The Paracast Newsletter
March 5, 2023
www.theparacast.com
Discover the Secrets of the Unconscious Mind, the Paranormal, the Afterlife and UFOs with Robert Davis and Dave Beaty on The Paracast!
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! Use the coupon code ufo20 to receive a 20% discount on five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment. And if you don't want to use PayPal, we now also offer a second payment option, from Stripe, which accepts major credit or debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. For "qualified users," you can also take advantage of Pay Later options, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz present an evening with Robert Davis and Dave Beaty. Davis served as a professor for the State University of New York for over thirty years, where he conducted research in the behavioral and neurosensory sciences. He has published three books: 1) "The UFO Phenomenon: Should I Believe?" 2) "Life after Death: An Analysis of the Evidence" and 3) "Unseen Forces: The Integration of Science, Reality and You." He also decided to turn his book, "Unseen Forces," into a documentary called: "The Consciousness Connection" with Emmy Award winner, Dave Beaty of Dreamtime Entertainment. This film includes leading researchers from many disciplines, and is designed to help bridge the gap between science, consciousness, and spirituality by integrating current experimental research and theories with life-changing personal accounts of extraordinary experiences reported by millions worldwide.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on March 12: Discover the mysteries of the unconscious mind and the paranormal as Robert Davis and Dave Beaty return to talk with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about their upcoming documentary, "The Consciousness Connection" Topics include the possibilities of life after death, the relationship with near-death experiences and UFO abductions, the strange case of the Havana Syndrome and the Pentagon's UAP investigation and its limited results so far. Dave Beaty is an Emmy Ward winner, and Robert Davis is a retired professor who has conducted research into the behavioral and neurosensory sciences. Beaty's career highlights include national programs on Travel Channel, History Channel and PBS and, more recently the viral UFO documentary film “The Nimitz Encounters,” which has received over 5 million YouTube views since May 2019.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop, and check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel.
Online Criminals — Early 2023 Edition
By Gene Steinberg
So 2023 has been a somewhat busy time for us, but not always in a good way.
On February 15th, at around 9:30 AM, I had just finished breakfast when I noticed a warning from the service that monitors our sites that they were down. They couldn’t be accessed.
I checked all of them. Our server includes several smaller sites, including one for the Mayasites Travel Services, which takes you into Mayan country. Sure enough none of them were available. As with a PC, my next step was to restart the server. Since I couldn’t “talk” to the server itself, I did that via our host’s cloud control panel.
And I waited, and I wanted.
Normally it takes just a few minutes for the server to reboot, and then everything will be normal. This time, however, nothing worked. Since it was clear that something serious was wrong, I rung up the host, IONOS, to find out what was up.
They checked the server — these machines are basically glorified PCs — and they couldn’t find any obvious hardware issues. But it would only boot into the box’s firmware or BIOS.
I realized at this point that it might take a while to set things right at the datacenter, so we agreed to set up a replacement server. Within 10 minutes or so, it was running, all right, but it took the better part of an hour to configure the control panel — Plesk — to run our sites the way we wanted.
Since the broken server couldn’t be connected to the new one, I had to restore our files from an offsite backup. IONOS offers a system called HiDrive, and I also use my Microsoft OneDrive as an alternate.
Either way, copying hundreds and hundreds of files took time. The sites gradually returned, but it took nearly 18 hours to restore everything.
So what about the original server? Well, a cloud server is expected to run 24/7 perfectly without any interruptions. In the real world, they do fail from time to time, either due to a software glitch or a hardware failure. That’s why Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and other humongous companies experience outages from time to time.
I assume that IONOS people fixed the server, so it could be deployed to another custom.
Now, if you’re running a web site for personal uses or to run a business, a recent backup is critical. Some hosting services offer backups as part of the package; with others it’s an extra cost option. Such cloud-based backup services as Backblaze — and even a Microsoft One Drive — can store your backups and they're not expensive.
With the hardware back up and running, everything seemed fine with our sites for over two weeks, until I received a warning notice from IONOS and the Netcraft Takedown Service about a possible phishing link on one of our sites.
Now I take all the precautions I know of to protect our server. A virus scanner monitors all incoming and outgoing email, for example. As with a Mac or a PC, I keep all of our software up to date to fix vulnerabilities as they’re discovered.
So what was this warning about anyway?
Well, it seems that one of our domains, mostly used to test WordPress updates, for plugins and themes, had mysteriously sprouted a couple of extra files with bogus content. The folders and their contents were deleted, and the two latest backups were rerun to remove the duplicates.
Now this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered a security issue. It’s a dangerous world out there. So a couple of months back, I saw a prompt with a Google warning when trying to log into the server’s hostname. That made little sense, since the domain wasn’t used for any other purpose.
I allocated another domain to use instead. The process is easy to do, but it takes time, since I also had to make a few changes the setups for all the domains. After that, all seemed right — at least until that takedown order arrived for a totally different problem.
But how could such things happen? The server’s original domain didn’t host a separate site.
Perhaps I have the answer.
Late last year, I signed up with a 24/7 server administration service to monitor the sites, protect against malware, and fine tune performance. There are several high-quality firms in India that can do the job at a much lower price than you find here in the west.
Service quality was so-so. I had to make multiple requests, sometimes, to get things done. I canceled the service after the first month, and attempted to get on with my life.
Shortly after this happened, the domain for the server’s hostname was flagged by Google. Also, the mysterious phishing file I was warned about may have been there for weeks, perhaps during the time when the server hostname was blocked, and it’s taken this long to activate. Curious.
Now the support service was none too happy about my decision to cancel, so I have to admit I am just a little suspicious about what went on. Supposedly the server should have been more secure after the updates.
But that would mean that they did a few nasty things to my server as payback for my abrupt decision to cancel. I did change access credentials to my server, but maybe I wasn’t fast enough.
It’s not something I can prove, however, so I’m not revealing their name. That would be unfair. The online world is dangerous, and such things can happen due to acts of mischief by people just about anywhere.
I’m suspicious strictly because of the timing, and I’ve gone through the setups, again, to make sure there are no funky files for any of our sites. And, as you know, a small band of online stalkers has been after me for years doing nasty stuff. Could they have been responsible? Again, I am not going to accuse anybody in particular without evidence.
But if there are any online security experts out there, please contact me. I still have a few older backups with the original suspicious content that you can examine if necessary. Server logs may also reveal sources for improper behavior.
For the rest of you, whatever computer or smartphone you use, it’s always a good idea to install the latest software and security updates. And never, ever, allow someone you don’t know to borrow your smartphone or computer, even for a few minutes. You just never know what can happen.
And some people think we folks who explore the world of the paranormal are just paranoid. You see, in some cases, such paranoia is justified.
Copyright 1999-2022 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
March 5, 2023
www.theparacast.com
Discover the Secrets of the Unconscious Mind, the Paranormal, the Afterlife and UFOs with Robert Davis and Dave Beaty on The Paracast!
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! Use the coupon code ufo20 to receive a 20% discount on five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment. And if you don't want to use PayPal, we now also offer a second payment option, from Stripe, which accepts major credit or debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. For "qualified users," you can also take advantage of Pay Later options, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz present an evening with Robert Davis and Dave Beaty. Davis served as a professor for the State University of New York for over thirty years, where he conducted research in the behavioral and neurosensory sciences. He has published three books: 1) "The UFO Phenomenon: Should I Believe?" 2) "Life after Death: An Analysis of the Evidence" and 3) "Unseen Forces: The Integration of Science, Reality and You." He also decided to turn his book, "Unseen Forces," into a documentary called: "The Consciousness Connection" with Emmy Award winner, Dave Beaty of Dreamtime Entertainment. This film includes leading researchers from many disciplines, and is designed to help bridge the gap between science, consciousness, and spirituality by integrating current experimental research and theories with life-changing personal accounts of extraordinary experiences reported by millions worldwide.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on March 12: Discover the mysteries of the unconscious mind and the paranormal as Robert Davis and Dave Beaty return to talk with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about their upcoming documentary, "The Consciousness Connection" Topics include the possibilities of life after death, the relationship with near-death experiences and UFO abductions, the strange case of the Havana Syndrome and the Pentagon's UAP investigation and its limited results so far. Dave Beaty is an Emmy Ward winner, and Robert Davis is a retired professor who has conducted research into the behavioral and neurosensory sciences. Beaty's career highlights include national programs on Travel Channel, History Channel and PBS and, more recently the viral UFO documentary film “The Nimitz Encounters,” which has received over 5 million YouTube views since May 2019.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop, and check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel.
Online Criminals — Early 2023 Edition
By Gene Steinberg
So 2023 has been a somewhat busy time for us, but not always in a good way.
On February 15th, at around 9:30 AM, I had just finished breakfast when I noticed a warning from the service that monitors our sites that they were down. They couldn’t be accessed.
I checked all of them. Our server includes several smaller sites, including one for the Mayasites Travel Services, which takes you into Mayan country. Sure enough none of them were available. As with a PC, my next step was to restart the server. Since I couldn’t “talk” to the server itself, I did that via our host’s cloud control panel.
And I waited, and I wanted.
Normally it takes just a few minutes for the server to reboot, and then everything will be normal. This time, however, nothing worked. Since it was clear that something serious was wrong, I rung up the host, IONOS, to find out what was up.
They checked the server — these machines are basically glorified PCs — and they couldn’t find any obvious hardware issues. But it would only boot into the box’s firmware or BIOS.
I realized at this point that it might take a while to set things right at the datacenter, so we agreed to set up a replacement server. Within 10 minutes or so, it was running, all right, but it took the better part of an hour to configure the control panel — Plesk — to run our sites the way we wanted.
Since the broken server couldn’t be connected to the new one, I had to restore our files from an offsite backup. IONOS offers a system called HiDrive, and I also use my Microsoft OneDrive as an alternate.
Either way, copying hundreds and hundreds of files took time. The sites gradually returned, but it took nearly 18 hours to restore everything.
So what about the original server? Well, a cloud server is expected to run 24/7 perfectly without any interruptions. In the real world, they do fail from time to time, either due to a software glitch or a hardware failure. That’s why Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and other humongous companies experience outages from time to time.
I assume that IONOS people fixed the server, so it could be deployed to another custom.
Now, if you’re running a web site for personal uses or to run a business, a recent backup is critical. Some hosting services offer backups as part of the package; with others it’s an extra cost option. Such cloud-based backup services as Backblaze — and even a Microsoft One Drive — can store your backups and they're not expensive.
With the hardware back up and running, everything seemed fine with our sites for over two weeks, until I received a warning notice from IONOS and the Netcraft Takedown Service about a possible phishing link on one of our sites.
Now I take all the precautions I know of to protect our server. A virus scanner monitors all incoming and outgoing email, for example. As with a Mac or a PC, I keep all of our software up to date to fix vulnerabilities as they’re discovered.
So what was this warning about anyway?
Well, it seems that one of our domains, mostly used to test WordPress updates, for plugins and themes, had mysteriously sprouted a couple of extra files with bogus content. The folders and their contents were deleted, and the two latest backups were rerun to remove the duplicates.
Now this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered a security issue. It’s a dangerous world out there. So a couple of months back, I saw a prompt with a Google warning when trying to log into the server’s hostname. That made little sense, since the domain wasn’t used for any other purpose.
I allocated another domain to use instead. The process is easy to do, but it takes time, since I also had to make a few changes the setups for all the domains. After that, all seemed right — at least until that takedown order arrived for a totally different problem.
But how could such things happen? The server’s original domain didn’t host a separate site.
Perhaps I have the answer.
Late last year, I signed up with a 24/7 server administration service to monitor the sites, protect against malware, and fine tune performance. There are several high-quality firms in India that can do the job at a much lower price than you find here in the west.
Service quality was so-so. I had to make multiple requests, sometimes, to get things done. I canceled the service after the first month, and attempted to get on with my life.
Shortly after this happened, the domain for the server’s hostname was flagged by Google. Also, the mysterious phishing file I was warned about may have been there for weeks, perhaps during the time when the server hostname was blocked, and it’s taken this long to activate. Curious.
Now the support service was none too happy about my decision to cancel, so I have to admit I am just a little suspicious about what went on. Supposedly the server should have been more secure after the updates.
But that would mean that they did a few nasty things to my server as payback for my abrupt decision to cancel. I did change access credentials to my server, but maybe I wasn’t fast enough.
It’s not something I can prove, however, so I’m not revealing their name. That would be unfair. The online world is dangerous, and such things can happen due to acts of mischief by people just about anywhere.
I’m suspicious strictly because of the timing, and I’ve gone through the setups, again, to make sure there are no funky files for any of our sites. And, as you know, a small band of online stalkers has been after me for years doing nasty stuff. Could they have been responsible? Again, I am not going to accuse anybody in particular without evidence.
But if there are any online security experts out there, please contact me. I still have a few older backups with the original suspicious content that you can examine if necessary. Server logs may also reveal sources for improper behavior.
For the rest of you, whatever computer or smartphone you use, it’s always a good idea to install the latest software and security updates. And never, ever, allow someone you don’t know to borrow your smartphone or computer, even for a few minutes. You just never know what can happen.
And some people think we folks who explore the world of the paranormal are just paranoid. You see, in some cases, such paranoia is justified.
Copyright 1999-2022 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!