Comments on: Your Gmail is Hacked…What’s Next

By: Candy

Candy — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:27:32 +0000

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=checklist.cs&tab=29495

Check out the 2-step verification for Gmail. I’ve used it on my paypal account for quite a while now and my hacker wasn’t able to get into my paypal because of it. I just went through (and in some ways still are) through this, only they didn’t take over the gmail account, just used it to gain access to my Amazon account. We caught it in time, but a few weeks later and now they had the cojones to call Amazon and get them to change the password on their behalf. LOL. Apparently all you need to do that is some information that could have easily been gotten by them by having been in my Amazon account.

Maybe this time, we really DO have them. So annoying.

Thanks for the post, I know it’s older, but wanted to let you know about the 2-step verification if you don’t already!

By: planetWayne

planetWayne — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 09:40:21 +0000

You could always bring your email in house and run a mail server, simple to do and free in most cases.

By: Hacked Gmailer

Hacked Gmailer — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:30:55 +0000

Wow reading your post here was like looking in a mirror, it is so frustrating dealing with the automated gmail recovery page I could scream. Someone somehow got into another gmail account, I never fall for phishing scams and never gave my password out and there are only two places I logged in from and both PCs are clean and behind some tight security – yet they somehow got in 3 times. I recovered it the first two and changed passwords, yet the third time I couldn’t.

Since I don’t use it for much other than signing up for things, so I never sent out much e-mail nor had many folders setup and to add to that I have had the account for many years and I’ll be darned if I could remember when I created it. SO basically I was done they wouldn’t give me the account back, and now I see the thief has even changed the security question, but in my case I was not even given the opportunity to answer my own, straight away it said something about unable to use the password recovery and took me right to the recovery form.

Oh well I will keep trying and if all else fails gonna sign up that account for all the SPAM the interwebs can deliver Just thought I would share my gmail horror story, fortunately it was not as important an account as yours, glad you got it back.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:59:28 +0000

Lifelock is garbage

http://20somethingfinance.com/lifelock-review/

By: Nicole

Nicole — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:47:44 +0000

Because LifeLock is not a cure-all and at best it’s an early warning system. LifeLock would not have prevented gmail or paypal getting hacked. Where LifeLock matters is the crap that goes down after everything hits the fan. Personally I still see my security as my responsibility, LifeLock is there to support me.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:46:57 +0000

I have been using LastPass (LastPass.com) for awile now as a password manager on my PC. It got good reviews from reliable sources and has been working good for me. It will allow you to have different passwords for different accounts and manage them for you. Just make sure that the master password for LastPass is secure.

By: Brandon P

Brandon P — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:24:32 +0000

Why not just get LifeLock and be done with it?

By: dave tribbett

dave tribbett — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:15:12 +0000

Ouch, been there and have done that. I now make my passwords ridiculously complicated and I maintain a log of every site I sign up for – because it will happen again. Remember that not all hacks are randomly generated passwords, in many cases another system is hacked which has all of your data in it.
Another trick is putting in the wrong birth date (consistently) in sites that you don’t care about (not your bank).
Did you/they determine where the hack was initiated from? Probably using proxies but still can track some things…
Thanks for the post, it is good that people know this actually happens!

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:46:42 +0000

Here are 2 important programs that people should think about running on their systems to make sure that all security holes are properly closed off and that there is no personal data on your computer that you don’t know about.

http://www.identityfinder.com/

http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

I use both of these for my government job and will help give you are good picture of what is actually on your computer.

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:08:36 +0000

It’s awesome that the paypal money got all restored:)! I’ve certainly learned some lessons from everything you’ve shared. Thanks, and hopefully it will never happen again.