How-to: prevent your Pico from being hacked

Thursday, January 20, 2011 1/20/2011 ♥


Lately I've heard many instances of hackers taking over popular Pico accounts and mucking with their stuff. Sometimes the hackers are generous and just mess up rooms, but most of them go as far as deleting inventory and changing passwords so that the owner can't log back into their Pico.

Yes, it's a sad world we live in. And unfortunately, Ameba can't do much to help you once it's happened. Why do hackers do it? Jealousy, spite, true evil, boredom... any reason really. Better to make it harder for them!

Don't let a horror story happen to you.

1. Never tell anyone your email login address or password.
You may trust the person you're giving it to, but you can't be sure that they aren't going to give it to someone else. Things spread fast around the internet, people!

2. Make your password secure.
Yes, it's hard to remember passwords; we have to remember SO MANY of them! But that's NO EXCUSE to make your password "abc123." Anyone can guess that and your account will surely be compromised. The strongest password will contain both capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers and can be as long as 15 characters long. For example:
ThisIsMyPassword8512635
(Don't use that one, okay? It's not mine, either! LOL)

3. Change your password (or e-mail address) frequently.
It's not a bad idea to swap out your password every few months or so. Lots of businesses that keep confidential information require users to change their passwords every 60 to 90 days in case of compromise. If you want EXTREME security, you can also change the affiliated e-mail address to your account.

4. Make friends you can trust.
This one is obvious, but just avoid shifty people. Don't let anyone trick you into doing something you don't want to.

If you've been hacked, contact Ameba immediately. The least they can do is give you access to your account again. (Maybe...)


Love,
Ashley xoxo

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