Quote:
Originally posted by grzepa
Do you guys think that changing u/p at your cpanel frequently should help preventing such problems ?
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Maybe, maybe not. I haven't used them so I don't know what their securtity setup is. But if it (the password) is sent unencrypted (non-SSL, etc), then each time you change it you risk that someone between your machine/network and their server/network is able to intercept it. This can happen with malicious operators or when a cracker/hacker has compromised a router etc. The same thing is true with standard POP email accounts or regular telnet (which is why SSH is used by many hosts - but what about the other services?) and FTP. If the password change is done securely, yes, go for it as often as you can.
Passwords. Make them good - eight characters with numbers and letters, mixed case. DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD FOR OTHER THINGS. PASSWORDS SHOULD BE UNIQUE, especially among vital things.
Also, your machine's security is vital otherwise - no matter what you do remotely - if someone has a key logger on it, it will do no good. Virus and trojan scanners with updated definition files are vital along with some sort of firewall setup. But these aren't 100% either. If someone is very knowledgeable and targets you specifically, they can write custom stuff that will probably get around detection (virus scanners usually look for certain signatures/strings or ebhaviours). This is why people with a lot to lose (and many enemies) should actively take every reasonable precaution that they can - even the best protection known really is not enough with a creative adversary. Anyone who says otherwise probably does nto know what they are talking about.
Don't forget the normal steps the others talked about too - like locking the registrar. I use directnic and have no major complaints, they offer this.
added: also if you really do not want to see this happen again and would hate it, people are often able to circumvent security measures (like passwords) by going over the phone (social engineering). The service will then question them about other things - or some not even at all and will just believe it (!!!) - if someone knows what these questions will be and is able to answer them or convince the person providing the service enough, it will be trouble for you. It might be good to talk with your providers of services and tell them not to allow this in advance and establish how you will identify yourself. This would apply to hosts too - as it would be a pretty blatent denial of service attack if they convinced your host to pull the plug, wouldn't it?
Good luck.