MARS Robotics

ATTENTION ALL MARS FANS:

I’ve spoken individually with several team members with website questions & want to catch everyone up on what this sub-team has been dealing with.

Last summer the MARS site was hacked multiple times with code inserted & hidden from our view. A fake Wachovia Bank site & a fake Bank of America page (looking identical to the real sites’ log-in page & asking for private account info from phished victims) were using our MARS web hosting account. After dealing with each occurrence as they were discovered, the need to update the MARS website with the latest format and security was clear.

Unfortunately, when updated, several areas of our site were incompatible with the new program & did not work. James C., Alex T. & Tim A. have struggled to repair or replace items, and have faced many complaints from fellow team members. Please understand, these guys work with no technical mentors, struggle trying to do any work on the slow, blocked school computers & only James (a 10th grader with limited experience with the MARS website) is officially on the web sub-team.

It is a testament to the old MARS website that so many people miss it. The deadline for submitting this year’s website for competition is Thurs., 2/14. Constructive criticism is always welcome & the guys will submit the best site possible, but I’m personally tired of useless negativity. Complainers are welcome to join the web sub-team & help, particularly with next year’s site.

Hope this clears up some misconceptions & explains what has happened with the site. Thank-you to members who have recognized & supported the hard work going on,

Pat Arnold

***Below is just some of the correspondence regarding initial requests from Wachovia to totally take down the MARS site***

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Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 1:57 PM
To: pat@arnoldfamily.org
Subject: FW: Your site is hosting a known "ACTIVE" phishing site, please bring it down ASAP, Thank You

The MARS site was hacked and “phishing” code installed making it look like an official site of Wachovia Bank, The code was buried so noone would normally see it. I got the email below from Wachovia basically asking us to take it down. Tim has already removed it. I sent an email back to them explaining.

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Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 1:50 PM
To: 'jennifer.holton@wachovia.com'
Subject: RE: Your site is hosting a known "ACTIVE" phishing site, please bring it down ASAP, Thank You

Jennifer,

Thank you for making us aware of the attack on the marsbot.org website. It appears that the site was hacked and the phishing code installed. We dislike this sort of thing as much as Wachovia and it was removed immediately.

The marsbot.org site is for the Jupiter High School FIRST robotics team and is used to promote the team. The webmaster has taken steps to prevent this from happening again.

I have attached the offending files from the site for your analysis. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Aaron Arnold
MARS Mentor

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From: jennifer.holton@wachovia.com [mailto:jennifer.holton@wachovia.com] On Behalf Of ISOC@wachovia.com
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 10:18 AM
To: abuse@dimenoc.com; a2arnold@adelphia.net
Subject: Your site is hosting a known "ACTIVE" phishing site, please bring it down ASAP, Thank You

To whom it may concern:

Please be aware that Wachovia Corporation (“Wachovia”) is the owner of the Wachovia trademark. Wachovia has expended substantial resources to advertise and promote its products and services and considers the trademark to be a valuable asset of Wachovia. Accordingly, we request that your site bring down the Phishing web site at:

http://marsbot.org/signin/wachovia/safetylast/s.htm

It has come to our attention that your site is hosting a known Active Phishing Site which is confusingly similar to the Wachovia trademark (the “Infringing Mark”). The use of the Infringing Mark is unauthorized and infringes on Wachovia’s rights under federal and state Trademark and unfair competition laws. The intent of this site is to defraud customers in an attempt to capture and use their identity. Network Whois records indicate the IP address of the Phishing site is registered to your Internet Space.