Have You Been Hacked? How to ensure our security??

[livepcportal 0]

Hello everyone,I have been hacked two times so far, first time my account on one of the ptc site was hacked, the hacker first changed the alertpay account id to his/her own and then requested the payment to his/her alertpay account. But, thankfully I checked it when there was time, I immediately created a support ticket and the requested payment was cancelled, the situation could have been worsed if that site would have got instant payments enabled.....so sometimes it is better not to have instant payments The reason probably I was hacked here, I guess, I was using same passwords and user names on all the ptc sites earlier but not now, so, don't try to hack me again Secondly, my paypal account was hacked, the day when it was hacked, I purchased an advertising pack on another ptc site, and only after few hours of running ad campaigns, when I log into my account that the payment which I made to the ptc site was back into my paypal account, the hacker, or might be possible, I do that by mistake, really don't know what happened there....So, as a result, now my paypal account is totally wasted, I have $2.1 in my paypal account, but, unfortunately my paypal account access has been limited, now I can't send payment to anyone, but, can receive though.....now what is the reason of receiving money, when I can't send that money or spend that money... So, these two or probably one, though have very rare chance, are the only incidents when I was hacked. Although, there were like two-three hack attacks also, but, my norton internet security blocked that attacks and appreciably saved me from any further exploitation..... :)Now, the question for you is have you ever been hacked? What you are doing to ensure your security like which internet security and other softwares are you using to ensure that you are always secured?All tips are welcome :)Thanks in advance

[Quatrux 4]

I can't say I was hacked, don't remember any accounts or sites which were hacked for me.. Just use good strong passwords and avoid using the same one everywhere, have several password, especially don't use the same password for very unsafe sites or which can't be trusted and may be insecure, for those kind of sites have quite a different password..I usually use this system and always try to not get into anyones attention to be hacked Don't have enemy friends who are hackers as usually, some guy who hates you may ask a friend to try and hack you.. also, when developing something, I usually try to ensure security, if it's an oracle application or a web service or c# application. :PUse firewalls! don't use your computer in a public place with public wireless or something like that connecting to somewhere without ssl, especially to paypal and other services, like banks, but of course you can simply browse or access sites which even hacked won't do any harm, as usually you can be sniffed in a public Internet access point, as use send plain passwords as text.

[mahesh2k 0]

I think wordpress are getting more attacked these days. So it is better to keep your installation updated. Also never put wp-admin links on front page of the theme as some people do it in some themes. Avoid keeping meta wp information on frontpage. Some wordpress plugins which are not maintained anymore also create security holes and should be removed. I prefer keeping eye on plugins which notify you for the security issues. There are few in the repository so you can download them and use.

[livepcportal 0]

@Quatrux: Thanks for response friend. Yeah, I made the mistake of using same passwords on every site, as remembering them for me was very easy. Actually, I was doing like this earlier, I created several groups of sites, like one group for accounts like paypal and alertpay, other group for all my ptc sites, one group for sites like ks and my hosting accounts, and the last one for sites which I join by doing ptsu tasks. So, by this way, it was really easier for me to access more than 50+ sites, as all login information was stored in my mind. But, possibly I made the mistake of not using complex passwords specially in ptc sites, and that might be the reason why I was hacked. I was the person who give invitation to the hacker to hack my cashium account. But, now I am using complex passwords on all sites. I am also using separate browsers to access sites, like I use Opera to access paypal and alertpay and Firefox to access all other sites.And, by the way, I don't have any friend who will be interested in hacking me as they don't even know which sites I access. @mahesh: Thanks for giving the info. I wasn't aware that wordpress is so much targetted to hack attacks. I will not be using it now. But, can you tell me is Joomla secured or not, as I am currently looking to create my site using joomla.Thanks in advance

[mahesh2k 0]

@mahesh: Thanks for giving the info. I wasn't aware that wordpress is so much targetted to hack attacks. I will not be using it now. But, can you tell me is Joomla secured or not, as I am currently looking to create my site using joomla.
Thanks in advance

Even joomla, drupal and other CMS are easily hacked by hackers. It's just about finding the security loopholes in particular version. So irrespective of which CMS you use security issues are going to be there. Wordpress and drupal has less security issues than joomals though. Bugs and security holes in drupal and wordpress are quickly fixed in comparison to joomla.

[livepcportal 0]

Even joomla, drupal and other CMS are easily hacked by hackers. It's just about finding the security loopholes in particular version. So irrespective of which CMS you use security issues are going to be there. Wordpress and drupal has less security issues than joomals though. Bugs and security holes in drupal and wordpress are quickly fixed in comparison to joomla.

Oh! thats not good, really disheartened now, I was thinking of using Joomla and to be frank still thinking of using joomla, but, at the same time I don't want to compromise with the security of my site. I was browsing the net, finding the ways to secure joomla and I found an extension for joomla created by siteground. The name of the extension is jhackguard. Now, what do you think, will it be good enough to ensure my joomla site security. I am currently stuck at joomla as I don't know anything of other two, drupal and wordpress. And what else you can recommend me to secure my Joomla site???

Also, I am confused in choosing right forum software, but, I think I should create another topic for that, as it doesn't have anything to do with the current thread.

[mahesh2k 0]

Oh! thats not good, really disheartened now, I was thinking of using Joomla and to be frank still thinking of using joomla, but, at the same time I don't want to compromise with the security of my site. I was browsing the net, finding the ways to secure joomla and I found an extension for joomla created by siteground. The name of the extension is jhackguard. Now, what do you think, will it be good enough to ensure my joomla site security. I am currently stuck at joomla as I don't know anything of other two, drupal and wordpress. And what else you can recommend me to secure my Joomla site???
Also, I am confused in choosing right forum software, but, I think I should create another topic for that, as it doesn't have anything to do with the current thread.

Well don't just make your opinion based on forum replies. Keep one thing in mind that is any CMS and forum software is easily hackable if hackers are onto finding loopholes. Remember one thing that if community is actively reporting bugs then it becomes easy to fix bugs for them. Drupal is very good at that in comparison to other CMS when it comes to security. Wordpress is more into commercial apps and plugins so you can guess how much they care about security. yes these two are good cms in comparison to others.

For forum software you can create another thread in same section "software". we'll talk about it in that thread.

[livepcportal 0]

Well don't just make your opinion based on forum replies. Keep one thing in mind that is any CMS and forum software is easily hackable if hackers are onto finding loopholes. Remember one thing that if community is actively reporting bugs then it becomes easy to fix bugs for them. Drupal is very good at that in comparison to other CMS when it comes to security. Wordpress is more into commercial apps and plugins so you can guess how much they care about security. yes these two are good cms in comparison to others.
For forum software you can create another thread in same section "software". we'll talk about it in that thread.

Now, one question more is popping in my mind and that is, "Are sites created using just simple css and html secured, or they are more easily hackable than the sites using cms?"

Also, can you tell by having a look at this site, which cms is this site using, just curious to know, Click here

and btw mahesh, I think you are too in urgency of mycents like me!
Edited October 13, 2010 by livepcportal (see edit history)

[mahesh2k 0]

Now, one question more is popping in my mind and that is, "Are sites created using just simple css and html secured, or they are more easily hackable than the sites using cms?"
Also, can you tell by having a look at this site, which cms is this site using, just curious to know, Click here

and btw mahesh, I think you are too in urgency of mycents like me!

LOL. Nobody is here to watch me using internet and thanks to navratri festival people are out of office with festival leave. so posting here. besides no matter how many posts i post here i get 1$ fixed. plus 20-30 cents here and there.

About your site- that site is made of asp pages so it is either hand coded every page or some CMS based on .net platform. oxide was one i heard of not sure which is this.

about flat file based cms being hackable ? yes. it is same if anyone gets access to cpanel account. with database like sites it becomes harder for them but flt file based sites are easy to lose data.

[livepcportal 0]

LOL. Nobody is here to watch me using internet and thanks to navratri festival people are out of office with festival leave. so posting here. besides no matter how many posts i post here i get 1$ fixed. plus 20-30 cents here and there.
About your site- that site is made of asp pages so it is either hand coded every page or some CMS based on .net platform. oxide was one i heard of not sure which is this.

about flat file based cms being hackable ? yes. it is same if anyone gets access to cpanel account. with database like sites it becomes harder for them but flt file based sites are easy to lose data.

Wow, you are taking full benefits of navratri festival, good utilization of time

and, its really unfortunate that you are getting fixed amount for your posts, but, thank god so far its not happening with me, I just need few more mycents........

Also, thanks so much for taking time to take a look at the site, I guess its using cms then whether its oxite or any other cms.........

Thanks for reply

[jenifer02 0]

What is the procedure to hacking?

[livepcportal 0]

What is the procedure to hacking?

oh cool.......I have been asking for ways to ensure more security so that we can be safe from the evil hackers and you are asking for ways to hack....that's not good