Monday, August 22, 2016

Hacked! Don't Know Exactly How

My Website Has Been Hacked! Now What?
The instructions are for Wordpress, not Blogger
I guess that one of the reasons I had trouble falling asleep Saturday night was that when I checked in on my blogs, email etc after Shabbat I had a shock. Someone had gotten into my Shiloh Musings blog, and could have done the same on this, and posted a "message" with link. I was terrified. Would I be able to retake control of my blogs and email?

Shiloh Musings
I managed to delete the post and then change my password. And as soon as I changed it on the computer, the phone announced that I would have to do it there, too. So, I changed it. Now I must remember the new password... Also, a cousin messaged me that he had gotten one of those "hack/virus" messages from my email.

Yes, I feel violated, freaked out totally!

And since I was able to change my password, it meant that the hacker didn't have mine. He/she/it or whoever may have gotten into my account on a "device" I had used to check email/blog while not at home. Many of us who travel without a laptop, tablet or really powerful phone, find ourselves taking advantage of offers to use other people's computers, or hotel lobby computers, and sometimes we either don't properly sign out/log off or a lurking virus takes hold when we're happily reading and writing.

I also took off a few people I had as "administrators" on my blogs. They can still blog, but they cannot make changes.

I don't think I've clicked any dangerous sites, but one doesn't really know. Sometimes there are viruses lurking in news, pictures and lyrics sites that google lists when we search for something. (Porn sites are notorious for facilitating virus invasions, but, B"H, that's not my interest.) I am so relieved that I succeeded in changing my password and hope that locked the evil one out. The person who set up my computer put in the free AVast virus catcher. I guess it's not effective enough, unless, as I am guessing, that the problem came from a different device, not my home computer.

PS The article I found with the illustration above said I should also clean up my "history" and "cookies," which I did which has now gotten me totally messed up, since I must relog into absolutely everything. And to do it, I have to remember all my passwords...

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