NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm sure most of you are aware that there seems to be a rather high number of nations being 'hacked' lately. For those of you who don't regularly check the News, I suggest you do.

First of all: THERE HAVE BEEN NO ACTUAL HACKS. A very unscrupulous player (now DEAT and IP banned, with sterner measures to follow) tricked a very large number of players via offsite forums she was an admin on. Unfortunately, many players used the same password for these offsite forums that they do for their nation, and the aforementioned player exploited a loophole in the Proboards forums to access the passwords of those users.

Secondly: Some steps to take to prevent something like this happening to you.
-NEVER use your nation's password on a forum or other service, especially if it's a forum run by another player
-If you are currently a member of any offsite forum and used your nation password for your forum login, immediately change your nation's password to something totally different
-Make sure your password is not something easy to guess or crack by brute force. A good password is:
-At least 8 characters long
-A mix of numbers, upper and lower case letters, and assorted punctuation.
-Not a word in ANY language

http://rpstudios.ian-justman.com/junk/CGgoods/RepProdtheModsig2.JPG
~Evil Empress Rep Prod the Ninja Mod
~Master of the mighty moderation katana Kiritateru Teikoku

That is so sad...hacking nations and such....

even our leader Lambon J Stark Junior wouldn't do that and he's cheated on his wifes 3 times!

What would be the point?

what fools

oh the horror! *protects her nation like it's her life* I do not resort to violence, though... Mew Mew Sweetie is a peaceful place! *peace sign* Run by their personal ego-hippy! ^_^ Without the drugs LOL.

I'm gonna change my password immediatly, although I trust the admins at the other boards I'm registered to.

You shouldn't.

You shouldn't trust them.

This some sort of new word game you've started, Sirocco?

Funny. I was trying to edit my first post. :confused:

Dont trust anybody?
I already do that, so I guess I'm good... :D

It's not that you "don't trust anyone" on NationStates; it's just you have to be street smarts online about passwords nowadays, because people are just downright out to get other people for their own joy, ego, and happiness.

What does the hacker do? Like, break into your country on the game and vote for proposals and stuff? Anyway, thats scary...

What does the hacker do? Like, break into your country on the game and vote for proposals and stuff? Anyway, thats scary...

They steal your nation, and do with it what they will, whether that be just letting it die of inactivity or flaming and spamming the heck out of the forums or regions.

Er... wait.. Can't you just tell the password thing to E-mail you your password?

Er... wait.. Can't you just tell the password thing to E-mail you your password?

If someone steals your nation, do you really think they're going to keep the original e-mail attached to it?

Something that might help people: a program called KeyPass (http://keepass.sourceforge.net/) It is a password safe, but it is good because it can make those 20 letter/ number (and if this supports it, symbols) passwords and tell the security bit quality. And you don't have to remember them, as it can use a thumbdrive as a key, and you can keep the program (Not the install of it, just the .exe) on the thumbdrive.

Doesn't get much lower on the hacker pecking order than that. Except maybe those who hack like... potatoes.

There is another issue here that hasn't been addressed. If someone uses the same password for everything then they might use it on accounts for say Amazon, Paypal, donation accounts for political parties. Places like that remember your Visa/Master Card/Amex numbers.

I hack your nation, and through the message board scam I now know your user name and you password and if you use the same username AND password on multiple accounts then I maybe have access to your credit card. Maybe your bank statement and maybe, if I can get the right parasite program on your computer, everything on your harddrive and the parasite could be loaded on the registration email.

Now if I'm stupid then 24 hours later I've used paypal to send myself whatever your credit limit is via a fake or old email address and 56 hours later if I'm not in Thailand on the beach forever then I am in jail. Since most people don't have several hundred-thosand bucks worth of credit on the Visa then I'm proabably in jail because I can't get enough money to run far enough or for long enough to gt away with it unless I've got the card number for say Bill Gates or Ross Perot

If I'm smarter, I setup an 800 number and a simple web page that looks like a service of some kind maybe I provide game cheat codes or Linux downloads almost any legitimate looking e-company will do, and then I start a monthly payment of USD $9.99 to that card. Hey, I could even sell something That way you are a legitimate business. The thing is that most people would never notice a charge that small. If they do then they'd go to the web page, send you an email asking for an explanation and you refund the money with profound apologies and send them a free gift certificate for 1/2 a gallon of ice cream. They think it is a mistake, possibly their fault and they don't pursue it any farther because you were so nice to them. If you find 1000 people to do this to you get $9990.00 a month or about USD $120,000 a year for running a fake company. You want an example of this kind of thing done legally? Look at http://www.Tickle.com. How many people have paid for one of their silly IQ test and ended up paying what ever their monthly charge is for years before they noticed? (I've not done this BTW) The answer is thousands. Yet they are a perfectly legal company and I am not accussing them of any illegality. But if they can collect huge amount from people who don't know they are "members" and they do this legally think how easy it would be to do it illegally. :mad:

This chick must have been really dumb.

Don't trust anyone. Especially politicians, family members and God. Oh and me; definitely don't trust me. So can you take my advice or not??? ;)

Ha. Trust anybody? Thats kinda funny. Its so stupid how people can actualy trust people online. Its a joke. I would hunt them down, shoot them, then bring them back to life and shoot them again for fun. *smiles* :D Heh. Ha ha ha... MUWAHAHHAHAHA! Lol just kiddin.

Hehe, changing my password might be a good idea right about now...
(not that I was like stupid when I chose it or anything...) :rolleyes:
That would be like so sad if someone did that and changed my password so all I could do was sit there and watch my people like die or whatever.
(I love my little nation thing!)

It is kinda to bad that you can't trust people on the internet. I mean, think about it, most of us are probably trustworthy, but there's like a few who aren't. So everybody has to be careful because you never know if you'll be dealing with one of the nice people or one of the not nice people.

I am generally careful enough. In fact, I only have like a few close friends because I don't generally just trust people. (so you can bet that I'm like even more careful online...)

Ok, I'll quit talking now... (I tend to drag on and on)

I have still problems that someone is trying to "get" my nation. 2-4 times a week someone is trying to loggin to my nation anything from 3 to 8 times, so I keep on changing the password, to more an more complicated, so one of this day I going to forget the PW and then I'm screwed. I just wish that the game admin could get this scumbags and ban them forever and then tell e4verybody whom they are so we cam nail them to the wall with dull nails.

I am prepared for this happening. If it does I will simply assume violent terrorists have invaded my nation and I will create another one and fight back! :sniper: the devils!

if there have been no genuine hacks nd jst a few priks messin around then wats the big problem, lets settle this over a curry...

if there have been no genuine hacks nd jst a few priks messin around then wats the big problem, lets settle this over a curry...

Curry? Awww god..You win..Take my Nation!! ;)

Whenever I think of the word "hack" I think of the MyGot clan, a Counter-Strike clan that goes out of thier way to make the lives of other players a living hell.

Anyone who scams or hacks someone deserves to become a piece of livng furnature by being nailed in place wth the dull end of screwdrivers, and have glass catheters shoved where the sun don't shine.

Scammers and Black Hat Hackers are evil.

Hate to be devil's advocate (well, actually, I don't), but did any of you ever consider that this might actually be rather good? It's a rather good wakeup call to those stupid enough to keep using the same password on sites.

Ah well, I change my password every month, so there shouldn't be a problem there...

Indeed -
Changing the p'word ever now and then is a good idea.
If you're worried about it, you can either jot it down on a post-it note and stick it to your monitor (I got into that habit for EVERYTHING after a while...you should have seen my 21" monitor~!) :rolleyes:
Or you can be *sure* to jot them down in Word or Excel, or even e-mail it to yourself. (NOTE - If you password the document that contains *all* your passwords, you really ought to remember what that is~!!!!!!!!!)
For those of you that are nervous regarding your PC, be sure to turn off sharing and get some protection. (I'm rather fond of a product called "Black Ice".)

That's all. Hopefully all's good~!

Isn't 'Black Ice' a drink? Guinness and something...

i think i use similar password for all my internet things.........im not sure....whats my password....oh dear


also i don't really care if someone hacksinto it becasue its onyla game lol

That's not the point. Yeah, this may be only a game-but what if someone uses that same password for something more important?

Pretty shitty behavior. Thank god for firewalls.

I think I got hacked. OH well.Shows what people can do with too much power. Which is why we play nation states.

So basically...to avoid getting "hacked" you have to not be a thundering moron?

So basically...to avoid getting "hacked" you have to not be a thundering moron?

It helps.

If a vampire hacked he would be staked (vampires are big on honour and not cheating). I would go make another nation, track the old one down and WAR! :sniper: :mp5:
War shall continue until the nation is destroyed and the hacker has become really annoyed. Every nation in Barrana must fight with us, for honour!
One password you can guess, the one for Barrana. The D.V's shall let in nations which guess it.

Don't bother beating us. We are unbeatable. :headbang: :mp5: :sniper:

off topic i know, but vampires get staked for cheating? noo noo noo nooo!! theres plenty of honour in being clever enough to be sneaky!

No one will ever find out that my password is peanutbutterjelly...HAHAHAHA! :)

Okay, for everyone: Would it then be a good idea to get another debit card with an account that only has, like, $100 in it? Then I could use it online anywhere, but if anyone got ahold of it, they'd only get a couple bucks, right?


As for hackers, I've got a 15 year old student here right now trying to hack into someone else's messenger. She's trying swear words, and school mascots. She's so clever. *sarcasm*

My nation was hacked... I can only access the forums right now. Somebody hacked into it today, changed the email, the prefix name, motto, changed the region, and screwed up all the policies.

Is there anyway I can get help?