Possible hacking

[ALF28]

On two occasions jan and Feb 2020 the password failed on my virgin secondary email login,had to reset using security question. It is the email address used for community. There was nothing wrong but not sure why password failed for no apparatus reason. It ia a virginmedia.com email. Is there a way to ensure the 10 digit password is strong, I normally use upper and lower case letters and some numbers, what are the restrictions if any, I assume symbols not allowed. When the failures occurred I tried several times retyping user name and paswords to check my typing, same result failed.

Can 10 letters be used or is it best to include some numbers which I do, but an example of a very strong 10 digit  password would be useful, I presume best to avoid words in case of dictionary attack or names, birthdays etc.

I suppose at the time the virgin log in may have been down temorarily but it said wrong details entered but the password reset worked and let me in.

.

[ALF28]

PASSWORD SECURITY

to get into someone's account/email a hacker would need user name and password

or to get into email hacker would need email address and password.

if a hacker has your virgin account number, area code and last name  (data breach) he can request user name which also lists  secondary emails

the hacker would then need to reset the password using the security question, but if forgot then sends an email link to your contact address to reset the password, so the hacker would need access to that email address and therefore protected unless they hacked that as well but unlikely.

It may be possible to hack an email via a third party client by-passing the virgin security? 

I use a  log in gmail address with 2 step verification  which protects the contact address against hacking.

So it is not easy to see how an account may be hacked but not impossible to a clever hacker.

Other reasons for password failure could be the system hanging and need to keep re-trying the password a few times or after password update you have entered it wrong (unlikely as it is entered twice), and in my case I always retest the log in after a password reset to check it works.

So password failure can be a mystery have had it a few times but no evidence of account tampering or email tampering unless it is virgin forcing a password change for security reasons and have changed or blocked the password?

another reason could be after a password update the system fails to record it properly for some reason, happens a lot with all emails occasionally after password changes that can lock you out.

hope mine remains secure now.

[ALF28]

PASSWORD FAILURES

Looking at the list of help wanted for password problems I am surprised to see  a few customers who can not access there accounts and have requested help but waiting long delays for any help.

It strikes me that the system of password reset is insufficient if a customer  can be locked out of their own account with no means to reset it.

If access is "denied" then account takeover has happened perhaps or they have forgot their password etc. There should be a secure system preventing this happening by the use of  backup recovery methods such as recovery emails, mobile text or voice mail, back up codes. Why does virgin security lack these simple solutions to account recovery. If the security question fails then the password reset is sent to your email which may not be accessible without password so the system fails to allow recovery. Perhaps virgin need to look at how google and Microsoft which are free have fantastic security. As virgin is a paid for service  by customers they should expect a good level of security. Account or email hacking should be impossible with good security, and an alert system is needed for changes or illegal attempted changes to account settings. Thankfully I have usually managed recovery except one time I had to ring up to reset user name.

just my opinion alf28

[ALF28]

update password security-important

Change passwords regularly to keep secure and keep a record of the password in case you need it, test it regularly

Passwords can be leaked or stolen easily these days by breaches or via you own computer. Wise not to save passwords in the browser settings.

Accounts using the email address can also be compromised if an email is compromised. I once did not change  my email password for 4 years but later found during that period there were password breaches and also related account beaches, so would have been easy for someone to have access to all my data and may well have occured.

A password gives access to all your contacts, banks etc., so it need to be strong and wise not to use the same password for more than one account

In some cases apps from social media can give access to your email so if social  media is hacked it could give access to email if an app is permitted , not sure if that is the case with virgin email? I recently found an unknow app permission in one of my emails that may have been used to access my email.

Also imap/pop settings mean others could try to access your email via email clients, Some emails allow ipap/pop to be switched off if using web mail, not sure if that is possible in virgin settings though.?

It is surprising just how often a password fails when logging in, happens to me a lot but there is not always an obvious reason but I usually manage to reset the password using the security features, it happens a lot to me on many accounts, especially if the account has not been used for a while, with the concern  of account hacking or compromised accounts. The incidence of data breach is also one of concern and I now try to keep pace with the latest ones and change my password quickly if one is announced.

No actions required by virgin, my account is secure, although  In the past I had issues with my primary email and it it is still spammed a lot and on the have I been pwned website   (hacked lists.), they also have a leaked password checker, Avast hack check also identifies if any passwords have been leaked connected  to an email address.

(p.s.   the text edit tools cut, paste, undo were not working today, but after three or four attempts managed- seemed to be  time delay on this)

[ALF28]

UNCONFIRMED CRDOWNLOAD-could be very dangerous

also  got very unusual emails recently posing as a genuine company

can be a hacker placing a trojan to remote control computer from a website visited, sometimes  does further damage when an email attachment is sent to click on.

designed to  bypass antivirus and can redirect your searches to get your data or place keyloggers.

2 threats Luckily picked it up with malware scan.

Followed downloading some personal information files yesterday (will not mention the company)

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Unconfirmed crdownload file is uncommonly planned by hackers to have remote access and take the data from the client’s PC. It is a Trojan pony virus. This virus is unsafe to such an extent that on the off chance that it is once stacked in the framework, it can sidestep the security output and join different viruses without taking the client’s permission. This virus by and large assaults the frameworks that have 64-bit Windows. It gets remote access to a PC and screens all the online exercises of the client to gather all the data for any criminal operations. If the client is having the Trojan virus inside his framework, at that point, his framework security is at high risk. Along these lines, in this post, all the necessary data about the unverified open crdownload virus is talked about to have a proper comprehension of this error.

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one to watch out for

[ALF28]

private stats

I notice in my private stats records the browsers used on my community account.

mine lists -mozilla, apple,chrome,safari,edge

I only use edge or google chrome normally.

so why does it list mozilla, apple, safari

I do not have apple or safari.

mozilla firefox only added recently but not used

why is this???

[ALF28]

Community account profile edit personal information-      setting-auto login

I turned this off for all computers

But it switched back on by itself twice after I turned it off.

Now it can not be turned off, remains on all the time both for all computers and just this device 

Wondered why this can not be switched off  and can someone explain what autologin/logout  does?

I presume for good security it may be best switched off?

[ALF28]

Auto login -community account-any feedback/answer anyone?

still can not switch off auto log in to off.

anyone else tried this, perhaps there is a fault, there used to be an option to switch off (that did previously work) the auto login option in community profile???

what does auto log in actually do? what is it's purpose? should it be able to switch off? does that mean anyone could log into my account without a password.

I always have to put in my username and password so perhaps it does not function but I also do not click the radio button to keep logged in.

ALF28

[ALF28]

auto sign in wont switch off- is it hacked.

Ok, we've done that for you. To turn it back on again, tick 'Keep me signed in' next time you sign in on this device.

This notice is not in my account proving there is an automatic overide to prevent the auto login from switching off

this has just changed in the last few days, could be the account is monitored?

does this mean the community account is insecure and not password protected or another instance of the account is open.

Not sure if it just applies to my community account or to everyone???

ALF28

[ALF28]

still faulty today and no explanations to date, 

• Profile
• Preferences
• Profile pics
• Resources
• Notifications
• Social

EmailPasswordPersonal informationAuto sign in on/offClose Account

• Email
• Password
• Personal information
• Auto sign in on/off
• Close Account

Turn off auto sign in

Auto sign in lets you sign in to the community without typing your username and password details.
You can turn off auto sign in for the device you're currently using or for all the devices you use to visit the Virgin Media Community. It's a good idea to turn auto sign in off if you use a computer in a public location such as a library or Internet café. You can turn it back on whenever you sign in.

Turn off auto sign in for:

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does not turn off ,after logging out and back in the auto sign in remain switched on.

what is auto sign in????

on my computer I always input user name and password to log in, so how does auto sign in work and if I can not switch it off is this a security risk.

seems no one has an answer to this one????

why provide the option if it does not function?  is it linked to the radio button at log in?

where are the experts??? perhaps they do not know the answer either???

is this a temp glitch?

any one else got it or just me??

If it is not switched off , and can not be switched off, does that mean access to my account is open and nor secure?

[newapollo · Accepted solution]

Hi ALF28,

Nothing has changed on the forum log in page.

I use the forum auto login feature to keep me signed in on my main PC, however I don't have this enabled when using a tablet or mobile.

Each device can be individually set to remain signed in via the forum home page.

As you can see from my screenshot (taken after I purposely logged out) my username and password fields are pre filled allowing me to just click on sign in.  This is because I enabled the save password feature within my Google Chrome browser.

To disable that I would have to log into my browser settings and delete the saved password for that site.

After doing that the next time I would need to manually enter my sign in details for that site, however there would be a pop up box from my browser asking if I wanted to remember those details. I would then have a choice yes or no.