Bull In A Coffee Shop
Some asshole hacked my website and deleted everything! It stinks! Fortunately you can still read my comics here. Thank you for your support. It is literally keeping the lights on until we can get the site up and running again.
Comments (197)
Lemme know if we need to show anyone how Dartmouth rolls... I will bring the geese.
Yo that's messing with Internet Cultural History!! That shit's just wrong!
Just resubscribed to a paid membership because of the hack. I'm so so sorry! Your comics are wonderful and an absolute delight! Putting good shit out into the world shouldn't be met with haters 😡
I'm an information security engineer, let me know if I can help. I've recovered a bunch of folks from a hack, including websites.
What a jerk! I've upped my subscription and paid for the year. I hope that helps a little while you get your website back up.
Oh, I'm sorry! That's a horrible thing to do to someone! Especially when it's part of their livelihood. 🙁(Assuming the hacker has them - literally & figuratively - I hope they receive a un coup de pied in les couilles.)
I am 100% going to paint Moray in that pose. If anyone wants to see it, honk at me or something.
*HONK!* 🪿
Had that happen to clients before. Fortunately, I keep everything backed up to an offline system using ZFS send, and the hosting servers don't have any permissions to delete, only add new snapshots.
Specifically, the snapshots are sent to a staging server, which is disconnected from the DMZ switch and connected to the private-only switch, and the snapshots are pulled by the archival system. Benefit is that no one except me has any (read; physical) access to the backups. (and the account that has permissions to pull snapshots with cron doesn't have a password, and I don't have sudo or root access to the server, I have to reboot to a chroot in to actually try to delete anything)
That sucks man. I'm starting to this this internet this was a mistake.
That sucked! I upped my monthly support to help! I've been reading you for, well, over a decade.
I'm incredibly happy to be part of the reason why this is bad instead of catastrophic <3
Emily is everything I have aspired to be all of my life.
Sorry the site got hacked, but good to remember we can always read here (even a day ahead!)
I came here to comment on the story and then found out about your site. First the story: I love this development. They will make the perfect chaos pair and Cubetown will never be the same again. But, about the website: This is terrible news. If you need extra funds to move to a new provider or such, please let us all know how to help.
So sorry this happened, even with backups this can be a mess. If you need help getting things sorted I'm sure there are lots of us in your community with webdev / ops experience that'd be happy to help you get back on track
What he said. It's not my area of expertise, but I know lots of infosec people (computer security) online, and if you want me to ask around online I'm sure some would be happy to help with security and restoring your site. Come to think of it, I know some trans and nb world-class infosec people, specifically, who would quite likely be *thrilled* to help.
So sorry that shit happened to you. Sending positive vibes your way.
Need Faye and Bubbles to find and discuss things with the a-holes who hit your site. 😡
Just sick Yay on them :D
Like, someone with a beef against you, specifically? How absurd. What is that even supposed to accomplish?
That's awful! I hope it's not too hard to recover things... Also, given the additional context from today's comic, were both voice bubbles in panel 5 supposed to be for Emily?
I was really sorry to see the site broken and gone, but a tiny sliver of good - it made me decide to finally join your patreon after having followed the webcomic for a decade. I figure, at that point I'm basically paying back for all the laughs and emotions.
Shit man, I can help with data retrieval if it comes down to it. Fuck whoever it was.
Wait what?! That's awful, I'm so sorry Jeph! Hopefully nothing is lost for too long - we'll hold the line in the meantime.
Hell yeah, Emily. I knew (hoped) she'd be up for it.
best of luck & best of wishes in getting everything back up & running soon, Jeph. hope you haven't lost anything permanently. we're all rooting for you!!
Have upgraded my Patreon, every little bit helps.
I just get QC in my inbox and read it there now so seeing the text underneath was… jarring. Wish I had nice words beyond “that really sucks and I hope getting things set back up is as quick and smooth as possible”, but alas that’s all I have.
I've been on the receiving end of hackers myself. It's just the worst. I hope you're able to recover your systems quickly and figure out how they got in so you can have some peace of mind that they won't be able to get BACK in once you've rebuilt. Thank you for making art and telling stories, it's such a lovely daily dose of humanity.
First time commenter. May the hacker be forced to spend eternity listening to bad fake country music with foul-smelling christo-fascists for company! QC has meant a lot to me over the years, thanks for all you do.
I...might have a copy of every strip ever. Hypothetically... if it helps... :-/
Always have back-ups because... wait.... when was the last time I... I HAVE TO GO BYE THANKSFORTHECOMIC!
Jeph, I just wanted to say that this burnout arc is so validating for those of us who are ex-academics. And this strip, especially, is great - having someone optimistic, like Emily, to bounce ideas off and help with executive processing would be so helpful for so many people. It's a shame the environment often doesn't produce that (sometimes, yes, but not in all fields and settings). Also - oof about the site. Good luck and happy to keep supporting!
Emily's boundary-ignoring powers used for good! Similar effect to Ayo's technique [no link because asshackers] of just warping through the Gremlin Barrier.
Did Liz say that last part or was that meant to be Emily?
Yeah the speech bubbles were confusing for me too. I think it's meant to be Emily based on the next strip.
I am so sorry. I know how unsettling, the weird feeling of dread and destabilization that times like these can bring.
That sucks! Hope you get it fixed soon! As for the hacker- may the curse of Mother Bridey and her nine fierce fearful children chase them so far across the fields of Faerie that the Danu Herself can't find them with a radio telescope! ETA: Bumped my support and I'm going to take a look at your merch shop.
Wow. That is awful. I hope you find some well organized backups to get everything situated and running again, and the hacker stubs his toe, repeatedly.
He has many, many backups per his bsky posts, fortunately.
Just now I was telling my partner again how lovely the QC Patreon community is, with all this outpouring of sympathy and support.
In a world with Marten and Dale, Emily competes for "easiest going" and "most chill". But that determined look on her face in panel two is a new thing. I like seeing this side of her.
Same! Emily will right this wrong or SO HELP HER
Really sorry you got caught by this, Jeph. This likely isn't one person targeting questionablecontent.net. There's a new Linux vulnerability that is extremely easy to exploit if you can log in as a non-privileged user, and there are bots just probing everything and deleting any site they can penetrate. It's vandalism on internet scale.
Jeph I'm sorry to hear about the site. This comic has been really important to me and a rock in my life when everything else seems turbulent. I run a small web development firm and would love to offer help on the site, if you need anything please private message me I would love to help if you need it.
And thanks again, for everything.. Ron
God bless you for all your time and effort.. Ron
I've enjoyed all your work, from the beginning, and I enjoy this one too.. Please don't stop, because some vile person deleted it all.. it's truly a blessing Jeph, please keep it up, if you can..
I hope it hasn't been onerously long since your last backup. Deleting the whole site is pretty colossally petty.
What about CloudFlare themselves? Are they providing any assistance to you at this point? Do they offer backup (and restoration) services?
Is the whole site protected by Cloudflare, or just Patreon? If it's th whole site then the've got some questions to answer.
I hope that Mommymilkers isn't gone forever.
Today’s comic: 👍🏻 Hackers: 👎🏻🤬🗡️
I have read the strip in its entirety twice now. I considered compiling my own archive as I went, just in case, but decided that it would be unethical without permission. Now I kinda wish I had. I sure hope you can get it back and it's not deleted deleted. I'm really sorry that there are so many unappreciative morons out there. What can possibly motivate someone like that? Envy? For being unable to do something so fine themselves? At best, it's childish. At worst, it's evil vandalism.
Hacked…your…website? That’s so upsetting for you! I think there may be more than a few folks here you can tap to help replace some missing information. So sorry for this rotten event.
🤬 I'm sorry that you had a horrible situation transpire with the site. I hope some automated server side data can help with finding out who did it to be able to bring charges.
This may get Moray off the hook a little for spilling the beans about Liz, because it's hard to be too upset about this kind of response. But I hope Marten will still have a talk with her about it.
Tell the truth and shame the devil, I say!
panel 5: Shouldn't both talking bubbles point at Emily?
no. see below.
Yeah, there's a handful of big vuln out these days with common services like cpanel that are… apparently not getting fixed? At least not quickly. Bad times. But we'll keep the light on. And even complain about seemingly misplaced speech bubbles, to keep up with tradition :)
Damn, that's awful! Hope you get it all sorted with as minimal stress as possible!
There are some real cunts out there
Not me reading the comments section before I even read the comic because the news was so shocking…
Not me doing the very same thing...
Bunch of savages in this town!
Try not to suck any dick on your way to the parking lot
Emily has such a look of focus and determination on her face in panels two and three. Watch out Tai, I think we might have a new contender for Most Intense Hug. https://web.archive.org/web/20260304100904/https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2248 (Website, shmebsite. No damned hacker is going to stop me posting references.)
I KNEW you weren't gonna let those fuckers keep you down!
Clean up in aisle three
I was looking for another reason to get the nsfw level membership... I now have one I guess. That sucks, hopefully the recovery won't be too painful !
I also upgraded, tee hee. Kept meaning to…
Sad to hear about the website, hope you can get it back together quickly! Small error in the comic: I *think* Emily is supposed to be saying both speech bubbles in panel 5.
Yeah, I was thinking the same
The first thumbnail had me thinking she was naked, and that seemed a wrong turn, so glad I was wrong.
it's that tan coat...i keep doing double takes on it also
Fuck jeph thats awful! T.T
Damn, probably some assholes targeting the service provider asking for ransom. And deleted some selection to show control over the services. Anyway I've built a full backup over years, including quest comics and Alice. My vacation place doesn't have net and I need my daily dose of QC.
Do you have backups/copies of all of your comics? Of your website? if not, Remaking it will suck\
This is the first time I saw that hacked message on your website! So infuriating! Sending good vibes since I have no tech skills >>>>
I love the look of determination in panel 2.
Oh no, what will I read in my sub-basement while pretending to work?
I am so sorry to hear that! I have been enjoying your work since very near the beginning, and I am glad to hear that you have not lost it!
Argh people are just the worst. Everyone check your backups!
I'm sure you have backups, but just in case, I have an archive of all your comic strips.
Those two together? Collaborating? Are we expecting a second singularity? The only thing more scary is if a certain polar bear shaped paintball smith made a crossover.
What the fuck that is terrible. Good luck with all of that, ugh!!!
Never threw ten bucks in on something faster than this before. Sending good thoughts your way! ...somehow I think Liz is gonna be all right. Emily's quirky, but damn if the quirky ones just don't see right to the heart of things sometimes. Hopefully having a reliable research partner and friend in Emily will help her out.
Always thought a big part of Liz's problem was the assumption that she needed to be a genius and do research in absolute solitude. A lot of science is collaborative!
Holy crap that sucks about your site I’m sorry! I swear there’s a rash of them going around, I’ve had to fix two or three other clients in the last few weeks.
That news and this strip make me feel EXACTLY opposite things and it is some wild shit
(So, disclaimer, I don’t know if this is the actual reason the site is down or not, but the timing seems too close to ignore out of hand) A few days ago I read an article on Ars Technica about a security research team that divulged a vulnerability in the Linux code that can give assholes root access to the entire system. Unfortunately, they told the world about it before giving anyone time to patch the code first. And since nearly all servers and backend infrastructure uses various Linux distros, there’s been a LOT of chaos lately! I’m aware that eBay and the main Ubuntu sites have been DDos attacked, and honestly I would not be surprised if many other sites like QC got caught in the crossfire :( https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/04/as-the-most-severe-linux-threat-in-years-surfaces-the-world-scrambles/
Argh! It is so hard to keep up to date on everything that needs to be updated! And some updates need to be rolled back.
I think both speech bubbles in panel 5 is supposed to be pointing towards emily, not just one of them, yes? Edit: Also yes, hope you get everything figured out with the hack
No. See above.
On the bright side, the bastards who hacked your site finally prodded me to join your Patreon. I hope more follow!
(the panel 4 coffee sign is almost labelling the scene: "Gremlins: Big / Small" :-)
Dammit Mr. Jacques, that sucks to heck! Hopefully we will get everything back up soon. Also, to have these Emily be this supportive of Liz got me a bit teary-eyed. (OTOH Emily and Liz...oh boy...)
Website hackers are the worst. If you need any (free) help, ping me (I admin and offsite backup two webcomic sites - my own and the Errant Story et al. site; you can check with Impy).
In the digital age that is tantamount to arson. What an utter jerk. I am so sorry to hear it!
May Orbital Pizza Justice be meted upon that hacker!
Sorry to hear that. Hope recovery is relatively easy.
I join with the rest of the die-hard fans to decry the assholery of whoever would do such a thing. I am upgrading my membership here on Patreon because I am sure fixing this will be expensive. It's not much, but I know others have said the same, perhaps it will help. Lots of love to you, Jeph. You know you fans aren't going anywhere. 💖
I propose judicious delivery of sacks of chocolate penises and craft-base ejection devices. That way they can eat a bag of dicks while getting glitter bombed.
But the chocolate dicks should be full of fish paste or something.
When you go grab the mop 'cause her heart just went *POP* That's A Moray!
Crud! I'm very dang sorry to hear about the hack! I hope your recovery goes as pain-free and quick as possible ('cause I know these things can take some time and pain). (also panel 2 emily face!)
Damn it, Jeph, now I'm shipping those two. It's too soon. It's too damn soon.
Shattering all the barriers Liz ever created in one mighty hug. All Liz can say is, "I'm yours."
At last! I bow to your perspicuity, sensitive reader!
Brutal. People are The Worst. Hope you get it back up quick!
That sucks so much! I started reading from your site so many years ago.
When your site gets the hack And you can't get it back That's some BULLSHIT
When my 'puter turns on and Jeph's main site is gone That's some BULLSHIT
Damn, that sucks. Whoever did that needs to eat a veritable mountain of dicks. Probably some anti-woke script-kiddie douchenozzle with a grudge against anything queer representive. Where's orbital railgun justice when you need it? As it happens, I have an offline copy of part of the website. Just the archive pages, with comic images and newsposts. Pretty far from a comprehensive backup (which I hope you have) I know, but if it would be in any way helpful please do let me know.
That has to be so fucked up to wake up and discover that some asshat has deliberately ripped up your life's work. Even if everything was safely backed up on hard medium somewhere, that is still a lot of work and probably requires the help of a handsomely paid professional or a team. I agree, whoever did this probably had an agenda. We will probably never know for sure.
Sorry Jeph.
Every time I like Moray just a little bit more. She’s becoming the heart of the strip. Jeebus Jepf, I’m so sorry to hear that. What the fuck is wrong with people? If your life is so miserable that the only way you can get pleasure is to destroy someone else’s life work you need professional help. Is there anything we the fans can do? Thank goodness for backups right Jeph? Right? Heh? Jeph? Heh heh…
This is fucking shitty. I'm so sorry you're having to deal with it.
The hell? I hope your site is back soon 🫂
Ughhh Jeph that is terrible, I'm so sorry to hear that. Awful. Hope you can get it back up and running sooner rather than later.
I just realized this: It's going to be hard to go to a link posted by BookBeard or others until Jeph gets QC net up and running again. I suggest learning how to use archive.org. (Link posted by another patron below.)
That is very unfortunate I hope you are doing ok other than that.
Reminded me that I need to get more “offline” copies of my favorite webcomics. Just re-ordered vol 1-3 (Already have the original large format books) and vol 6.
Please note that it's probably not enough to just upload the backups again. You need to examine how the threat actor gained access and fix that security hole. Otherwise it might just happen again and again - as if it happening once weren't scary enough. Best wishes for a quick recovery and patching things up. Who on earth would just go and delete an awesome web comic?
Only an asshole would do that.
Damn, that sucks. I hope you have everything you need to put things right. Bonus if you can find somebody to track down the asshole... Geez.
Maybe Liz could help with the website?
Good lord. I hope you can get the site back up and running smoothly and quickly. And that you have all the stuff backed up somewhere. 😭
I’m so sorry that happened glad you have backups here though!!
Whoa, seriously? That's crazy
Damn, Jeph. Best wishes.
I genuinely think Liz and Emily would make for a fantastic research team. Maybe they could start by developing some ingenious new method for restoring websites and punishing the hackers that trashed them at the same time.
Oh my god, what kind of loser would do that?? Booooooooo. That is such a lot of work.
OH MY GAWD, WHAT!?!
Nooooo that sucks! Hope you get it back up soon.
Oh shit, I can't believe people like that! Best of luck rebuilding
That sucks dude, though I've just been reading your comic here since I subbed to it
I'm so sorry!!!
Oh sucks bigtime! Hope the repair goes well!
1 wtf thats awful i hope it can be fixed 2 i told yall emily would fix liz : p
Are you familiar with the Internet Archive Wayback Machine? I searched questionablecontent.net and they have a lot of back versions of your site. Check out https://web.archive.org/web/20260501000000*/questionablecontent.net. Click any of those dates and any "snapshot" and you'll find a version of your site. You'd only have the pieces, but I'm hoping it will help. I've experienced being hacked, so my heart goes out to you. Best of luck getting it up again!
Note that you can right-click and get page source from there, or inspect, which should give you html and css. Not sure how your site was built, but that should help.
Alright. Where’s the pitchforks and torches at?
Fetch me mah BOOMSTICK! We're a huntin ASSHOLES!
Whoa! That's fucking awful!
No freaking way...we are not about to lose 20+ years of QC.
Deep breaths, Joel…deep breaths…
I'm sorry. That's a shitty thing to do. And a shitty thing to have to fix.
Oh no!!! Good luck getting things back up and running quickly!
Well shit! Assholes be assholin'. Good time to look into an automated backup system that does periodic pulls (maybe monthly?) and any way to increase the security for the login. Any ideas as to what avenue they used to gain access? Also in panel 5 is the arrow on the speech bubble pointed in the right direction? Somehow I don't see Liz as being he one saying that.
If I read this right, it's intended to be a surprise that Liz says that. Emily is sort of like Beret Guy in xkcd, she has magical powers. Ish. (I predicted this outcome, pretty nearly. If it goes the way I think it will.)
Sorry about the site, Jeph. I hope you have backups that can restore most of it. Otherwise we might have to do a direct upload of BookBeard's brain.
Probably already using Bookbeard’s expertise right now.
Remember to fix whatever vulnerability they used before restoring from backup. Otherwise, they could just return and do it again! I'm so sorry, man. I've been there myself. 8(
🎵 When her heart blows a plug At empathy and hug That's a Moray!
When you get a big sisterly hug that causes your arms to drop with a thud … that’s a Moray!
The fuck?
Superintelligent AI’s are walking around like regular schmucks, and humans still do coding?
I mean, you could make that argument for anything xD "Do science", "have jobs", "send emails". Why does coding specifically need to be the preserve of robots?
That is absolute ass. Unrelated and apologies for bringing it up, but the speech bubble is pointing to the wrong person in panel 5.
Nope.
WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE MORAY PUT THOSE BACK
I finally have the perfect ship name for Emily and Liz. Gremily.
Oh, why are their water stains on my desk?
MARTEN! Mop time! One of Moray's hearts burst all over Richard's desk!
Mighty hug! Did Emily tame Liz? I feel fulfilled.
That really fucking sucks. I hope y'all have backups and can get everything fixed
Well, if Moray's heart were to burst in a server room, it could cause similar problems.
Oh that scks Jeph! I am so sorry to hear that. Hoping it helps - I've upgraded my patreon membership to Whoa Dang to push some more $$ your way. Wish it could be more but > flails arms around pointing at the state of the world right now <
I hear you, friend. Yes, this is our best response we can give from this distance and yes, I join you in flailing.
a) We 💜 Emily b) WTF that 💩 can drown in a midden! We'll be here with emotional and monetary support 💞
Meanwhile, I ⛵ Emily and Liz. GREMILY!
Wait…was it Yay covering their tracks? Could’ve been Yay…
Holy crap, that sucks! I'm so sorry!
I'm so sorry for the site.
that's terrible. I'm so sorry
Oh, Jeez. Malicious A-Holes are everyone on the Internet. Sorry to hear about your troubles and hope you manage to take a deep breath and press on and recover from it. Good Luck!
Love the comic. Go Emily!
Is the second speech bubble in panel 5 meant to be Emily's? It seems more like something she'd say in this moment
Liz said it because just she got Emilied, bigtime.
I'm so sorry to hear that. I love your comics and hope you are able to recover the site!
Bummer on the website. Good luck.
Is speech bubble #2 supposed to point that direction in 5th panel?
Liz can be nice
I had been wondering. Glad to hear you're still here. Hopefully things are lined up for easy re-site-ing?
WTF? Find that fucker and skin them!
Once we get an address, let’s send them pizza, from orbit!
Hackers suck. Why would anyone deface such a centre of pure joy and silliness that is Questionable Content?
Because they are assholes.
I was worried when I saw everything redirecting...
Oh no! I hope it's relatively easy to restore from backup!
That's why you shouldn't make your admin password "12345"
Incredible, that's the same combination I've got on my luggage!
Holy shit! Jeph I’m sorry man that sucks! Hope it gets fixed quick!