I am hacked! The reason for this state of being is that my e-mail was hacked this week. Apparently, Yahoo! had a number of security problems exposed this past week, which resulted in the hacking of a number of e-mail accounts - mine among them. I discovered this problem on Thursday afternoon when my best friend telephone to ask what was wrong. In response to my confusion to this question, she informed me that we had been chatting and that I had told her that I needed her. However, at the time of her phone call, I had just returned from teaching class, which meant that I was not chatting with anyone.
I quickly discovered that I could not access any of my e-mail (from both Yahoo! and Google), and began the process of regaining access to my own accounts. During this process, I learned that the hacker had sent an e-mail (purported to be from me) to everyone in my contact list requesting money from them due to a robbery and kidnapping in London. I receive about 12 phone calls immediately from concerned friends and family as well as a host of e-mails (which I obviously did not receive until later) inquiring as to my condition. While informing everyone I was not in London, and had not been robbed or kidnapped, I immediately posted this information to Facebook. As an aside, it is amazing how many individuals immediately checked Facebook after receiving the e-mail to ascertain my status. I believe this is an intriguing social commentary on the state of contemporary society.
The most annoying aspect of this is that I was forced to change all of my login and password information for all of my online accounts. When I sat down to make a list of these accounts, I thought that I had only a few account, but as I began to change all of these accounts, I began to add accounts to my list. When I finally finished, I realized that I have almost 40 online accounts of some sort. I spent the better part of six hours changing all of this information, and was surprised to learn that some of the changes actually required a telephone conversation with the company.
While I am incredibly hacked off at the annoyance and problems caused by the hacking of my e-mail, I am also relieved that to this point the hacker has not accessed anything other than my e-mail. I am now much more aware of the fact that regardless of the security measures that one takes (and I take them) there is no 100 percent effective method for online security. Thus, I persevere with my security protocols, recognizing that my accounts may be hacked again.
I quickly discovered that I could not access any of my e-mail (from both Yahoo! and Google), and began the process of regaining access to my own accounts. During this process, I learned that the hacker had sent an e-mail (purported to be from me) to everyone in my contact list requesting money from them due to a robbery and kidnapping in London. I receive about 12 phone calls immediately from concerned friends and family as well as a host of e-mails (which I obviously did not receive until later) inquiring as to my condition. While informing everyone I was not in London, and had not been robbed or kidnapped, I immediately posted this information to Facebook. As an aside, it is amazing how many individuals immediately checked Facebook after receiving the e-mail to ascertain my status. I believe this is an intriguing social commentary on the state of contemporary society.
The most annoying aspect of this is that I was forced to change all of my login and password information for all of my online accounts. When I sat down to make a list of these accounts, I thought that I had only a few account, but as I began to change all of these accounts, I began to add accounts to my list. When I finally finished, I realized that I have almost 40 online accounts of some sort. I spent the better part of six hours changing all of this information, and was surprised to learn that some of the changes actually required a telephone conversation with the company.
While I am incredibly hacked off at the annoyance and problems caused by the hacking of my e-mail, I am also relieved that to this point the hacker has not accessed anything other than my e-mail. I am now much more aware of the fact that regardless of the security measures that one takes (and I take them) there is no 100 percent effective method for online security. Thus, I persevere with my security protocols, recognizing that my accounts may be hacked again.
1 comment:
I got this email too (being in your contacts list) but I knew it was fraudulent because 1) the syntax and 2) You probably wouldn't email me in that situation anyway. I'm sorry to hear the extent of the work you had to do to take care of it!
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