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Quill and Feather Pub [Public] / Re: Someone has had a data leak or sold off private info
« Last post by Post-Crisis D on Today at 01:36:02 AM »
Quote from: LilyBLily on April 19, 2024, 11:47:41 PM
And someone or "somebot" keeps trying to get into my Facebook account, too.

Someone tried to use the reset password feature on my Facebook account the other day.  There was a link in the eMail from Facebook where you can report that you didn't request the reset, so I did that.

But, it probably wouldn't matter anyway since I can't even get into Facebook with my current password.  A while back, Facebook forced me into two-factor authentication and demanded my phone number.  I'm not giving Facebook my phone number, so my Facebook account is pretty much dead to me now.

And, yes, there are plenty of attempts at getting into my websites.  On the plus side, most of my websites don't use WordPress so that tends to stymie most attempts since the majority of attempts seem to be targeted at the wp-login.php page which does not exist.
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Quill and Feather Pub [Public] / Re: Someone has had a data leak or sold off private info
« Last post by Matthew on Today at 01:11:11 AM »
Quote from: Bill Hiatt on Today at 12:03:30 AM
I'd have to go through a tedious process to temporarily unlock if I needed to open a bank account, get a credit card, move, or take out a loan. All of those are at best unlikely. I would have thought twice if any of those were things I needed to do frequently, but that isn't the case.
Freezing credit is an easy step for mitigating identity theft. I think since the big breaches in the US, freezing must now be free at all bureaus.

I will note I had a bit of a hiccup when I discovered trying to sign up for a new internet provider required a hard credit pull, and despite unfreezing and giving it two days, the internet provider didn't see it as unfrozen. So if you have to unfreeze, I would recommend doing so for 1-2 weeks at a time so everything can percolate.
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Quill and Feather Pub [Public] / Re: Someone has had a data leak or sold off private info
« Last post by Bill Hiatt on Today at 12:03:30 AM »
I'm seeing the same pattern with Microsoft. And a lot of bots try to breach my author site every single day.

With proper precautions, these threats can probably be kept at bay.

After a data breach some time ago, I followed Lifelock's instructions on how to make life difficult for identity thieves. Specifically, I got all three credit bureaus to lock my info, so no one can request it. There are also two agencies (can't remember the names) that locked the ability to open a bank account or a utility account in my name. Hackers can still attempt to breach existing accounts, but no one can open new ones.

I'd have to go through a tedious process to temporarily unlock if I needed to open a bank account, get a credit card, move, or take out a loan. All of those are at best unlikely. I would have thought twice if any of those were things I needed to do frequently, but that isn't the case.
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Marketing Loft [Public] / Re: Website Update Issues
« Last post by Bill Hiatt on April 19, 2024, 11:55:29 PM »
Update: I asked some presale questions of A2 Hosting and got answers back in a very short time. Same with follow-up for clarification.

I was particularly interesting in stuff that might screw up a migration, but they were able to put all my fears to rest.

Not only does switching hosts solve the Cloud Linux update issue (which is now meriting a link directly to the update script at the top of my cpanel dashboard) but it also solves a potential issue with Cloudflare. CF's more flexible packages require that you use their nameservers. Bluehost, while not forbidding the practice, clearly doesn't like it. There's even a request to correct the nameserver discrepancy buried deep in cpanel. Though it hasn't proved problematic yet, it might at some future point.

In contrast, A2 Hosting fully supports this kind of Bluehost arrangement and even explains how to set it up for someone doing it for the first time.

As far as costs are concerned, spending the same amount of money gets me a slightly better setup. I'll lose the money for the rest of my current BH term, but I won't have to risk blowing up my site over the CL update. Also, I'll be in a managed plan, so I'll never have to worry about OS updates again.

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Quill and Feather Pub [Public] / Re: Someone has had a data leak or sold off private info
« Last post by LilyBLily on April 19, 2024, 11:47:41 PM »
Recently my identity theft company--the one I have a free sub to because of prior data breaches--told me my name has been found on the Dark Web. Well, okay. My name is public. I asked them about it and they said no biggie. Really?

Of late, there has been an uptick in efforts to get into my Microsoft account--two yesterday alone. What I don't understand is, why bother? Microsoft is not my best buddy. I don't hang out with Microsoft or give it money every month, and I don't believe I have ever bought anything from Microsoft directly, either. I have registered software with Microsoft because I had to in order to use the software, but no credit card info was involved. I'm scratching my head over this one.

And the usual "I saw you..." extortion emails continue, listing so far three legit passwords from things I signed up for years ago. Passwords I never used for anything else, and not involving money, most of which were for sites that now are moribund. So, where's the threat in that? I did scurry around and change one banking password because that bank doesn't have two-factor authentication. (And it's a very big bank, too. Weird.) I'd changed my user name on that a long time ago and now I have such a long, complicated, and nonsensical password that woe betide me should I ever have to get into that account and don't have my cheat sheet handy.

Beyond activating two-factor and changing passwords now and then, I don't think there's anything else I can do. A recent article about someone being hacked said his online password manager had been hacked. Yikes. 

And someone or "somebot" keeps trying to get into my Facebook account, too.

On balance, yes, I do feel under attack, presumably because my name is being sold and resold on the Dark Web. But the bad guys aren't winning so far.
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Quill and Feather Pub [Public] / Re: Someone has had a data leak or sold off private info
« Last post by Jeff Tanyard on April 19, 2024, 09:42:09 AM »
Quote from: Post-Crisis D on April 19, 2024, 07:41:30 AM
Quote from: Jeff Tanyard on April 19, 2024, 07:15:51 AM
That blanket denial by the vendor would be a serious red flag for me.  If they haven't had a breach, then they must have shared or sold your data.  If they did have a breach, then the vendor is either too incompetent to discover it or he's lying about it.  I'd strongly consider severing all dealings with that person.  Surely there's a competitor that can fulfill the same function at a similar price.

They're actually a good-sized company.  I doubt they've sold or shared the data because, even if they shared customer info, there'd be no reason to sell the passwords too.

And I just checked . . .   It was six years ago.  And, they didn't actually say they hadn't been hacked.  The last eMail I got from them was when they asked for copies of the eMail and so they could investigate it.  Never heard a thing after that.

Anyway, no problems since I changed the password.  And they do have stuff I cannot find elsewhere.


Well, that's good to hear.  Hopefully there won't be any further issues.
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Quill and Feather Pub [Public] / Re: Someone has had a data leak or sold off private info
« Last post by Post-Crisis D on April 19, 2024, 07:41:30 AM »
Quote from: Jeff Tanyard on April 19, 2024, 07:15:51 AM
That blanket denial by the vendor would be a serious red flag for me.  If they haven't had a breach, then they must have shared or sold your data.  If they did have a breach, then the vendor is either too incompetent to discover it or he's lying about it.  I'd strongly consider severing all dealings with that person.  Surely there's a competitor that can fulfill the same function at a similar price.

They're actually a good-sized company.  I doubt they've sold or shared the data because, even if they shared customer info, there'd be no reason to sell the passwords too.

And I just checked . . .   It was six years ago.  And, they didn't actually say they hadn't been hacked.  The last eMail I got from them was when they asked for copies of the eMail and so they could investigate it.  Never heard a thing after that.

Anyway, no problems since I changed the password.  And they do have stuff I cannot find elsewhere.
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Quill and Feather Pub [Public] / Re: Someone has had a data leak or sold off private info
« Last post by Jeff Tanyard on April 19, 2024, 07:15:51 AM »
Quote from: Post-Crisis D on April 19, 2024, 06:50:10 AM
A few years ago, I got one of those "I hacked your eMail" messages where they say they hacked your eMail and, as proof, they reveal your password in the message.

That works on the presumption that you use the same password for everything.  I don't.

So, I looked up where I used that password and found it was one of my vendors for supplies.

I don't use that password elsewhere so there is nowhere else someone could have gotten it.  So, after confirming for myself that I didn't use it anywhere else and checking to make sure my computer hadn't been hacked, I eMailed the vendor to let them know I think they may have had a data breach.  And I explained the situation.

They came back with, no, we haven't.

It's like, um, okay.  Whatever.  I can't think of any other way anyone could have gotten that password but whatever.  I changed my password on their site and that was basically all I could do.  There's no credit card information or anything stored there so any hacker couldn't get anything more than my eMail address and business shipping address.

:shrug


That blanket denial by the vendor would be a serious red flag for me.  If they haven't had a breach, then they must have shared or sold your data.  If they did have a breach, then the vendor is either too incompetent to discover it or he's lying about it.  I'd strongly consider severing all dealings with that person.  Surely there's a competitor that can fulfill the same function at a similar price.
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Quill and Feather Pub [Public] / Re: Someone has had a data leak or sold off private info
« Last post by Post-Crisis D on April 19, 2024, 06:50:10 AM »
A few years ago, I got one of those "I hacked your eMail" messages where they say they hacked your eMail and, as proof, they reveal your password in the message.

That works on the presumption that you use the same password for everything.  I don't.

So, I looked up where I used that password and found it was one of my vendors for supplies.

I don't use that password elsewhere so there is nowhere else someone could have gotten it.  So, after confirming for myself that I didn't use it anywhere else and checking to make sure my computer hadn't been hacked, I eMailed the vendor to let them know I think they may have had a data breach.  And I explained the situation.

They came back with, no, we haven't.

It's like, um, okay.  Whatever.  I can't think of any other way anyone could have gotten that password but whatever.  I changed my password on their site and that was basically all I could do.  There's no credit card information or anything stored there so any hacker couldn't get anything more than my eMail address and business shipping address.

:shrug
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Quill and Feather Pub [Public] / Re: Someone has had a data leak or sold off private info
« Last post by Lynn on April 19, 2024, 06:14:49 AM »
I did go to their email sender and report them for abuse though. I had unsubscribed this morning and still got another email so I was like forget this. :D

They use Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). They claim a zero tolerance for spam so we'll see.

Okay, for real, I'm letting this go for now so I can do writing stuff. :)
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