Most people have heard about hacking in some form or another. Wether it be from the movies where hackers override tv's or computer screens, or from the news where they send out virus's, maybe from the stories of phishing and identity theft, or you could have heard it by word of mouth in the form of cheating and modding games and such. All of these are forms of hacking.
In order to be safe, follow the basic rules of the internet. Be extremely careful where you type your passwords. Don't be giving them all willy-nilly to people who claim to be legitimate. Make sure they are. Read the safety tips for each website to learn how each site handles security. Try to have a different password for just about everything. Keeping track of them may be difficult, so write them down. NOT ON THE COMPUTER. If someone gets into your computer and they find the file, they will know all of your passwords. Write on paper. A common practice it to have a pocket journal with passwords. Of course you should keep that book as safe as you can. If you lose it, change your passwords again and make another book. The most secure passwords are those that have no significance. My method is something i like to call "Key-bashing." You have some document open (so you can see the password, don't save it) and just mash your keyboard. (an example: pq9u4girnIUEF) Try to throw in some numbers and capital letters.
Sometimes you can still be hacked regardless of how safe you are, but it's significantly less likely if you have secure practices. Also having multiple difficult passwords makes it much, much harder for the hacker. Having some security is better than none at all.
Why am I telling you this? Two reasons:
1. It's always a good thing to be safe.
2. I just discovered that I was fully hacked a couple days ago.
I will tell you my story, but for the summary you can skip to the end.
On Feb. 2nd, 2011 I received an email. Fine, except that I had apparently sent it to myself. I didn't send an email, so I was confused. I opened the email and here is what it said:
Quote:
Hey, Jon.
A long time ago, I stole your GaiaOnline account. This is probably around 2008 or 2007?
Anyway, your email password was the same. From that, I found your paypal password. I bought random people games with your steam account and if you do chargeback your steam will be disabled.
There's 100 dollars gone, for your terrible security practices.
Also, I set your status to "buttf**king"
That's all. Make sure none of your passwords are "druml1n3", "Druml1n3", or "hal0-3"
-Anonymous
A long time ago, I stole your GaiaOnline account. This is probably around 2008 or 2007?
Anyway, your email password was the same. From that, I found your paypal password. I bought random people games with your steam account and if you do chargeback your steam will be disabled.
There's 100 dollars gone, for your terrible security practices.
Also, I set your status to "buttf**king"
That's all. Make sure none of your passwords are "druml1n3", "Druml1n3", or "hal0-3"
-Anonymous
You can go ahead and try those passwords if you want, but i already removed them from everything. Also, i censored it just because. He had changed my g-talk status, just as he said. I am currently investigating this incident. Every single website where i have an account has been contacted and all of my billing information was then promptly removed (by me.) My steam account is currently disabled and two people who received the games from the hacker have contacted me so far saying that their accounts were disabled. (he sent the gifts using my email.) This guy at the very least will have his steam account permanently disabled (losing all the games he bought.) Paypal is most likely going to give my money back. This guy is gonna get his just dessert.
tl;dr being hacked obviously sucks, but being a hacker sucks more when we catch you. Jerks! Don't hack, and be secure!
Side note: Steam said that if paypal pays me back, my account will remain disabled, but it the charges go through my account will open. So it's a lose-lose at this point. Either pay for games i didn't buy, of lose the games i did buy. There is nothing in any of their ToS or User Agreement that mentions being the victim of hacking, only being the actual hacker. A warning to anyone thinking about getting a steam account: they are not friendly to victims of hacking. I'll keep this thread updated with my progress.
3/2/10 Update: So... paypal payed be back (yay!) and steam gave me my account back (yay again!), but banned my paypal from their system. Which is fine.
All my passwords were changed and are crazy and nothing odd has happened. I got a new check card, and one of the guys who received a stolen game (unknowingly) got his account back. No news on whether the hacker has been found or whatever. All my stuff is back to normal, so i'm all happy and ready to worry about my regular problems again. ^^
