Wow.
That sucks.
I'm sorry guys!
Well, blame the site admin or the host.
It's probably the site admin, most hosts have security protocols
If their InfoSec had been up to date this wouldn't have happened.
They were probably running an unsecured backend and a hacker waltzed right in.
Believe it or not, your HD crashing is a lot better than having a botnet installed by a virus and having everything you type transmitted to a Russian or Chinese hacker, including your credit card info & personal info.
Personally, I'm no fan of NES, their politics suck, but I wouldn't wish this kind of attack on anyone because it absolutely f's up
Not just their site but people's personal computers.
**Folks who have fried computers need to install new hard drives & re-install their operating system from the backup disc that came with your computer.
If you did not get a disc, then look at the Microsoft sticker with your operating system's serial number, it's on the underside of the computer.
Email Microsoft and explain the situation and they'll hook you up with a new operating system download or disc.
Believe it or not, they actually care about this sort of situation, and you OWN a license for that OS so they WILL help you out.
As to data recovery, well, that's the hard part. In this day and age everyone should have a $99 1TB portable hard drive and routinely back up their data, but many people don't. You can also buy backup storage from a "cloud" storage space like Dropbox or Apple, and auto-backup to it at will.
It's possible to recover the data, but it won't be cheap, so make sure it's important before you start calling data recovery places like BestBuy.
I'm going to send Carter a note on FB & see if he can get this site an httpS protocol.
Just so you all know, EVERY post that you write here via the "http" address header is insecure & if you're using an unsecured network or public wifi (even on & especially your smartphone!) a lot of your info can easily be grabbed right out of thin air by a hacker using a "sniffer" program.
Any questions I can answer, feel free to ask.
XXX