Security

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  blondecatwoman · Member · Feb 26, 2011 at 11:14 am

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  I’d prefer a personal reply. But I’ll leave it up to the other party’s discretion.

  Here’s what’s been going on…

  I heard through the grapevine that some slimeballs were going to hack my site. Apparently they were going to obtain access to a program that cracks passwords.

  I’ve had my site for three years. Never ever – NOT ONCE – in all that time have I had any kind of major difficulty accessing my home base.

  For the last two days, I wasn’t able to get in in a normal fashion. (Obviously, if you can’t get access by the third attempt, you’ve definitely got a problem. But I tried for about fifteen minutes both times to be sure. Just in case. I was making my passwords increasingly complicated and difficult. But they weren’t THAT intricate.)

  I was able to finally gain access both times by resetting the password. But the fact that this has happened twice means that this could be an ongoing issue.

  From what I’ve observed on site, everything APPEARS to be fine. I see nothing out of place. No immediate evidence of tampering.

  Could someone please check my site & find out if anyone else has been there.

  If no one has, could someone please explain why I’ve had difficulty accessing my site.

  If someone else has been poking around, I think we’re going to need a bigger boat. In a manner of speaking.

  Thank you for your assistance.

  When people (& I use that word loosely) don’t have much upstairs, these are the petty little games they often play.

  Just trying to be safe & strategize. Though this does sound like it could be (more) psychological warfare.

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

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  timethief · Member · Feb 26, 2011 at 8:12 pm

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  @mistymorning

  Just trying to be safe & strategize. Though this does sound like it could be (more) psychological warfare.

  Are you aware that this is a public forum and all threads like this one are indexed by Google and available to all using the internet?

  Security > http://en.support.wordpress.com/passwords/#security
  I have been here at wordpress.com for almost 5 years. As far as I know no one’s blog has every been successfully “hacked” on this multiuser blogging platform. Guessing a password is not true “hacking”.

  When other have gained access to blogs what has happened was:

  • the bloggers used weak passwords and included information on their blog that made the password easy to guess;
  • the bloggers have left their log-in information where others could locate it or have provided it to them or have allowed others access to their computers without properly logging out of wordpress.com first;
  • the bloggers have ignored Staff’s recommendation that there be only a single Admin on each blog and multiple Admin have had spats and have deleted content and even deleted blogs; </il>
  • the bloggers have ignored Staff’s advice to use of the password managers recommended in the support documentation entry I linked to at the end of that entry.

  I have no difficulty at all accessing your site. I used bot IE8 and Firefox 3.6.13

  • As you are having difficulty you could have a browser issue so try changing your browser settings, refreshing the page, or clearing the browser cache and cookies – instructions for specific browsers.
  • Note that when you make adjustments to your browser settings — changing privacy settings, deleting cookies or increasing security — you will need to close your window and restart the browser before those new settings become effective.

  /ul>

  The page loading time is too long because you have too many posts with
  large images on your front page. You can reduce the number here >
  Settings > Reading

  You can also “split content” in posts by inserting “the more tag” into
  new your posts, and you can edit your older posts to insert it too. See
  here > http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/more-tag/

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  raincoaster · Member · Feb 26, 2011 at 9:26 pm

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  It is VERY common for people to make threats of this nature that they don’t have a chance of carrying out, to psych bloggers out and intimidate them. I’m familiar with these kinds of programs, and they are EXTREMELY unlikely to work here. I would very much expect that your issues are something else. And remember: it’s easier to hack email than WordPress.com. Do not store your passwords in email. And don’t have any other admins on your blog.