# email account hacked - how did they do it? What do I do next? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 23, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-account-hacked-how-did-they-do-it-what-do-i-do-next/590054 "2011-07-23T01:54:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-account-hacked-how-did-they-do-it-what-do-i-do-next/590054/1 "2011-07-23T01:54:43Z")
:mad: A few weeks ago, I went to log into my email and couldn’t. It took a few failed logins before I had to call the provider to ask what was going on. Apparently, my account had been locked for sending several thousand e-mails within a 24-hour period. I got my account unlocked, then looked inside. Apparently somehow somebody had sent thousands of spam e-mails from my account to a bunch of random e-mail addresses. :mad: HTF did they manage this? My previous password was, I thought, reasonably secure - an eight-character long strong of random numbers and letters, lower and upper-case. I ran AVG anti-virus and Spybot on every machine I use, came up with nothing. I changed my password to something even longer. So far, I seem to be ok. But then logging in today, I get a message - 10 failed logins since your last successful login. I look, and there’s a bunch of failed logins from an IP address in the Netherlands. All recent successful logins were from IP addresses that I recognize. Damn them. Is there anything I should be doing right now? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-account-hacked-how-did-they-do-it-what-do-i-do-next/590054/2 "2011-07-23T02:05:21Z")
Do you use that password and username anywhere else? Anywhere at all, even in the past? Web sites get hacked all the time and nobody is aware or nobody tells you or you don’t even remember having created a login at that site it was so long ago. Then the hackers take the database of usernames, emails and passwords and pounds them through Yahoo, AOL, Gmail and Hotmail to see what works. Only thing you can do is change your password, and try to have a unique password for every place you sign up. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-account-hacked-how-did-they-do-it-what-do-i-do-next/590054/3 "2011-07-23T02:09:32Z")
Did you use a public wifi? ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-account-hacked-how-did-they-do-it-what-do-i-do-next/590054/4 "2011-07-23T02:21:16Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Do you use that password and username anywhere else? Anywhere at all, even in the past? > > Web sites get hacked all the time and nobody is aware or nobody tells you or you don’t even remember having created a login at that site it was so long ago. > > Then the hackers take the database of usernames, emails and passwords and pounds them through Yahoo, AOL, Gmail and Hotmail to see what works. > > Only thing you can do is change your password, and try to have a unique password for every place you sign up. Ugh, I have like 30 websites. I don’t think I’m up to remembering 30 unique passwords. I was really surprised by this, since I don’t use a “common” email server, I’ve used fastmail for eight years now. And as for **Chimera** ’s question - yeah, I use public wifi from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-account-hacked-how-did-they-do-it-what-do-i-do-next/590054/5 "2011-07-23T02:28:01Z")
It doesn’t matter how strong your password is if you reuse it. You need 30 unique login names and 30 unique passwords. ---
**Author:** ![inkling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkling)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-account-hacked-how-did-they-do-it-what-do-i-do-next/590054/6 "2011-07-23T06:39:02Z")
Get a program like KeePass which will store all your various passwords in an encrypted database. I’m sure there are lots of good ones, but that’s what I happen to use. It will not only store passwords, but can also generate them if you’re feeling unimaginative, and there is likely a version for your OS and possibly your smart phone also, if you’re into that kind of thing.