Hacking, did it ever happen to you?

[carole gill]

I just really need to start this discussion.
Still shaken up over having been hacked into and having all my contacts stolen!
So weird!
And a contact said he received some wacky mail too!
I've contacted everyone but it really left me upset.
I changed my email--but still!
Has it ever happened to you?
Any advice you can give me?
Would be eternally grateful!

[I. J. Parker]

Umm, my editor just wanted to handle revisions electronically. I'll probably go ahead and do this next time. Almost everybody asks for electronic versions after the hard copy. My electronic copies are being e-mailed all over the world.
However, if you fear plagiarism, I doubt that can happen, since you will have all sorts of proof that the book is yours. For that matter, Word dates all files.

[Anne Frasier]

i would be more afraid of the book being made available online for free, but i guess it would take somebody who actually has some interest in fiction to even care. i recently came across the literary equivalent of napster where all of my titles had been scanned and could be downloaded for free. totaled hundreds of downloads, so i guess i'm extra paranoid.

[I. J. Parker]

Ouch. Sorry about that. I hope you stopped it. That's why it's a good idea to google one's titles now and then.

[Pepper Smith]

Tell your publisher. They can have their lawyers send them a cease and desist letter. These folks will probably only pop up again elsewhere, but you can stop them for a little while.

[John Dishon]

China has a big book bootlegging industry, or at least it used to. One of their most popular writers, Jin Yong (he writes martial arts fiction) had a lot of trouble with bootleg copies of his books (physical books, not electronic downloads) and also other books being published with his name on them, even though he didn't write them. They were trying to capitalize on his fame.

[Pepper Smith]

Do you exchange a lot of emails with friends who send you to sites to look at videos or anything? We just recently had to reformat our computer. I suspect when my husband was checking out site links that friends forwarded to him, that we picked up some malware. It deleted my husband's user account on the computer.

There is malware as well as viruses that will take your address book and use it for other things. It's surprisingly easy to pick it up, even with a good firewall. If you don't already have one, you might want to find a good malware and adware removal program and run it to check your computer.

[carole gill]

thanks Pepper!
don't really exchange much with anyone.
rarely go to sites to watch things that people suggest either.
I do join up for loads of newsletters. perhaps that's the problem
but my newsletters are from newspapers and literary things--
but I suppose I could have been at risk anyway, with malware or viruses. My stepson though recently did a check and he said everything was fine, but we'll check again.
Yes, just asked my husband--we have a firewall. but apparently it didn't stop the fire!
Your suggestng about checking the computer is a good one.
will do.
Thanks so much for your reply.

[Eric Christopherson]

I'll bet it was a spammer who wanted your address book because spammers have a never-ending thirst for email addresses. They may also have hijacked your own computer to send the spam.

I have a vague recollection of some new hole in need of patching being discovered and announced recently, I think by Microsoft. What the malicious people do nowadays is wait for these announcements about potential exploitation points in the software and then exploit them before very many patches are in place.

So long as you have McAfee or Norton or some sort of protection service you should be fine shortly.

[carole gill]

thanks Eric.
We do have some protection service. Avast.
Hope that's good--my husband's doing a check as we "speak."
Of course it isn't good if this thing happened!
so will see about changing it then.
I guess they shouldn't speak of exploitation points!
It's like sharpening knifes and leaving them out for Jack the Ripper or something.
what with those b*'s waiting to read the reports!
the mind boggles!

[Christine Duncan]

So what is the answer--do we take all of our contacts out of our on-line email accounts. I have both hotmail and juno for different things and I'd hate to have to do that!

[carole gill]

I took mine out.
But check with the server. Apparently from what I understand hackers can get in to things.

[Deirdre]

Awhile back I got an e-mail from msn that my account may have been compromised and I should change my password. I did change it and other than I have to struggle to remember what it is, my info is safe.

They tell you to change your password periodically on all important accounts.

Unfortunately computer crime is pretty big. I guess as crime writers we really shouldn't be all that shocked.

Deirdre