Overdrive Cymbals

Overdrive Cymbals
Overdrive Cymbals T20 Series
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Friday, October 8, 2010

HACKED & ATTACKED !!

Hey Everyone,


T here again. This is a disclaimer for this posting there will be the use of bad language in this particular blog, there's just know other way to describe how I am feeling. My company Cymbals & Snares was hacked into on Sunday September 28th. To be honest some people are just Jerkoff's plain and simple. Who ever perpetrated this egregious attack will get theirs. I am both infuriated and devastated at the same time. I honestly hope whoever was behind the hacking gets killed in a horrible Automobile accident. That may be a little strong for some of you, but not me I'm just getting warmed up. It has caused irreparable harm to my company in both lost sales, money & reputation.





I have spent the last two years building a unique Percussion retail site. Trying to be everything that I thought was lacking in the drum retail market. Everything from product selection to customer service I not only know we can do it better, but for the better part of two years we have. Then something like this happens. Some really Fucked up individuals come along and screw with not only your company and business but your lively hood. This is not something I take to very well. As always I try to run a business that is open honest and transparent to it's customers, that's the way it should be.





Let me begin, September was a record month for us in many ways. We had a record number of hits on our website. We had a record number of transactions. We shipped a record number of products and naturally we set a new sales record. It was all good, We are just waiting on our holiday order from Silken. We just finalized a second distribution deal with a major foreign company, they make drum heads and we are quite anxious to introduce them to the US market. We received our final prototype of Overdrive Cymbals which have been warmly received by our customers. We were rolling and the tumultuous spring we had and it's issue's were squarely behind us. Then this happens and we once again for the second time this year face a disaster of epic proportions.





I went to turn on my computer Sunday morning. The website was having trouble coming up, This happens from time to time poor or a slow Internet connection are a hassle but usually clear themselves up in due time. I then decided to check our Non-ebay store email. Hmm that's not coming up either, don't ask me why but sometimes if I just reboot the computer it seems to clear a problem like this up. So I close everything down and hit the re-start button I'd come back to this in a little while. When I came back there was no difference. I finally got the computer up and running and I could tell instantly there was something wrong. I initially thought we had gotten a virus, soon I realized it was much more. Our analytics page did not look right, our shipping page didn't look right But I still hadn't realized the magnitude of what had happened.



It soon became apparent we had a serious problem. The magnitude was soon apparent, money had been purloined from our Paypal account, I grew both concerned and pissed off someone didn't just screw around with our computer someone had stolen from us, This was now a crime. Our computers were essentially frozen unable to access our store and soon we realized it was not confirmed to just our Ebay store. Our Yahoo mail account was compromised our Blog was screwed with ( you can access all our sites from a central point ) Once your " In " you can go just about anywhere Cymbals & Snares has a web presence.



A friend who's a computer wiz came over to see if he could straighten out the problem. After looking at it for awhile and me explaining what had happened including cash " Missing " from our account he uttered a phrase I would come all to familiar with " I think somebody Hacked into your site" At first I really didn't think that was correct. Who the hell would want to hack into my companies site ? For what ? We are a still a smaller company, but we are growing in every aspect. Sales, web presence and our wholesale business have all registered very healthy increases this year. Still what would you gain from it ? Slowly the picture became clearer. I started to form an opinion who and why this was done.

Legally I cannot accuse anyone unless I have proof who dun it. We do not. This has been such a setback for C & S it's not funny. Our shipping is in disarray, Our paypal account was emptied crippling our efforts to catch up on our late shipping. I don't mind getting the occasional negative feedback but to get negative feed backs for something beyond our control really pisses me off. I have been in contact with almost everyone who is waiting for their products and honestly so many have been more than supportive I can't ask for more. Still I do fear the inevitable 1or 2 or 3 negatives we will surely receive. I have one customer who already said he's leaving us a negative regardless of what happened. I offered him a refund with a free gift, not to "buy" him off but because it's the right thing to do. He turned it down he wants his cymbals and all I can do is wait for his negative comments. In a situation like this I feel helpless. It's just so aggravating. You work so hard to develop a company with a sterling reputation and it can get trashed overnight. Apparently some people could care less what has happened. It's aggravating and sad. So my friends that's it in a nut shell I really can't go on this is just to upsetting. I'll finish at another time. Before I go welcome subscriber 11. T.

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