The NHSRA Website

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Hello:

As many of you have certainly noticed, the Association has been having some large stability issues with the “nhsra.org” website this past week.

This past Sunday, June 26^th, the National Junior High Finals Rodeo launched in Gallup, New Mexico.  Within roughly 10 minutes of the beginning of the first rodeo, the website crashed.  During the course of the investigation that evening, it was determined that the website was the focus of a massive cyber attack – a “Denial of Service” (DOS) attack, which is caused by a computer virus that has been distributed to hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.  The goal of a DOS attack is to use those infected computers to basically “hit” a website over and over and over again.  By flooding the website with hits, the site eventually crashes and it is taken off-line.  “DOS attacks” are very difficult to defend against and they have brought down very large targets in the recent past, even including the website of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Please note:  Accessing the NHSRA website has in NO WAY infected your computer or device – The virus that is executing the attack is residing on other computers.  The NHSRA site itself is completely clean and uninfected.

In order to better protect the website, it was moved to a new server on the West Coast that is much better equipped to handle these types of attacks.  The attacks continued and the site began crashing again a few days later.  At this point, the site has crashed no fewer than 14 times and probably closer to 20 times overall.  The situation has degraded to the point where it is making it difficult for other businesses to stay online at the same server provider.  Therefore, the site has been taken down for the time being, in order to keep the impact from affecting other entities who are not…and should not…be impacted by this situation.

A formal complaint has been filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance

(BJA).  All of the relevant information will be made available to the authorities, including server information from our provider.  It is our hope that these government agencies will be able to track who is responsible for this attack and subsequently bring them to justice.  Our chief suspicion at this point is that it is likely an animal rights group or a person associated with one of those groups who is responsible for this attack. 

The NJHFR – as well as the NHSFR – is the high-point of the year for the NHSRA.  By executing this attack, the person or group responsible was clearly hoping to ruin the accomplishment and enjoyment that our members have worked so hard to obtain.  Needless to say, they will not succeed.

The NHSRA will continue to provide results of the rodeos online.  By logging on to the Association’s section at iHigh.com, you will be able to view all of the performance results, as well as Current Overall Standings from the rodeo.  You will also be able to continue to view the performances on-line.  To see the results and view the webcasts, simply visit http://nhsra.ihigh.com

We deeply apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused our members and supporters.  If you have any questions about the situation – or if you have any information that may help the NHSRA to track the perpetrators or resolve the situation – please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

Mike Hausmann

NHSRA Times Editor

NHSRA Media Director

National High School Rodeo Association

1-800-466-4772, ext. 213

www.nhsra.org

RODEO. . .THE MOST FUN EVER ON DIRT ! ! !