Protection of private data.

[xdavysuex]

I have recently joined a SM forum and within a few hours of joining, my password needed re applying for and resetting. When I finally managed to get back in, I noticed that my PM message box had been opened during the time I was "locked out"

Is this possible for someone to do? and what can I do to stop it from happenning in the future

Thank you in anticipation of your reply

Tom

[Ben_S]

Any admin can change your password and if he so wished to would then be able to login as you. Pretty much all forum software has the feature of admins being able to reset users passwords and there isn't really a lot you can do about it other than not use dodgy sites.

[xdavysuex]

Any admin can change your password and if he so wished to would then be able to login as you. Pretty much all forum software has the feature of admins being able to reset users passwords and there isn't really a lot you can do about it other than not use dodgy sites.

Sounds a little like "after the horse has bolted".

Should I now worry that my password protection is compromised on many other sites including banks, building societies and the like. I should, perhaps with hindsite, have used a new password rather than a "master"

Thanks anyway for your reply

[Peter Duggan]

Should I now worry that my password protection is compromised on many other sites including banks, building societies and the like. I should, perhaps with hindsite, have used a new password rather than a "master"

Don't ever use the same password(s) for everything, but do change your bank/building society passwords *immediately* if you've been using the same one!

PS While your SMF password is 'safe' in the sense that it's one-way encrypted and can't be read from the database, using single/limited passwords for everything is still asking for trouble.