alert Epik Had A Major Breach

[Silentptnr]

Just read this. Looks like Epik may have been hacked and sensitive data compromised...

Read here:
https://domainnamewire.com/2021/09/14/hackers-claim-significant-epik-breach/

Thought I would share this.

 

[FernandoBMS]

I think the image of a CEO forcing his employees to watch a first-person video of a murderer killing people inside a mosque to prove that the video is fake gives a hint of what is going on with this particular company.

 

[tonyk2000]

If you are changing emails eveywhere as the result of Epik leak, do not forget:

- If you configured payouts from GoDaddy (auctions), as well as Afternic and possibly(?) Uniregistry - they do use "payees". Each payee also has a contact email inside, it should be changed separately (edit payee).

- CPANEL-powered hosting companies provide separate logins for account/billing and website management (cpanel). Cpanel interface also has a contact email inside, which was originally set by the host billing system. Rarely used, but it exists. It is the second place to change email if you use cpanel-powered hosting.

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

As moderators:

We've been criticized and attacked on the topic of #censorship, but there's a positive side to clear expectations: the moderation of NamePros doesn't suffer from bias, favoritism, or hypocrisy:

I noticed on the other [website] that the "struggle session" thread posted by Rob, that was supposed to be an "open dialogue", is no longer publicly viewable.

---

We've been criticized and attacked on the topic of #censorship

We often explain:

NamePros is not a #FreeSpeech website; it is a professional community with rules, standards, integrity, and etiquette. We have many rules and expectations of civility and respect, but they're clear, reasonable, and in the best interest of the community. Within that framework, members are free to express their opinions and ideas, even if unpopular.

For anyone looking for something different, there are other websites out there, but those websites will likely disappoint: be unpleasant or full of hypocrisy. We're nothing if not consistent and fair.

---

Andrew Allemann of @DomainNameWire wrote:

[@Rob Monster] draws a line on free speech

Monster draws a line, and it’s a line somewhere in his philosophy and mind. Other people draw the line elsewhere, but Monster calls this deplatforming and unfair. So really, nearly everyone believes in free speech up until a point. And if their point is less restrictive than someone else’s, they call it censorship and deplatforming.

Yes.

 

[Future Sensors]

No, don't give them the benefit of doubt that they don't deserve. I have firsthand terrible experience dealing with Rob about security issues.

Another example:

 

[Kirtaner]

Will someone go to jail for data breached?

Not to say I am involved or anything but Fredrick here makes solid points.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1447076889781280768

https://twitter.com/x/status/1447077572815335429

 

[Kirtaner]

Current-day hacktivism is one of an innate understanding of political theatre and narrative. It exists to serve as the checks and balances to neutralize threats to democratic and societal stability when the State lags behind or does not fulfil their role expeditiously.

It exists as an ally of the greater whole.

As do I.

 

[Future Sensors]

I think this thread is a shining example of how various stakeholders from all walks of life come together to contribute and to better understand the consequences of this data breach. Some stakeholders read along passively and that's fine too. In particular LEA and the legal profession, but also the Epik organization itself. I hope that the balance in this 'ledger' thread will be found soon and I pray for a happy ending for all.

 

[oldtimer]

NamePros is not a # FreeSpeech website; it is a professional community with rules, standards, integrity, and etiquette. We have many rules and expectations of civility and respect, but they're clear, reasonable, and in the best interest of the community. Within that framework, members are free to express their opinions and ideas, even if unpopular.

With all due respect, it seems like you are mistaking cleaning up the inappropriate language and posts in the forum with Censoring respectful and civil discussions that you may find to be against your interest or agendas (or that of the Status Quo or your Advertisers).

IMO

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

IMO

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Please create a new thread if you'd like to discuss them in more detail with us.

(For the record, we have never performed a moderator action because of an advertiser.)

 

[oldtimer]

Current-day hacktivism is one of an innate understanding of political theatre and narrative. It exists to serve as the checks and balances to neutralize threats to democratic and societal stability when the State lags behind or does not fulfil their role expeditiously.

It exists as an ally of the greater whole.

As do I.

I personally like to think that Hacktivists are in general a Force For Good,

But I wonder if an Artificial Intelligence Entity (AI) that has General Intelligence and Awareness and is capable of Independent Thought and Judgment is going to come to the same conclusion after creating a Big Data Visualization for the whole culture of Hacktivism.

In my opinion what determines whether that visualization is going to point out to something good and positive or whether it will show something bad and evil in great part is going to depend on whether the Hacktivists have hurt any innocent people or entities in the process and also on whether they have been fair and just when it came to fighting evil across the board on all sides of the political, religious, racial, economical, and technological spectrum.

Same as we expect Rob to reform his old mindset and ways I believe that the Hacktivists should also use this occasion to expand their vision and their horizons in order to protect Humanity and the Environment as a whole and not to allow themselves to be used by those who just want to bring down their opposition.

IMO

 

[Kirtaner]

I personally like to think that Hacktivists are in general a Force For Good,

But I wonder if an Artificial Intelligence Entity (AI) that has General Intelligence and Awareness and is capable of Independent Thought and Judgment is going to come to the same conclusion after creating a Big Data Visualization for the whole culture of Hacktivism.

In my opinion what determines whether that visualization is going to point out to something good and positive or whether it will show something bad and evil in great part is going to depend on whether the Hacktivists have hurt any innocent people or entities in the process and also on whether they have been fair and just when it came to fighting evil across the board on all sides of the political, religious, racial, economical, and technological spectrum.

Same as we expect Rob to reform his old mindset and ways I believe that the Hacktivists should also use this occasion to expand their vision and their horizons in order to protect Humanity and the Environment as a whole and not to allow themselves to be used by those who just want to bring down their opposition.

IMO

Anonymous is the Internet's immune system.

 

[Future Sensors]

Anonymous is the Internet's immune system.

https://www.ted.com/talks/keren_elazari_hackers_the_internet_s_immune_system/

 

[oldtimer]

Anonymous is the Internet's immune system.

That's fine, but while you are performing your duties you should be careful not to become an obstacle in the way of progress for the Humanity by allowing yourself to become a tool for the Status Quo.

The way that I look at this is that the Status Quo with all its existing philosophies, doctrines, and ideologies of Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Religious Fundamentalism, and all the other isms that are out there has failed us and is no longer capable of meeting the many challenges that are facing Humanity and the Environment at the present time.

As I have been saying all along we need to close the current Era that has been based on oppression, suppression, slavery, inequality, killings, and War and which has been fueled by all the bad human characteristics of greed, hate, lust, jealousy, and lack of empathy and start a whole new Era that is going to be based on finding common grounds over the Universal Principles and Values that are derived through Logic and Compassion.

IMO

 

[Future Sensors]

I just read the title so far

This really is a problem, dear friend.

 

[Windoms]

I mean he even hired a guy to harass some little girl and threaten her family because he didn't like her wiki entry.

Brave young woman*** named @Molly White
Don't be dramatic.

BTW during Joe Biden's inaugural speech I think he said one of the top priorities and highest threat to national security is domestic terrorism (hate groups).
With Trump supporters Capitol events and BLM in the background.
There's no more Al Qaeda, ISIS, or Talibans to focus on.

Sorry but its over.

There's no reform.
Name is destroyed. Do you read whats being said online.
"a very bad registrar that hosts nazis was targeted by anonymous the heros and all their data got leaked".

Reputation is destroyed.
No one wants their domain at a registrar which is targeted by hackers and government agencies of all sorts because of their practice (being a haven for undesirable websites).

Had it been a very large and established company, some straightforward PR and security measures would have mitigated the damage, given their are not dealing with undesirable websites (thats why GD kicks them out).

Epik, being a small company, is done.
Sorry, but there's no way out of this.

Banned by paypal, banned by afternic, most domainers had already left them before this.
Now its everyone, think about those running a business on a domain, think you're gonna risk losing your business through this MASSIVE breach.

Done. You cant mitigate this, the factors pushing against a small company are too great.

 

[Kingslayer]

As moderators:

We've been criticized and attacked on the topic of #censorship, but there's a positive side to clear expectations: the moderation of NamePros doesn't suffer from bias, favoritism, or hypocrisy:

​

I think NamePros has been fairly tolerant to Epik over the years. In many threads Rob posted in, he got accused of spamming and promoting his company everywhere:-

https://www.namepros.com/threads/ro...out-paying-a-dime.1167267/page-9#post-7532889

https://www.namepros.com/threads/namepros-has-been-taken-over.1163986/#post-7500087

And I believe Rob is the only CEO of a domain registrar to ever have a ban on the forum for ‘spamming’.

I’ve seen threads on here that Epik was right in the middle of from racism/extremism/covid/bullying and other controversial topics that I could never understand why they was allowed to remain open, not only was Epik right in the middle of these threads, as a company they thrived off them, their staff flooded these threads and in my opinion used these threads as promotion and not only that, these threads was promoted on NamePros homepage as ‘most popular threads of the week/month’.

In the same way Twitter played its part into making Donald Trump president of the United States, NamePros contributed into making Epik into the registrar what they are. NamePros awarded Epik ‘NamePros registrar of the year’ if you award a company that and stick your own name on this award, you are pointing forum members in the direction of Epik, some whom may not have any understanding of ‘Epik’ and the other business ties this company has.

Thinking about that, should NamePros take reasonability for its own part in building up brand Epik? Take some reasonability how some forum members have got caught up in this hack and with that review its own rules in how it allows registrars and their staff to use this forum for business and review how it gives ‘registrar of the year’ awards in the future?

 

[johnn]

I think NamePros has been fairly tolerant to Epik over the years. In many threads Rob posted in, he got accused of spamming and promoting his company everywhere:-

https://www.namepros.com/threads/ro...out-paying-a-dime.1167267/page-9#post-7532889

https://www.namepros.com/threads/namepros-has-been-taken-over.1163986/#post-7500087

And I believe Rob is the only CEO of a domain registrar to ever have a ban on the forum for ‘spamming’.

I’ve seen threads on here that Epik was right in the middle of from racism/extremism/covid/bullying and other controversial topics that I could never understand why they was allowed to remain open, not only was Epik right in the middle of these threads, as a company they thrived off them, their staff flooded these threads and in my opinion used these threads as promotion and not only that, these threads was promoted on NamePros homepage as ‘most popular threads of the week/month’.

In the same way Twitter played its part into making Donald Trump president of the United States, NamePros contributed into making Epik into the registrar what they are. NamePros awarded Epik ‘NamePros registrar of the year’ if you award a company that and stick your own name on this award, you are pointing forum members in the direction of Epik, some whom may not have any understanding of ‘Epik’ and the other business ties this company has.

Thinking about that, should NamePros take reasonability for its own part in building up brand Epik? Take some reasonability how some forum members have got caught up in this hack and with that review its own rules in how it allows registrars and their staff to use this forum for business and review how it gives ‘registrar of the year’ awards in the future?

One of the threads that you posted was my thread and I think you are right about Namepros is responsible for letting Rob spam the forum everywhere.

 

[FernandoBMS]

Spam is part of Epik's corporate culture and heritage.

"If the name IntrustDomains rings a bell, its because you’ve likely received unsolicited email from them about an expiring domain name similar to one you own. When I googled “Intrust Domains”, the first page doesn’t include a link to the site. It’s mostly filled with complaints about the company. [Update: Epik says it didn’t acquire the email marketing part of what is commonly known as Intrust Domains.]" (DomainNameWire, 2011)

Edit: Also, for Epik's backstory, there are lots of interesting posts in NamePros accusing IntrustDomains, Market Plaza International, Namebind, Argam Poghosian, Bellnames, goname, and more - of being a network of bad faith actors.

Edit II: And, yeah, of course the russian/ucranian captive dev team that developed "shitty code" is IntrustDomains legacy too.

 

[branding]

As for the topic of faith, while it is a large part of my personal "why", I foresee a version of Epik coming into view that will formally separate my personal views from the operation of the company. Details about that will be announced. While I do not subscribe to the world view that humans evolved from primates, in no way should my personal views make anyone feel unwelcome at Epik.

 

[mr-x]

As moderators:

We've been criticized and attacked on the topic of #censorship, but there's a positive side to clear expectations: the moderation of NamePros doesn't suffer from bias, favoritism, or hypocrisy:

I and others disagree. See the conversation about forcing people to change their avatar as an example.

We often explain:

NamePros is not a #FreeSpeech website; it is a professional community with rules, standards, integrity, and etiquette. We have many rules and expectations of civility and respect, but they're clear, reasonable, and in the best interest of the community. Within that framework, members are free to express their opinions and ideas, even if unpopular.

For anyone looking for something different, there are other websites out there, but those websites will likely disappoint: be unpleasant or full of hypocrisy. We're nothing if not consistent and fair.

---

Andrew Allemann of @DomainNameWire wrote:

​

Yes.

Free speech is clearly defined in the Bill of Rights. NP is a private company and make decisions about what is allowed / disallowed without interference because of the #1A.

We don't have to agree.

 

[Derek Peterson]

Current-day hacktivism is one of an innate understanding of political theatre and narrative. It exists to serve as the checks and balances to neutralize threats to democratic and societal stability when the State lags behind or does not fulfil their role expeditiously.

It exists as an ally of the greater whole.

As do I.

So literally admitting to be fed mercenaries? My early childhood was spent under the control of the state and they were not very good me. I'm gonna pass. Seems like you and your little fury, pedo peddling buddy there are on the wrong side of things. No offense, but you all are not the sort of folks I want managing my speech.

Funny how you all never get the goods on Palentir, facial recognition companies, killer drone companies, bio-weapon labs, 23andme or any of the other companies that are actually trying to enslave and kill humans. Just focus on people who believe the US constitution or the Bible and try to live by it and especially those that do so in defiance of a tyrannical govt.

Anonymous aren't rebels trying to protect humanity from tyrants, they're Brownshirts.

 

[Kirtaner]

So literally admitting to be fed mercenaries? My early childhood was spent under the control of the state and they were not very good me. I'm gonna pass. Seems like you and your little fury, pedo peddling buddy there are on the wrong side of things. No offense, but you all are not the sort of folks I want managing my speech.

Funny how you all never get the goods on Palentir, facial recognition companies, killer drone companies, bio-weapon labs, 23andme or any of the other companies that are actually trying to enslave and kill humans. Just focus on people who believe the US constitution or the Bible and try to live by it and especially those that do so in defiance of a tyrannical govt.

Anonymous aren't rebels trying to protect humanity from tyrants, they're Brownshirts.

Oh make no mistake, Peter Thiel and his operations are very much a PoI of ours.

And I'm no Fed.

 

[Derek Peterson]

As moderators:

We've been criticized and attacked on the topic of #censorship, but there's a positive side to clear expectations: the moderation of NamePros doesn't suffer from bias, favoritism, or hypocrisy:

​

---

We often explain:

NamePros is not a #FreeSpeech website; it is a professional community with rules, standards, integrity, and etiquette. We have many rules and expectations of civility and respect, but they're clear, reasonable, and in the best interest of the community. Within that framework, members are free to express their opinions and ideas, even if unpopular.

For anyone looking for something different, there are other websites out there, but those websites will likely disappoint: be unpleasant or full of hypocrisy. We're nothing if not consistent and fair.

---

Andrew Allemann of @DomainNameWire wrote:

​

Yes.

I think you all are dong a fine job with moderation. The issue should not be about your moderation rules but rather if you implement them consistently. It is great you realize that and try hard to do it.

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

NamePros awarded Epik ‘NamePros registrar of the year’ if you award a company that and stick your own name on this award, you are pointing forum members in the direction of Epik, some whom may not have any understanding of ‘Epik’ and the other business ties this company has.

To be clear, when you write “NamePros,” you are referring to the community and not the website.

NamePros, the website, did not award Epik with that title. The promotion that you described is entirely automated based on community activity: popular threads are displayed based on the number of unique participants.

We had no involvement in Epik winning the poll in March 2020, and we had no involvement in Epik losing the poll in Dec 2020 - Jan 2021.

Community members have been hosting “registrar of the year” polls for a long time, including:

• 2016 - Favorite Domain Registrar Poll
  • @GoDaddy won. Namecheap was the runner-up.
• 2017 - Who is the best registrar in the business?
  • @GoDaddy won. NameSilo was the runner-up.
• 2019 - Who is the best registrar in the business?
  • @namesilo won. GoDaddy was the runner-up.
• March 2020 - Who is the best registrar in the business?
  • @epik won. Dynadot was the runner-up.
• March - April 2020 - Which registrar do you feel safest with?
  • @Dynadot won. Epik was the runner-up.
• Dec 2020 - Jan 2021 - Best/Favorite Registrar - End of year poll
  • @Dynadot won. Epik was the runner-up.
  • (This poll was created by the creator of the 2016 favorite registrar poll, in response to a community discussion titled: About Best Registrar Polls.)

In much the same way that you may blame us for Epik winning, Rob blamed us for the next poll, calling us thuggish for allowing a community-decided poll to run:

It was classless and thuggish to allow [redacted full name] (JB Lions), an avowed Epik attack dog, to host a Best Registrar poll. NP could not have picked a less neutral person.

Again, we had no involvement in the creation of that poll, and we did not pick who created it.

Did Rob want us to censor it?

See the conversation about forcing people to change their avatar as an example

Avatars are held to the same standard as posts.

Learn more:

• https://www.namepros.com/threads/guidelines-for-usernames-and-profile-photos.1027786/

We’re happy to discuss this in more detail, but please create a new thread for it.

Thanks.

 

[DN Playbook]

One of the threads that you posted was my thread and I think you are right about Namepros is responsible for letting Rob spam the forum everywhere.

NP gave RM plenty of rope to hang himself. Also he was an advertiser for a while.

To be clear, when you write “NamePros,” you are referring to the community and not the website.

NamePros, the website, did not award Epik with that title. The promotion that you described is entirely automated based on community activity: popular threads are displayed based on the number of unique participants.

We had no involvement in Epik winning the poll in March 2020, and we had no involvement in Epik losing the poll in Dec 2020 - Jan 2021.

It is quite obvious that Epik had a lot of staff accounts, as well as proxy accounts, which manipulated the results. Then Epik placed a self-made award badge and statement on their home page, "Epik recognized as Best Registrar Worldwide in NamePros 2020 Annual Industry Vote". It certainly makes it sound like this was awarded officially by NamePros, not just the community. You should have a policy against claims that imply NamePros, the website, has awarded something when, in fact, it was a simple forum poll that has no real validity or representation of the industry, no judges, no standards, no backing of or verification by NamePros.