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To All Fabricator Network Members and Visitors:
First I want to apologize for a hacker to even have the ability to get into this site. I should have changed my username and password from the ISSFA website. That was my fault.
An update for all of you is in order. I spoke with Oxley last Wednesday and we discovered who the hacker is. The ISSFA staff member, the hacker, and Vendetta are all the same person. It was confirmed by the IP address, username and the password used by Vendetta on The Fabricator Network. The ISSFA staff member obtained my username and password from their excel list. The hacker then logged in with my admin username and password. Although I know the name of the Hacker I will not be posting his name on The Fabricator Network, nor will I allow it to be posted by others. I believe a person is innocent until proven guilty by a court.
Personally, I was extremely upset that this has happened. When I worked with ISSFA on the BB and website, I went to extremes to protect all the member information. I would never consider jeopardizing your private information for my own gain. To find out that an ISSFA staff member that worked in the ISSFA office did this, just blows me away. I can’t count the time and energy researching this security issue. I’m still not sure why they illegally accessed this website, I guess time will tell.
Last, I want everyone to completely understand that the ISSFA Computer Committee is not involved in any way with this situation.
Security Note: I know what the Hacker had access to on The Fabricator Network but I have no way of knowing what personal information has been accessed at ISSFA. The list I saw when building the ISSFA website included name, address, elephone, username and password. Please be aware that ISSFA accepts credit cards for membership and puchases on their website.
If you have given ISSFA your personal information or credit card information please contact them direct at 1-877-464-7732 or 1-877-GO-ISSFA
Wow, Andy, just – wow!
Can you let us know what the disposition of this person’s employment is at ISSFA?Tom
It makes me very curious how ISSFA is going to handle this. Or for that matter if we will ever know how they handle it.
Shane
Andy,
If the person or persons have been identified, and if they have admitted to doing it, I’m not sure why you would not want to say who it is. Is this the same person or persons that hacked into Mory’s business computer? I’m sure there are more things going on behind the scenes than anyone is saying, or at least I would hope so…..
I would take it that if proven, specifically in a court of law, them your time will need to be reimbursed. If it is the same person that hacked Mory’s system, with all the time and expense he also incurred, I hope that both of you go full force legally against this individual. This then would be the same person who accessed my personel info or lack there of at ISSFA and did the same with Cygnus. If proven, then this person should be summarily fired from ISSFA and sent down the road. If not, then they can send my money back and I’ll take it up with Cygnus about having to join an orginization such as that to save on booth money at the SFD show, when they alledgedly employ a person of such little character !
Andy:
I respect your accepting your share of responsibility in this matter. Live and learn.
While I appreciate the thoroughness of your investigation, this is not a court of law and “beyond a reasonable doubt” and even “a preponderance of the evidence” is not good enough. Only a confession by the accused may quickly put this matter to rest. Has this happened?
KC brings up an excellent point. Vendetta’s viewpoint was able to be expressed on the fabricatornetwork, yet when he is “caught” there are miles of distance between him and those who may have put him up to this. How incredibly convenient. Suppose Vendetta confesses completely. How do we know he isn’t “taking one for the team”? I find the idea that a relatively new hire harboring the invective expressed by Vendetta rather hard to believe.
I agree with the consensus of Tom, Shane and Dave regarding ISSFA’s response to this matter. A forthcoming admission of wrongdoing and subsequent apology by ISSFA is worthless and insincere without monetary compensation to you, Mory and anyone else that lost time or incurred other expenses from this matter. History has demonstrated ISSFA’s unwillingness to reimburse wronged fabricators. Unfortunately, one cannot simply cut a check to clear ISSFA’s sullied reputation.
The suspension of the employee until the matter is investigated is an appropriate immediate response. We’re not talking about a guy who comes in late for work occasionally here. If substantiated, this shows an appalling lack of character requiring termination at a minimum.
Fortunately, the ISSFA Board of Directors will have time to thoroughly investigate this matter before taking appropriate action at their meeting on December 8, 2006 in New Orleans, Louisiana. They must resist the urge to get this sordid mess behind them as quickly as possible. The board not only needs to ascertain whether or not Vendetta acted alone, but to reassess the judgment of the person(s)/system(s) in place that resulted in his hiring in the first place.
Sincerely,
Joe Colett
Joe,
I think monetary conpensation is great, but at what cost to me. What hoops do I have to jump through to get that to happen. Does EveryContractor vs. Mory ring a bell. That was for a minimal amount of only $2000. Took over two months and lots of people defending Mory to actually see his refund.
You bring up the point of who was at fault, I don’t know that. That would be complete speculation on my part and because of the seriousness of this situation, I don’t want to assume anything. The reputation of many are on the line and I will not be the one to falsly accuse and innocent person.
Rather than pursue this incident further, I have decided step back from all things ISSFA. I will allow my membership to run out at the end of the year. I will build relationships with others in the industry to help the fabricators. In the year and half working with ISSFA, I did not see a huge difference in actual member benefits to the mainstream fabricator members.
I believe concentrating on this site and not ISSFA will help all of you, benefit this site and help the industry on a whole.
What would come from me pursuing compensation from ISSFA or the Hacker?
I have dealt with this issue before Andy and I’ll tell you this…If they left the excel spreadsheet on thier server and he had admin rights to it….he did not hack it. If the law gets involved and they check into his comps(and I mean really check into his computers) they will figure out what he did. They are way too many seams in the law that provide ways for people to get away with stuff like this. I have had some of my sites hacked before also and nothing was done about it…..but yes yes he got his in the end….payback is a @!%&*. You are a standup guy for taking some responsibility for this, but you cannot control where they keep their info at. I also am very curious to see how ISSFA handles this one. Hope everything works out in the end.
Rob is correct in his statement. Our IT people have documented and recorded everything that has happened. I can no longer discuss this issue. However, I did receive an e-mail inviting me to the board meeting on december 8th in New Orleans to discuss isssues that I supposedly have. They said they would allot 30 minutes. On such short notice, I declined and wished them Happy Holidays. I don’t know who told them I had issues, it was not me. I did say my membership will expire on December the 15th and I will not be renewing it. So it will also be a waste of my time and money. I’m not flying anywhere. However, someone will be in touch at a later date.
Mory
I agree with the consensus of
Tom, Shane and Dave regarding ISSFA’s response to this matter. A
forthcoming admission of wrongdoing and subsequent apology by ISSFA is
worthless and insincere without monetary compensation to you, Mory and
anyone else that lost time or incurred other expenses from this matter.Frankly, I don’t think ISSFA has any obligation until it gives this some thought.
Shouldn’t take forever, of course, but still…Tom
Well, at least ISSFA is doing some damage control, with them contacting Mory and offering a slot to be heard. A lady from issfa called yesterday, said that they had heard that I was having trouble joining issfa. I told her no such thing, that I joined a discussion on whether or not issfa was worth joining and that I had decided to do so after December 1rst. She was very nice and helpful, sent me an application and offered to get it expidited. You think they are turning a corner here?
Today, I got a fax from Oxley, restating their willingness to accept my application to issfa. I intend to reply to Oxley tonite after I get done browsing the fab network site. I am impressed that they have been listening and realize how they need to take these issues seriously. I was not impressed with the tag line at the bottom of the fax, saying that any correspondence was confidential, subject to applicable law and that I should not share it with others without his permission. I intend to make this well know in my email to him. Hopefully it is just some boiler plate on the fax form, but regardless, such a statement has no place in the culture of a non profit organization unless it is a sensitive matter concerning legal or employee privacy issues.
I’m still gonna send them a check, now way in hell I am sending them a credit card number till they disclose who was snooping though the records there and have removed that person from access to any and all sensitive info. I’d forgive them for a bad hire, haven’t we all made those, but their responsibility is clear in this matter.
Andy, while I appreciate your willingness to protect someone till they are convicted, that shouldn’t be the standard here. This isn’t criminal court here, where 12 citizens and a judge decide the case without knowing any details personally. If you have your mind made up beyond a reasonable doubt, and Issfa admits the details, I agree with Dave that this person deserves to be hounded out of the industry. His screen name said it all, Vendetta. He deserves his punishment and the scorn of every fabricator whether they pay dues to issfa or not.
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