Tuesday, December 7, 2010

How-to: prevent your Pico from being hacked

Lately I've heard many instances of hackers taking over popular Pico accounts and mucking with their stuff. Sometimes the hackers are generous and just mess up rooms, but most of them go as far as deleting inventory and changing passwords so that the owner can't log back into their Pico.

Yes, it's a sad world we live in. And unfortunately, Ameba can't do much to help you once it's happened. Why do hackers do it? Jealousy, spite, true evil, boredom... any reason really. Better to make it harder for them!

Don't let a horror story happen to you.

1. Never tell anyone your email login address or password.
You may trust the person you're giving it to, but you can't be sure that they aren't going to give it to someone else. Things spread fast around the internet, people!

2. Make your password secure.
Yes, it's hard to remember passwords; we have to remember SO MANY of them! But that's NO EXCUSE to make your password "abc123." Anyone can guess that and your account will surely be compromised. The strongest password will contain both capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers and can be as long as 15 characters long. For example:
ThisIsMyPassword8512635
(Don't use that one, okay? It's not mine, either! LOL)

3. Change your password (or e-mail address) frequently.
It's not a bad idea to swap out your password every few months or so. Lots of businesses that keep confidential information require users to change their passwords every 60 to 90 days in case of compromise. If you want EXTREME security, you can also change the affiliated e-mail address to your account.

4. Make friends you can trust.
This one is obvious, but just avoid shifty people. Don't let anyone trick you into doing something you don't want to.

If you've been hacked, contact Ameba immediately. The least they can do is give you access to your account again. (Maybe...)

Love,
Ayuhime xoxo

7 comments:

  1. I like to point out, its the revealing FB's that gets you hacked easier. Cause its connected to your FB. So its best to hide your FB from ppl not on your friend list.

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  2. While we're on the subject, I want to add another helpful tip: be very, very careful about the URLs you click on. Yes, Pico has a preview function now where you can see the name of the URL before clicking it, but I think people are still a little too trusting. For example: one day I saw someone in the Beginner's Plaza saying "can you please click on my URL? I can't log in to FaceBook! See if you can log in." Now, I knew right then and there that something was not what it seemed. The URL contained the words FaceBook in it, but it didn't seem like an 'official' link to FaceBook. However, I can see how it would've easily fooled others... and I'm pretty sure it did because I noticed a lot of people saying their account was hacked shortly after clicking on a URL. So, in short, be wary of the URLs you click on. If it seems like something straightforward (i.e., http://picostyle.blogspot.com/), chances are it's alright. On the other hand, if you see something like tinyurl.com/xxxxx or anything along the lines of what I mentioned before, it might be best to leave it alone. Unless you actually know and trust the person, of course.

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  3. nononono~ it safe~ click my url pinkerton~
    http://hackhackveryhack.lostforsure.com/imphycho.lovetohackppl

    ^
    ^
    xDDDD kidding nah~
    this topic is usefull , for me i dont like this word much 'hacker'
    becuz i feel like many ppl scare it and many ppl keep saying like they can hack >.<'' (but senna very cocky in my blog....if they really can do it... why not? right? )
    and and my tho , reall hacker never waste time with pico ;A;''
    maybe ppl who got hacked or be a 'victim'...
    ...
    i dont think hav a reall hacker in pico, victim just hav a easy protect on everything ^ ^"
    (teach me english, hahahaha xD)

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  4. As every account, once hacked email account a&nd for password security, you have to change password ASAP and try to regain your hacked email contacts and saved datas to a safer place. to regain hacked email account, please refer to our free and friendly blog with link attached above.

    ReplyDelete
  5. If you're like me and you been hacked before you want to really, really trust some one now, This one person i met on pico, when i added him he asked me right away "so uhm what's your email and password?" and i said "im sorry im deleting you" that is not good please take my advice don't add random people! xD. okay your right btw! it is good to change your password once in a while,and to me. i think if you know some one on pico very well that you can give you information out? no, well sure you may think he or she is very awesome or so adorable but people look's are deceiving! if you know a friend in real life and you can trust your password with them. then that's your choice to give it away, thankyou this is a very helpful thing to me ;D

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  6. I have been hacked on ameba pico (not using facebook) and now i cant log on to ameba pico any more :(.I dont know if I can ever log on again???

    ReplyDelete