Hacker, Threat

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  carpathianpeasant · Member · Oct 19, 2018 at 8:42 pm

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  I hope someone figures this out.

  I have several passwords. One that I have long used for WordPress seems to have been figured out by a hacker, more specifically one that wants a payment of $7,000 if I don’t do “x,y and/or z.” It’s the right words, but not the upper/lower case I use, and I don’t remember anywhere else that I use just the two words.

  Is there somewhere I can send this?

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  gemmacevans · Member · Oct 20, 2018 at 3:29 pm

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  Hi carpathianpeasant,

  If you haven’t done so already, I recommend changing your password if there is a chance someone else may have the password for your WordPress.com account.

  Two step authentication is another great way to increase the security of your account:

  Enable Two-Step Authentication

  Can you send a link to the site you are referring to? Once I know for sure, I can point you in the right direction for support.

  Just let me know and we can go from there.

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  carpathianpeasant · Member · Oct 21, 2018 at 6:18 pm

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  I can send you a copy of the letter if you can give me an email address. Several things in it were curious. One, the term used was “passphrase” not “password.” A second is the return address was ended with “.edu.” If it’s “.edu” it should be a school or maybe university. The strangest thing is the individual seems to be babbling about a web camera (I don’t know that I have a web camera, although of course the computer can take a picture of something like in the room in front of it) and a “porn site” (or sites) and I don’t do anything with “porn sites.”

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  kokkieh · Staff · Oct 21, 2018 at 6:28 pm

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  If you suspect someone has access to your account, update your password and enable two-step authentication as @gemmacevans said above. Forwarding this person’s letter to us will not do anything – we’re not law enforcement, and we’re not this person’s email provider, and those are the only two groups of people who could possibly do anything with that information.

  What we can help you with is securing your WordPress.com account, and we’ve told you what to do in that regard above. While you’re at it, also update the password for your email account and enable 2FA there as well.