# Hackers Aware



## Synoda (Sep 9, 2005)

I know this thread has little to do with FA, but i had to post it here since my account on DA (deviantART) has been recently broken into. I apologize. Does anyone know how i can reclaim both my hotmail and DA account? If so, please let me know. Your help would be greatly appreciated. :cry:


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## Flying_box (Sep 11, 2005)

DA AND hotmail!?!...wow ...i dont know... security on sites is so tight these days..once a hacker takes something you most likely wont get it back.
sorry for the loss.


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## Synoda (Sep 12, 2005)

*:Cries:*

*sigh* should i just start a new account?? but i mean, all the people and all my pictures are now under their control ;.; What should i do? The admins aren't taking me seriously!!! :cry:


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## UnicornPrae (Sep 12, 2005)

Put a formal written request for them to remove your artwork. Tell them that you have lost control of your account with them and wish the files deleted. Make it a polite request but the next one may require you to make a threat of legal action.

If you have the originals of your artwork then you can prove that the account is yours. If you can access them with another e-mail account try to prove what you are saying and make sure you keep a record of what is sent and what replies you get. I am not a copyright lawyer but there are places where you can download formal request documents like this.

This is all I can suggest but as for your e-mail account I don't know what to suggest except abandoning it. But tell the service provider what has happened and why you are having to leave. Tell them that your account has been hacked and where it has happened. They may be more helpful than you could imagine but don't expect that they will be.

You have been so unlucky and I hope that you will find a way to get back your property.


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## Pico (Sep 12, 2005)

I don't think it would be wise to threaten legal action on DA, as it wasn't DA's fault that this person's account was compromised.  DA isn't responsible if your password is stolen.

I guess this is just a lesson learned - never use the same simple password for multiple websites, especially if they contain information you care about.


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## ryokukitsune (Sep 12, 2005)

well here's the trick, you might be able to get baWell I can recommend a few things that you can try but you should probably prepair for this before you go threw and work this out.

First I?m going to recommend that you make a new temp hotmail account so you can email all the people who can?t be called (deviantart staff respectively)

Next you need to collect some information

1)	Remember theses words ?Identity Theft? that is what this boils down to and any business that has financial aspects respond very well to this accusation and usually inspect it thoroughly. If you have bought a subscription to DeviantArt or have ever gotten email from your bank you might be able to have them lock the suspect accounts while its cleared up.

2)	depending on ISP and connection Type you might be able to prove your hacked account is yours by your IP address. cable and DSL connections are connected VIA the cable/DSL modem and 90% of them are external so they emulate 100% of the time they are on which locks in your IP address to your connection. Call your ISP (weather be dial-up or cable/DSL provider) and ask if they have logged your IP addresses over the coarse of a month previous to the hijacking of your email account.

Make sure you have this list on hand when you?re reporting this to the admins of hotmail and DeviantArt

3)	In the case of DeviantArt nothing is more damming to art thieves and hackers than original art. Check your profile and find as many of the remaining pieces of arts original scans, line art and WIP pictures as you can. Make sure you have the signatures visible and take a photo of you with them. MORE THAN ONE IS NEEDED, artists do commissions and sell prints and original works; rarely do people own a library of peoples works unless they sold their sketchbooks and chances are you didn?t.

4)	Gather a list of all your other online accounts, Ebay, paypal ect ect ect. If they have the same password you need to change it. Don?t have everything have the same password. Write them down and put them somewhere for safe keeping (I had my password list in the bass box of my PC speakers till they went out)

Keep a list of your active accounts present passwords, you can use this to prosecute your hacker later if you whish it.


Past making a new email account I advise calling wherever possible, if you can provide information to anything relating to the accounts, be it financial or physical find it. I?m not quite sure how to retrieve and log it but you might be able to use or temp Internet files as proof. Though I wouldn?t recommend saving them all.

Good luck with this I hope you get them back.


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## Synoda (Sep 27, 2005)

yes. the lastime i was actually on DA for a long period of time (Excluding school) was right before hurricane emily hit where i live. My computer was burned somehow and we are without a computer right now. i am using the one at school from time to time. My  new hotmail address is tekken_angel@hotmail.com which i've tried explaining to them that i have lost control of my DA and wildcat_gurl@msn.com accounts. so i should still get another email, one that they dont' know yet? I do have ALL of my artwork, excluding the ones that were made via computer..i lost all of those..i have all 4 sketchbooks and some fresh new ones.


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## ryokukitsune (Oct 3, 2005)

ow, I have to say that puts a krimp into the plan. if your hardware isnt functioning it makes it hard to trace back certain things. without the hardware you've lost a good part of your ammuntion.

useing your temp files as proof would probibly require hardware restoration. I had a hard drive die on me with 60gigs of stuff i needed on it and I had to toss it because it would have cost me around $3000 to save the contents of a $150 hard drive. 

I just got back from a long flight so I'll try to think of something else some time tomarrow...


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## Synoda (Oct 5, 2005)

well a guy came to look at the computer a few months ago and said that my motherboard is fried and it would cost as much to fix it as it would to get a new one. So he suggested i get a new computer instead. My mother still has no idea that this is going on or ever went on. She has this thing of me 'talking' to people over the net and stuff. But this is ART related damnit!


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## Darnon (Oct 5, 2005)

If it's just the motherboard and you have someone who knows what they're doing with computers, you could rebuild for under $200.


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## Synoda (Oct 6, 2005)

well, my mother's already set on getting me a new one. One with a damn flat screen >< the one i have now, looks like it came from the stoneage! Freaking emachines


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## Darnon (Oct 6, 2005)

Ah. An emachine. It was probably set to die anyways, then.... Though if the monitor is good, you can save a fair bit by not buying a new one (especially shipping)


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## Synoda (Oct 10, 2005)

i dun think i want to o.o the thing is the size of a boulder and weighs as much as one too. My mom and i are on the market right now, looking around for the best deal and for a computer that won't die on us within a few weeks.


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## ryokukitsune (Oct 10, 2005)

Well what you need to do is find a computer on newegg.com or something and replace the old one. If you really don?t want to upgrade anything there are computers that are shuttle PCs that are about the size of a small DVD player and work like a server wrack.

In about two years they would be out dated but they are meant for people who do graphics work (Photoshop illustrator ect ect...) and maybe some light gaming, the kind I'm talking about usually range from about $400-800 depending on how high end you want the onboard hardware to be.

I was kidding around with my mom saying I was going to buy one for her since she's the only one in our house without a computer and actually liked the specs it had. I believe you can order them custom for a fee but I think it would be worth it.

Not all shuttle PCs are as un-supportive as the ones I'm talking about, there are others that have 1 AGP (or PCI express) 1PCI space for drives and are completely upgradeable they are just unimaginably small. all you would need to run it is a screen a mouse and keyboard and a wall to plug it into. Some of them are more portable than laptops and can run on virtually any desktop set up (with the afore mentioned peripherals)

When push comes to shove you could just grab it and run like hell (and easy to hide)


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## DesertDust (Oct 20, 2005)

I don't know what to do with the other stuff, but on DA if you send in a help desk note, and tell them what happened, they can ban your old account for you.  I found another girl who had had this happen to her and told her the same thing.. and within days the account was banned and the hacker could no longer use it.

Hope this helps :3


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## Synoda (Oct 25, 2005)

maybe i will just have them ban the account. but on what charges?


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## Arren Jevleth (Oct 27, 2005)

You may not need to make an official charge, actually. Back when I had one of my game accounts hacked a couple years ago, I had gotten the game admins to jail (their term for ban) my account for an indefinate amount of time, with the reason being listed as "hacked". I don't see why other sites, DA in this case, wouldn't be able to do that.


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