Can't find anywhere to turn off Forum stats

[tpgames]

I am not finding the setting to turn off forum stats.
Due to brute force attack attempts, I don't want guests to see any forum stats or the users online.

What I did:
I did comment out the "// Show some statistics if stat info is off...." code section, but still see the forum stats (when not logged in). This told me that I never did find the setting to turn off forum stats.

Is the only option for me to require "registered members only" to be allowed access to this section"? I'd do that as a last resort. (I will do this for now, only to stop the attack, but would like better options, if they exist.) Yes, the person attempting to crack my forum, is using a wide variety of IP addresses or I have 2 crackers. 1 using brute force, and another that might be using port attack. I am tempted to put forum offline for a bit.

I am on 2.0.14
I have not installed the 2 mods that work with fighting spam. The ip addresses doing the attack, are not listed on project honey pot, but were listed at abuseipdb.com.

Thanks!
signed blind one.

[Arantor]

https://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3929

[tpgames]

Thanks!
One last question: Where do I go to change the "wrong username" when having a failed log in attempt to be
"wrong usersname or password used" instead, as this gives crackers less information.
then, after that this can be closed. thanks!

[Arantor]

You change the code itself since this isn't configurable and there are multiple possible messages that can be used.