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Hi everyone!
In an abundance of caution since two members seem to have had their accounts taken over by a scammer(s) I decided to order a complete malware scan of the entire contents on the server for AH. The scan took over 5 days and has come back clean, we do not have any malwares on the site. Meaning we have not been hacked which I was already confident of. BTW I run these scans from time to time several times a year just for general security.
The most likely cause of what has transpired lately is that users/members are being phished into sharing the password or maybe they are using weak or common passwords, even on multiple websites/platforms. It is also a possibility that other websites where members use the same password and even perhaps the same username could have been hacked. Sometimes this information is also sold on the dark web as scammer know that people often use the same or similar passwords for many accounts.
I would recommend members to change their passwords to something unique and strong by using a combination of multiple numbers, letters and characters.
I have said it before but it bears repeating for everyone safety and security everywhere online, I whole heartedly recommend to use different passwords for all of your accounts and a good way to do that is to use a password manager like 1Password and there are others like it. This was one of the best decisions I've made security and time management wise. If you do online banking such a tool is a necessity, you will not regret it but if you don't you might. Things can happen very quickly in this digital landscape where we are all buying, selling and banking. It may save you a lot of grief, perhaps money and make your life so much easier...
1password.com
In an abundance of caution since two members seem to have had their accounts taken over by a scammer(s) I decided to order a complete malware scan of the entire contents on the server for AH. The scan took over 5 days and has come back clean, we do not have any malwares on the site. Meaning we have not been hacked which I was already confident of. BTW I run these scans from time to time several times a year just for general security.
The most likely cause of what has transpired lately is that users/members are being phished into sharing the password or maybe they are using weak or common passwords, even on multiple websites/platforms. It is also a possibility that other websites where members use the same password and even perhaps the same username could have been hacked. Sometimes this information is also sold on the dark web as scammer know that people often use the same or similar passwords for many accounts.
I would recommend members to change their passwords to something unique and strong by using a combination of multiple numbers, letters and characters.
I have said it before but it bears repeating for everyone safety and security everywhere online, I whole heartedly recommend to use different passwords for all of your accounts and a good way to do that is to use a password manager like 1Password and there are others like it. This was one of the best decisions I've made security and time management wise. If you do online banking such a tool is a necessity, you will not regret it but if you don't you might. Things can happen very quickly in this digital landscape where we are all buying, selling and banking. It may save you a lot of grief, perhaps money and make your life so much easier...
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