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Comparison of furry website HTTPS configurations

Your rating: None Average: 3.6 (7 votes)

Security is necessary for one's own protection, both offline (to protect one's physical safety and possessions) and online (protecting identity, money and, as the our digital and real lives become more integrated, even physical possessions). Our own behaviours and security systems need to work together to be effective. It's no good having the latest burglar alarm, strong locks on your doors and a security gate if one leaves the door wide open. Similarly, it's great to lock the door each time one goes out - but if that door is secured solely by a latch, it won't be effective. As I've given some basic guidelines on how to stay safe online, I'm now comparing how furry sites are helping their users stay safe.

Update (Jan 28): All Weasyl servers now receive an A grade, however the server configuration is still not consistent.

Furry websites face broad denial-of-service attacks

Your rating: None Average: 4.7 (21 votes)

Fur Affinity connection timeout Online furry communities are reeling after a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks now entering their second day, which not only knocked out Fur Affinity, but have impacted a variety of less-well-visited art and chat sites.

Fur Affinity has been practically unavailable since the disruption started, at 10PM EDT on Tuesday. Its forums, which initially remained up, went offline Wednesday afternoon.

SoFurry was the next-worst hit, with almost complete downtime since their attack started, also late on Wednesday, while Inkbunny, Weasyl, e621 and F-list have all suffered attacks.

Reactions to the attacks have been mixed, with Weasyl upgrading servers, while Inkbunny advised users to "take the opportunity to spend time with the important people in your life".

Rogue coder's attack takes F-List down

Your rating: None Average: 4 (3 votes)

Furry roleplaying description site F-List is down after an attack from a disgruntled developer.

While the developer's SSH access had been removed, he regained access through a backdoor. The coder gave all users administrative rights, including access to email addresses and IP logs.

In a maintenance notice, F-List founder Hexxy urged calm:

F-List will be fine. The only interest we have is in bringing the site back up, and ensuring everything is secure. A former coder uses his access to F-List's servers to mess things up. No permanent damage has been done, but things are a little emotional right now. Don't do anything stupid, that doesn't help anyone, it just creates more damage.

Repairs to the site are expected to take at least two days, but a temporary copy is available.