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Update: This issue has been escalated to our legal team for further investigation. Legal actions may be taken against Mullins or Quad Cities Christkindlmarket for their irresponsible statements that have severely damaged Christkindl LIVE’s brand reputation.
• Early on August 24 – www.wqad.com published a story about Christkindl LIVE.
In the news clip shared by WQAD-TV, the reporter Connor Day mistakenly confused Christkindl LIVE with their local Quad Cities Christkindlmarkt. The news report looked like our website (Christkindl. LIVE ) is/would be the official online market for Quad Cities Christkindlmarkt.
A day later…
Another post was published by WQAD-TV titled “Christkindl.live is misleading, says the fair organizer.” The organizer of Quad Cities Market, in this case, being Sarah Mullins. The post was again updated on the 25th of August with more claims (read on, we have attached screenshots to this as well – last event).
• August 24: around 8 pm Central Time:
A hacker from the Quad Cities region was trying to brute force into Christkindl LIVE’s website without permission.
The unidentified hacker from Quad Cities was trying to gain admin access to the Christkindl LIVE website. The intention is unknown. Below are the screenshots that show the IP address and their hacking activities:
Our website security team noticed the unusual activities from the IP address 174.22.100.202 associated with a location from Dubuque, Iowa. This city is 76 miles away from Quad Cities, Iowa.
As indicated by our security firewall, the hacker was trying to access our website by brute-forcing it via the lost password recovery. Brute force is a common website hacking technique used by hackers. A brute force attack uses trial-and-error to guess login info, encryption keys, or a hidden web page. Hackers work through all possible combinations hoping to gain access to a website without permission.
• August 24: around 9 pm Central Time:
After unsuccessful attempts, the hacker from Quad Cities started trying other methods. See below:
• August 25 – a day later:
The attacker hacked the Christkindl LIVE website from the same IP address: 174.22.100.202. The website could not be loaded and remained offline for a day.
Below is the evidence of the malware provided by the website security firm on August 26th
As of this post, we have reasonable forensic evidence to believe that the hack was conducted by parties related to Sarah Beth Mullins and the Quad Cities Christkindlmarkt.
- August 25 – after our website was hacked, www.wqad.com updated the original news with falsifying statements from Mullins.
We would like to make a few things clear:
• These claims are completely groundless and falsifying.
• We are NOT (in any way) affiliated with Quad Cities Christkindlmarkt or any other physical Christmas Market. Our business model is ONLINE, and we sell to everyone from North America.
• We are a VIRTUAL Christmas market. Our online assistant walks you through the items you want to view or purchase.
• We have substantial evidence that points to either Sarah Mullins or her related parties in connection with the cyber hacking activities.
NOTE: Thanks to the advanced payment gateway we use, no consumer information has been leaked or stolen in connection with their hacking activities.
To protect the integrity of Christkindl. LIVE , we reserve the right, if a timely and satisfactory response and official apology are not received, to take further legal actions.
Who is Sarah Mullins?
According to WQAD 8 ABC, Sarah Mullins is the fair organizer of the local Quad Cities Christkindlmarket. Upon further research, we found out that Sarah Beth Mullins, 52, currently is a resident of Moline, IL and is a board member of Freight House Farmers Market from Davenport, Iowa.
What is Christkindl LIVE?
Christkindl. LIVE is an online Christkindl marketplace born out of the idea that many local Christkindl markets might not be open this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Who We Are
We’re an independent organization, and we are not affiliated with or part of any existing Christkindl market in the US or across the world. (since this media incident, we have added a note on our website)
How Does Christkindl.LIVE Operate?
The organizers of Christkindl.live represent several vendors who joined hands to bring the holiday shopping experience to people across the US & Canada, many of whom would not otherwise be able to shop at their local Christkindl markets this year.
Our remote virtual market will be based in Chicago, IL, with live streaming available to many local cities in the US.
Our holiday shopping experience is set to start on November 15. To facilitate our 2-day shipping logistics, we have two warehouse hubs in the US: one in Los Angeles and one in Chicago, IL.