The forum has lately seen an increase of spam messages. Thankfully these are often swiftly reported and we'll try to remove these as quick as we can. However it still prompts for some changes as well as some information about this increase.
Why can't I register a new account?
Fortunately newly registered spambots cannot post anything due to lacking a license key. But as we've seen with the license key check, they'll eventually manage to bypass whatever old security measures are still in place. Countless of bots are registered on a daily basis. Since I couldn't find a single genuine new member registration from the past few weeks, I've closed off new member registrations.
Vstep has long since removed any links between the game's online functionality and the forum, so it's no longer essential to register any license keys.
Already existing members can still post as usual.
How do spambots suddenly gain access to license keys?
It appears that due to some data breach, leaked login credentials have been used to gain access to matching usernames on this forum that use the same passwords. It's the textbook example of why user accounts need unique passwords on each website.
The user accounts posting these spam messages are from dormant members with either none or only a handful of posts.
Fortunately, if this is correct, it's a finite problem only related to members who had identical login information stolen from somewhere else.
Unfortunately, it is likely a lot of members.
Has this forum been hacked/breached?
So far there are no indications of any breach on this forum itself. If I run the email addresses of the hacked members through https://haveibeenpwned.com/ (handy website to check if your information has been leaked somewhere) I see a huge list of data breaches in which the email addresses were involved.
That said, do bear in mind that for some reason this forum runs on an unsecured connection. Meaning that any passwords you enter are communicated to the server without encryption. In other words, on public wifi it is easy to intercept your login credentials. Also without an adblocker, it seems that this forum is infected with advertisements as well, so there are definitely security holes.
Change your password
If you are using a password that you've used on other websites, I recommend changing it for a unique one.
