Help! I've been hacked into

[susanny]

I hope somebody here will be able to give me the right information on what to do here. Somebody hacked into my email address list and sent out emails to the people on it with a link attached. I have received replies from 3 of the people so far and each email sent to them was individualized, with different wording in other words.
Does anyone know what I should do? I had received a couple of notices from different sources saying their own sites had been compromised and their email lists/passwords/ info had been hacked into and warning me to change my password, etc. Facebook was one of the sites that contacted me and I had to change that whole account and I also changed the password on my email account, as well. Is there somewhere I should report that this happened? My son has a friend in the computer repair business and he told me this is a fairly common occurrance and not to panic. Well, aside from the fact I feel violated, my personal contacts have been violated as well and I don't like that.

Any info would help. And those here who are on my email list and got the unsolicited email from me, I do apologize. Don't know how it happened , but I still feel responsible.

Sue

[sandy07]

Ah Huh...so that's what happened. Happened to my SIL. She changed a bunch of stuff but it didn't help. She finally had to change her whole email address....which she didn't want to do. maybe somebody can help...not me...sorry.

[andy]

This happened to me yesterday, I use Yahoo and have a sign in Seal, I went to sign in and the seal had been changed to my avatar here on the forum. I did change my password and haven't seen any adverse affects, but is quite upsetting.
I think it came from photo bucket. This is one reason I am hesitant about personal info on any site.

I will not use Face book.

Andy

[susanny]

Well, I don't want to have to change my email address, that's for sure, but if it has to be done, so be it. It would be such a big hassle. I have a mac and this is the first problem I've ever had with it over 3 years, also use Firefox.

Here is a portion of an email I got on the 8th from a site I'd entered a sweepstakes at:

"On June 2, 2011, we learned we were the target of a cyberattack when a hacker claimed that he had recently broken into sonypictures.com. Upon learning of this cyberattack, our team retained outside experts to conduct an investigation and forensic analysis. In addition, we promptly took offline all potentially affected databases containing personally identifiable information and contacted the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. We are working with the FBI to assist in the identification of those responsible for this crime.

We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as we work to resolve these issues quickly and efficiently.

We are continuing to investigate the details of this cyberattack; however, we believe that one or more unauthorized persons may have obtained some or all of the following information that you may have provided to us in connection with certain promotions or sweepstakes: name, address, email address, telephone number, gender, date of birth, and website password and user name.

For your security, we encourage you to be aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony Pictures Entertainment will not contact you by email or otherwise to ask for your credit card number or social security number. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony Pictures Entertainment is not the entity asking. When our website features are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. If you use your Sony Pictures website user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them there, as well. "

This seems to be where it all started at, and they somehow got into my Facebook acct. and my email list. I admit it, I used the same password for everything, except my yahoo which was different. I suppose, though, that now that they already have my email list it's too late for that. The emails that they sent to my list weren't even done the same day. The two I have copies of were done on the 8th and the 9th.

So, is my only option to change my email address then? Again, should I be reporting this to someone?

[Deleted]

well if they have already turned it over to the FBI not sure what else you can do. I know that if you will change your passwords to at least 12 digits which includes a couple of capital letters and a couple of numbers or symbols that it would take a hacker several thousands of years to hack your passwords. you already know you shouldn't have the same password for everything so you need to get that cleaned up as soon as you can. I keep a little log book on my desk with all my passwords written down as I have so darn many and they are so long. Not much you can do about them getting your address and phone number and birthdate. That would scare me.

[susanny]

Thanks Betty. Guess I won't be entering sweepstakes anymore. This was for one of the soaps that I watch...they were giving away $500. gift cards and never thought something would happen like this.

I will definitely be working on the password situation. Ticks me off that after all these years I have to change. I know, some people change theirs all the time but I always thought I'd be ok. sound like a teenager, don't I..."It won't happen to me". I sent an email to those on my list warning them about the hacking and a couple said it had happened to them in the past, too.

So, guess I'm buying a little black notebook to keep track of my passwords. Sure did like it when things were simple and I felt like I could trust everyone.

[Deleted]

Sue, something else I forgot to tell you, check your address book and see if the company you got the email from is on it or if any other names are on your list that you do not know. If they are, delete them. I had a company that keep sending me spam and I kept sending it to the block list and couldn't figure out why I kept getting them and then I discovered that they were in my address book. As soon as I deleted them, never got another email from them.

[spike99]

It happened on our Win xx laptop to my wife as well. re: Lots of her friends got "same text content" emails and funny thing, my wife was out with my disabled son during that specific time slot. Thus, why we knew the root cause was an internal virus / auto mailer situation. So far, no virus / auto mailer attacks on our new iMac. For avoiding virus and auto mailers, I hear the Mac platforms are good. Not bullet proof but much better then Win xx machines....

[susanny]

I have always felt confident having the Mac as never had any problems whatsoever since owning it. Now this.

Betty, that is a good idea to check my list. Will do that as soon as I get done here. Thanks.