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Help Stop Domain Hacking

by Seattle Mike
4 replies
Just a little warning to everyone. I was looking at my stats and saw a wacky domain name as a referring domain. Went and looked at it and it was a list of thousands of usernames for hosting accounts.

Remember when you set up your domain and just used the default first 6 letters of the domain? This makes it incredibly easy for anyone with a Password cracker to just set it to keep trying combinations until they get in.

It might take them a long time or they might get lucky.

Bottom line when you set up a new domain at your host and are adding your username and password. Change the username to something hard to guess.

Just a reminder;

I did the same thing for years using the default. But after seeing all my usernames listed, that gets me thinking.

Any comments?
#domain #hacking #stop
  • Profile picture of the author Preben Frenning
    My domain got hacked once.
    It was my fist website, and I hadn't even started promoting it.
    He "stole" my account, so I couldn't log in. Luckily, I was lgged in on another computer, and managed to take it back immediately.

    The hackers had only changed my index file to "Haxxed. Sorry..." or something.
    Anyways, I found it strange to hack a domain without any traffic OR content!
    So it must be some software doing it to many domains I guess...
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    • Profile picture of the author timer
      I thought changing the default password of anything was the first thing savvy users do. I never leave default passwords for anything and haven't for years.

      When I bought my first house it came with a burgular alarm fitted and my first 2 jobs were changing all the locks and the alarm code. Better safe than sorry I thought. Everything online is far more vulnerable than my house. Like most things in life it comes down to common sense and being prepared to make the extra effort.
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      • Profile picture of the author Preben Frenning
        Well, I changed the password to a HARDCORE one. Impossible to guess.
        Different caps and numbers, but it still got hacked.
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        Content overload? Too many tabs open? Then
        check out my awesome tech startup! - It will make your life easier.


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        • Profile picture of the author Eric Lorence
          Just a little warning to everyone. I was looking at my stats and saw a wacky domain name as a referring domain. Went and looked at it and it was a list of thousands of usernames for hosting accounts.
          What you're talking about is referrer spam and pretty difficult to stop, you could tweak your .htaccess, but soon you will find dozens- if not hundreds of these Free web host accounts linking up to yours.

          Referrer spam has nothing to do with your own domain being hacked.

          These are generated by bots with the goal of getting on the front page of blogs and sites that show their referrers on the front page.

          Good luck!
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