A Lesson Learned

Thursday morning started like any other morning has this summer.  All of us got up later than we should have and we were running around trying to get out of the house by 10AM.  How did we so quickly get out of our school routine?  We used to be up and ready by 7:45!  Anyway, we had to get the van serviced and run errands in town and be back to get ready to leave again for baseball games.  It was going to be a hectic day.

So, on my way out of town, I stopped at the library and my friend said, “What is your twitter post all about?”  I said, “What?” and she showed me “my” post.  I had tweeted that You would never see me again. I didn’t have time to do anything about it, but instantly was wondering what was going on.  As soon as I got to the car dealership I went on Twitter with my phone.  Sure enough, I had been hacked.  They had tweeted and changed all my bio info to say I was dead.  I was sick.  How cruel to do that.  Then because I stupidly had the same password to access my blog, I was instantly worried about that and sure enough, they had tried to mess with it.  But, thanks to Blogger, they shut it down.  So, all I had to do was verify a few things and my blog was back.  I love my blog and I was just sick to my stomach that all my information was possibly gone. Thankfully I was able to get it all back! 

Then after more research and changing ALL of my passwords, I found out that I wasn’t the only victim.  Check out the article HERE.  There are actually nasty people in this world who get joy out of messing with people’s lives.  I think it is sickening.  I am grateful that I had very little that was messed with because of the numerous security measures that many websites take.  I had several emails from websites telling me my email address was on “the list”.  So, I spent most of yesterday morning changing every single password.  When they tell you not to use the same password, they mean it!  It was a lesson I learned the hard way, but you can change it before it happens to you.

The best passwords are 8+ characters long and use upper and lower case, numbers, and punctuation.  No password is full-proof, but at least these are some tips.  And it is a good idea to change them every few months. 

So, I am back.  I am not dead.  I have new passwords and I hope that what happened to me, doesn’t happen to you.  Take precautions and protect your passwords!