Chuang Yi's website is hacked and spammed!

[PokeAwesome94]

For those of you who don't know, Chuang Yi Publishing Pte Ltd. is a Singapore based company and one of the only publishers of English Pokémon manga together with Viz Media, LLC. They publish more Pokémon mangas than Viz, Including Pokémon Adventures Ruby & Sapphire, FireRed & LeafGreen and Emerald arcs (vol. 15-29). Their translations are often consider more correct and better than the Viz translations by the fanbase.


A while ago I was going to look for some Pokémon manga info at Chuang Yi's official website and when I tried to go there Google Safe Browsing stopped me saying that there was a risk of an malicious attack and blocked it. I thought that it must have been a false positive, so yesterday I went back to the website, still blocked. I then used my Android phone (thought that the malicious content maybe wouldn't work on a smart phone). When I got there there it was white and filled with spam advertising a medical pill and a website selling it. I scrolled down and the usual Chuang Yi page was still there and fully functional from what I could see, but the upper two thirds of the home page was completely spammed.

I also remember that the same thing happened to me some years ago with Google Safe Browsing warning me. I didn't go any further then, so I don't know if that attack is similar to this attack.
Guess Chuang Yi doesn't have good enough security.


I haven't noticed anything unusual with my Android phone and Google Safe Browsing blocked it on my computer before any harm could be done.

Google Safe Browsing is included in Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. If you use either of those browsers Chuang Yi's website will be automatically blocked when you try to visit it. I use Firefox.


I would advise the readers of this thread that you do not go there until it's been taken care of.
Also, since Chuang Yi's customer service use the website's domain name for their e-mail service I would strongly recommend that you don't send any e-mails to them right now, or the hackers and spammers might get your e-mail address.

How can you be sure when it's been taken care of without going there you ask?


Check these links to see if it's safe again:

virustotal.com/#url (copy and paste this URL: chuangyi.com.sg , click reanalyse and it'll use 30 anti-virus engines to scan it, including Google Safe Browsing)
google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://chuangyi.com.sg (will most likely block it 90 days after it's been cleaned up)


For those of you who want to safely browse Chuang Yi's website in the mean time, use these externally archived pages:
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://chuangyi.com.sg/ (index)
http://web.archive.org/web/20101225011850/http://www.chuangyi.com.sg/new2/index.php (newest archived page, from December 25th, 2010)



I wonder if Chuang Yi know about this, one would have thought that they'd take the website offline or at least warn their customers through their Facebook page.
I'm wondering if we should give them a call and see how it's going? Any thoughts?

Tel: (65) 6274 5162 / (65) 6274 8713 (found on this externally archived page from December 25th, 2010, so it should be the real deal)

If you call Chuang Yi, please post their reply in this thread, so we don't spam their phone.

Since Chuang Yi's customer service use the website's domain name for their e-mail service I would strongly recommend that you don't send any e-mails to them right now, or the hackers and spammers might get your e-mail address.



Serebii.Net Forums thread: serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?583165-Chuang-Yi-s-website-is-hacked-and-spammed!
PokéCommunity forums thread: pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=7322288

 

[BreeZaps]

I know about them being hacked. When I found out I was mad and sad . Mad at the hacker. And Sad that the website is down. One day the website will be up. Im hopeing.

 

[Eitarou]

It's been like this for over a month.

I'm sure they know already.

 

[Catilena1890]

That is horrible! I hope they get it fixed.

I`m not surprised this is taking so long. A hacking like that would prompt all kinds of safety protocols to go into effect, and a good business will NOT reopen until they are sure they cannot be targeted by hackers and viruses again.

 

[JB2448]

The thing is that they didn't do any closing. The only thing protecting consumers from accessing their webpage right now is Google. Your so-called "safety protocols" are all via Google, not Chuang Yi.

 

[Catilena1890]

Hence the reason why I put in the word "good" in front of business.

 

[PokeAwesome94]

It's been like this for over a month.

I'm sure they know already.

I didn't know that. I get most of my Pokémon manga info from Bulbapedia and Dogasu's Backpack, so I usually only visit Chuang Yi's website a couple of times a year. In this case I'm a Slowpoke.
I did some Googling and couldn't find any any official or unofficial information about this and since Chuang Yi failed to warn their costumers I thought I might do that and maybe save some of those who don't use Firefox or Chrome.
This thread is also made so that we can discuss the situation and share information.

The thing is that they didn't do any closing. The only thing protecting consumers from accessing their webpage right now is Google.

I don't know much about managing a website, but couldn't Chuang Yi contact the hosting company (NewMedia Express Pte Ltd) and ask if they could block outside access to the content Chuang Yi have on the server, either via a program / programming or by pulling a wire? However, if they pulled a wire they'd probably also take the other 51 sites that are being hosted on that server offline.

Or, Chuang Yi could contact their domain registration company (WEBVISIONS PTE LTD) and they could redirect the URL to Chuang Yi's Facebook page. There Chuang Yi would make a post saying something like: "Our website has been hacked, sorry for he inconvenience. We're working hard to get it fixed."



Sources:
Hosting info: http://whois.domaintools.com/202.150.215.50 (found through http://whois.domaintools.com/chuangyi.com.sg --> Server Stats --> 202.150.215.50)
Domain registration info: http://whois.domaintools.com/chuangyi.com.sg





Does anybody think I should try to submit this to AnimeNewsNetwork or do you think it would hurt Chuang Yi's reputation more than it would be worth to save their visitors from malicious content and get Chuang Yi to react and release a statement?

UPDATE:

The externally archived pages started working again, so now I've updated the first post with Chuang Yi's phone number and the most recent archived page (December 25th, 2010).​