Dear Friend,

Thank you so much for your faithful support and prayers in response to the Muslim attacks on me personally, and on the FFPC website after representing Rifqa Bary and helping to secure her freedom in this country. In response to our last e-mail alert on the website hacking there were several questions asked to us about more details about the incident. We would like to take a moment to answer some of those frequently asked questions.

Q- How did the hacker actually get into the website?
A- The hacker found an exploit (vulnerability) in the website’s “contact-us” page and gained access to back end CMS of the site. Then a virus was used to access to the entire server in Fort Lauderdale where the website is hosted. The technicians we are working with described the hacking as a fairly sophisticated operation that was done in a matter of only 15 minutes.

Q- What type of damage was done to the website?
A- The hacker erased most of the data and the files. Much of the content was erased and some of the banner ads were also deleted.

Q- Why wasn’t the website backed up?
A- The site was backed up. The virus the hacker used also destroyed the back-ups of the code on the server as well. The back up was on a seperate system in the same server facility. There were no offsite or online backups used. This will change in the future.

Q- How do you know the hacker was a Muslim?
A- There are several pieces of evidence which point to the fact that the hacker wanted us to know that his "Great Islam" motivated this criminal act:

1. The hacker left a large picture with Arabic letters which read “Allah”.
2. The hacker left an obscene message which read in broken English:“You got hacked due to you s**t thinking about Great Islam.”
3. The hacker left his name, “Jhon Tairy”.
4. Four days before the hack, I was sued by a Muslim lawyer named Omar Tarazi for 10 million dollars in an Ohio Federal Court. A story in the Orlando Sentinel mentioned that I also led the Florida Family Policy Council which ran on the worldwide web.

Q- Did you report this to the authorities?
A- Yes. All the facts and details surounding the hacking was reported to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. It was also reported to the Orange County Economic Crimes Division.

Q- Why does it cost $20,000 to build a new website?
A- The old FFPC website that was destroyed, was a high-end, custom site with original art, a unique design and a number of proprietary features. Good websites for corporations or large organizations like ours with all the speciality features can easily cost upwards of $30-50,000. Very simple websites with only basic features can be purchased for much less. This is one of the most strategic tools that the FFPC uses and we are not looking to just throw up a quick and sub-standard blog site. One of the first bids we received for the new site was actually $25,000.

We are trusting in our sovereign God and the fact that what the enemy means for evil, God means for good. On behalf of my wife Olivia and our whole family, I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you. When we fight the good fight, we can almost tangbly feel your prayers and support. We simply could not do our work without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you…

Sincerely,
John Stemberger
President

Ouch….

I'm very sorry to hear about this disaster.

Lesson learned: Make and keep a secure OFF-LINE, PHYSICALLY READ-ONLY backup of your entire website and code so recovery is possible.

God bless you!