Our Wars with the Hackers

Yes, Russia is at war, but I'm not going there today. Yesterday I heard from a pastor in Uganda who has been dreadfully hacked, and while setting up my shopping cart details last night I ran into a problem and when I went to check it at the forums too, I learned that there has been a great pandemic of hackers trying to break into websites with shopping carts. Yikkes! Those enemies surround us!

Oh yes, first, I thank you for praying about my request last week that I be able to complete the installation of the shopping cart software. I found the wee little problem Wednesday while reading the forums at OpenCart while I was eating my lunch. In a matter of minutes I got through the 3rd step and voila! I was in the administrative area of my shopping cart! Whoopee!!

But last night, as I was fine-tuning the settings inside on the dashboard, I kept being bumped out and having to login again. Finally, I could not get back in. So there is that problem to solve next.

At the forums for this shopping cart software I learned that there has been a great rash of hackers trying to break in specifically to sites that have this shopping cart software installed. There was some good advice given for protecting one's assets, but what do you do if you haven't found that information yet?

Let's go back to the pastor's problem with his yahoo email being hacked. He became aware yesterday that someone clever crook had hacked into his email address, and was emailing the pastor's supporters to ask for money Many of these people had sent him funds, but the hacker went to pick up the cash first.

So here is the pastor's family needing food, and he has no funds for gas to go to his speaking engagements, and he was getting desperate - only to discover his friends had been sending funds, - but instead of him, the hacker had gained those hundreds of dollars!

When he emailed me begging for help to set up a new email and giving me the password he wanted, I realized that the hacker would read that and just carry on. So I just replied that I would send instructions via his office manager. Which I did. But she did not reply and nor did he. In the evening he wrote me again, BEGGING for help. I knew that it would not be wise to create a new email and password for him, and send it by that email. So went to look for him on Facebook and messaged some basic instructions there.

But now I realize that the email I used to correspond with him is also in the hands of that hacker. So I need to delete it and create a new one - but then also try to make list of all those people I have been corresponding with via that email address, then to let them know.

Because I have access to the cPanel of all my sites and those of my clients, I can easily create new emails in a matter of minutes, but being very cautious about giving it to too many too fast, can just benefit the hacker again! So this has to be done carefully.

For your benefit if you have only one or two email addresses, and use them for a large number of contacts, I would advise being VERY careful! It is, in fact, wise to have several emails and to use them for certain groups of people. If one of them gets into trouble It is easy to create a different one, notify those few people, and leaving out anyone who may have been the one who exposed you to hackers.

I could write a long, l-o-n-g article about ways to protect and guard yourself, but I'll try to sum up just a couple of key tips here;

When you receive a "forward" from a friend, you can be polite enough to read the joke or story, etc., but check it to see if the sender is really a close friend of yours, when you get a chance tell them that hackers often send them out, hoping people will forward them, and that way they collect more emails. By sending it to you, they have endangered you, and all their other recipents. Delete those emails; do NOT forward them to others!

When you create an email for banking and financial institutions - make a rule NEVER to use those for friends. But that is not guaranteed protection. (I created one and used it for PayPal and one other credit card company. Within a couple of months I started getting Spam emails on that address. Before I create another new email, I will complain to those companies that my email was hacked which I saved just for them!)

<*> TIPS & SOLUTIONS: <*>

How to Cope with a Number of Emails to Check

You may have got nervous or backed off when I suggested having several emails. It is true that it is frustrating if you have to go to a different web address to check for and send emails for even just two or three addresses.

That is not necessary. There are a number of ways to check most or all your emails in one place. Gmail allows you to have more than one Gmail email, and you can switch between them by clicking a link in the upper right corner.

There are email software programs that allow you to enter the login details for a number of emails so you can have that on your desktop or laptop (not so sure about on a phone), and you can easily check one after another.

My favourite on my Linux computer system is KMail. I have about 24 emails there, and that is the one place I check daily. Unfortunately, it doesn't install on a Windows computer.

Thunderbird is another email program, and it does have a Windows version, though it was first designed for Linux systems. It is a little more bloated-looking but I have set up 19 emails there, which I just check once or twice a week.

A quick Google check brings up this list of email programs for windows; (there are far more for linux computers);
eM Client for customization
Thunderbird for a free email client
Mailbird for people who live in their inbox
Windows Mail for simplicity
Microsoft Outlook for email with a robust business platform
Kiwi for Gmail for Gmail power users
The Bat! for security and encryption

I suggest you research them and see which ones you can download for free and try out. If it does not work for you, uninstall it and try another one.

Where to get emails? Well, if you get a website, and put up a page, you can create as many emails as you like all ending in @yourdomainname.com (Of course, a website has to be hosted somewhere, which may cost you $5-29/month. I know one place where you can set up as many emails as you like for $10/mon.) ...Let me know if you have questions.

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