Good news for the ship modeling community: Model Ship World is back online.
As many of you know, MSW was taken down on May 2nd following a devastating cyberattack that destroyed the forum’s data — including all backups. Ships in Scale published the NRG’s original statement shortly after the attack, and we promised to share updates as they came. Here is the latest, directly from NRG Chairman Toni Levine:
As many of you know, Model Ship World (MSW) was the victim of a massive cyber-attack on May 2nd. A group of hackers found a way around server security and broke into many servers, destroying data. The attackers not only deleted the files from our primary server housing MSW but also deleted the three backups we had on a secondary, separate server.
Tragically, we were in the process of moving MSW to a different host, one with more robust security, including the ways the backups were held. If the attack had occurred one week later, we would have already migrated and therefore been unaffected by it. Moving forward, we will also maintain a local hard drive backup of the site, under the control of the Nautical Research Guild office.
If you were a member of MSW before, welcome back. The look and feel is very similar to what it was before the attack. Since all data was lost, you will need to rejoin, not just sign in. A legitimate email address is required to join but that information is not searchable by the members. You will then be known by your screen name, just like before. Keep your old one and be instantly recognized by your fellow modelers or use this as an opportunity to rename yourself.
If anyone has saved build logs, either your own or other members’, send one of the Administrators or Moderators a PM.
Remember, MSW is owned by the NRG. There are significant expenses associated with maintaining the site. Consider donating to help defray the additional cost of running MSW. Or better yet, join the Guild. Not only would you help support MSW, but you would receive our quarterly Journal and have access to every online workshop we have presented over the last few years.
— Toni Levine, Chairman, Nautical Research Guild
Welcome back, MSW. We’re glad you’re still sailing.