Mammadov, Gianfranco Panico and Vyacheslav Chernyshev and related companies to the United Kingdom government authorities and institutions through legal means, and where applicable, with community support.
The hijack had started by having all our staff accesses to our servers removed, effectively denying all services and means of securing our data, and refusal to our agreement to any demands in our efforts to save our databases. Considering these circumstances and as a result of our investigations into suspected misappropriopriation and unduly assignments of Molten's community funds, we have strong reasons to believe that individuals responsible for this hijacking had a sole purpose to destroy evidence and traces of their suspected grand schemes and misconduct. Our initial suspicion of misconduct had started when Mikayil Mammadov (Hermes) had announced that Molten is suffering from financial losses and proceeded with cutting community and staff short of due payments and bonuses in December 2014 and dismissal of key staff members motivated by "cost cutting". Additionally we were informed of large amounts of tax liability that Skiddaw Ltd. has had to pay in fines due to tax evasion, which in turn had always been declared and assumed to have been paid throughout these years of operating in the United Kingdom as maintenance expenses. The data and information that we have been able to secure indicates a grand scale misconduct, misappropriation of funds and suspicion of money laundering through a network of offshore companies and bank accounts, all of which will be provided to authorities and institutions to investigate. Our new Facebok page is located at http://www.facebook.com/moltenwowofficial. Our previous page has also been hijacked, is no longer representing our announcements and as such, any information posted on facebook.com/moltenwow is no longer a valid announcement and can be reported at https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/797573933590053 as per Facebook Page Terms and Facebook Terms of Service . Considering the loss of character databases, we have no objections should our community members decide to dispute payments to Skrill Ltd. as per Skrill Terms and Conditions.
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What has been lost?
Characters.
What have we managed to secure?
We have been able to secure our accounts (incl. coins history), we have retained our core and website code that we have been developing all these years. All staff members have been working together to mitigate the damage caused by this disaster.
What can we do to mitigate the damage?
Everything we can, such as refunding 100% of coins ever donated back to community accounts, instant levelups, starting gear, boosts etc. We are working to come up with a refund and boost system help us to mitigate the damage, and later today, open forums for feedback, backlash and answers to any discussions.
I, Kaer, the founder and former leader of our community, am also back to staff this day. It was my decision today that we stand our ground on a devastated Molten, whatever hardships and understandable community backlash is to come. I apologize and take responsibility for failing to quickly identify and investigate these individuals that have resorted to inflicting tremendous damage in their attempts to cover up the traces of their suspected misdeeds. We are ready and willing to do everything we can to heal damage done to us over time.
