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Blog Hacker

  1. jobaspirations
    Member

    I have my HTTPS enabled and I was working on my first post, plus editing my avatar when my screen went black, the word Danger appeared on my tab on IE and then someone named Matrix typed me warnings like watch out, etc using my username jobaspirations and so I just closed the browser.

    Can the hacker have gotten my email addresses?

    I hadn't even had time to get started enough to make sure my site was secure, although I'm just using a basic theme from wordpress.com and I haven't paid for any upgrades, nor do I intend to at this point. I'd love to properly install Akismet if that would help but am lost as to how to upload it into my plugins and wp-content. It's a widget on my page but I'm assuming that I have to do more.

    I'm like someone who can't cook without a recipe - I need to be hand-held in the instructions lol.

    Help would be greatly appreciated, and do I have anything to worry about in terms of the hacker? Nothing else weird has happened on my computer in the past couple of hours since it happened. And I ran my virus program where I was able to delete two spyware that were caught.

    Thanks.

    Colleen.

    The blog I need help with is jobaspirations.wordpress.com.

  2. thesacredpath
    Member

    You need to immediately run a complete virus and malware scan on your computer. Make sure that both programs are up to date on their virus and malware definitions are current.

  3. thesacredpath
    Member

    Akismet is on every wordpress.COM blog, so that is not a worry. Akismet only scans for spam comments and such. It is not a protection against someone guessing your password or something like that.

  4. husdal
    Member

    I need to be hand-held in the instructions

    I see the words "plugins and wp-content" above. This would indicate that you are asking about a self-hosted blog running on wordpress.ORG. This is the support forum for blogs hosted on wordpress.COM, not .ORG. That forum is here: http://wordpress.org/support/

    On the other hand, your profile lists a blog hosted on wordpress.COM. Which blog are you asking about?

  5. jobaspirations
    Member

    Hi thesacredpath,

    Thank you for posting so quickly.

    I did run my antvirus program which did identify two spyware and deleted them for me.

    So, I guess I'm good to go unless something else comes up?

    I've been doing more reading and apparently wordpress.com already protects us from hackers, spyware etc. I thought, really?

    Colleen.

  6. jobaspirations
    Member

    Hi husdal,

    Thanks for your response.

    I am using wordpress.COM.

  7. thesacredpath
    Member

    OK, a few other things then:

    1. Immediately change your email password and change it to something difficult for anyone to guess. If you can remember it, it is not a strong password. (Make sure and write it down for safe keeping.)

    2. Change your wordpress login password, and again make it strong using upper and lower case letter, numbers and special characters such as # @ and * or & in with the letters and numbers. Again, write it down for safe keeping.

    3. Make sure and keep your virus software and malware/adware/keylogger software up to date. My suggestion is to set them up to scan your computer in the background at least once a week. If they do not have scheduling capabilities, then manually do a complete scan every week, or at the very least once a month.

  8. thesacredpath
    Member

    WordPress does its best to protect us, but there is only so much they can do. Each user is responsible for making sure they have strong passwords, and that they change their passwords regularly. If you choose to use an easily guessed password, there is nothing wordpress can do about that.

    Each user is also responsible for making sure that their computers are clean and free of virus's and malware. WordPress cannot do that for you.

  9. t3ck
    Member

    I recommend using KeePass so you can set up a hard password here is a article about KeePass with a video tutorial explaining how to use KeePass http://teckline.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/keepass/

  10. jobaspirations
    Member

    @thesacredpath - thanks very much for all of your help. I cleaned up my computer, updated everything I could think of, and changed a whole wack of personal info, making it as complicated as possible. Live and learn!

    @t3ck - thank you for the link. I had a quick glance, and I'll be reading that as soon as possible too.

  11. t3ck
    Member

    @jobaspirations Your welcome.

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