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Reddit account compromised: a lesson in passwords
One app. That's all it took.
Look, I'm not even sure if my device is rooted properly, or even how to check. What I do know, is that I have narrowed the loss of my password down to an app I got from TPB.
Trying to save $3 resulted in the loss of my Reddit account and gmail of the same name in rapid succession (whoohoo, he let me keep my HN account!). Although im not sure which happened first, it is clear why it went down that way: the paswords differed by one character.
Ugh.
Anyways, they immediately started posting blogspam with my account. When I started messaging them, they made it clear that this would just be the beginning (removing themselves as mod from all of my subreddits), and I scrambled to secure my gmail account. I might have failed in that regard, but I'm trying...
As it stands right now, most of my accounts seem secure, but who knows.
Now that I reflect on it, I'm suprised it hasn't happened already, fools go crazy for that karma.
- mappum 13y agoI don't think the attacker tried variations of your password to get into your gmail, their malware most likely got it some other way (keylogger or extracted from saved passwords in browser).
- freakball 13y agoWell, I dont know. Maybe the reddit accoint was the most valuable thing I had, but my primary email seems unaffected.
- matznerd 13y agoWas it an android app?
- freakball 13y agoYes. Im almost positive it was Super Hexagon.
- nroose 13y agoNot sure how this is "a lesson in passwords"... Seems to me like a lesson in TPB.
- samstave 13y agohttp://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Freddit.com http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Freddit.com Report your account hijacked to the admins ASAP.
- freakball 13y agoI did. I even limped into google+ with the compromised account and posted them there.
- samstave 13y agoPing them on Quora as well..
- octatone2 13y agoA lesson in passwords or a lesson in downloading/pirating apps from dubious sources. Official app stores have a hard enough time keeping their inventory clean from fake apps and malware, what makes you think TPB is somehow not full of fakes and malware?
- evanmoran 13y agoIf they have key logging on your machine Google 2-factor authentication is the only thing that would save you. This to me is the most important security precaution you can take, the next being auto generated passwords with PasswordSafe or something similar. Good luck=).
- freakball 13y agoI did, however because I deleted and then recovered it, it is now locked. I get a "temporary error 500 numeric code 59" when I try to log in. I still have access to all other google services though.
- romeo88 13y agoDont install software from untrusted sources at least, especially when you are too stupid to keep your passwords safe enough.