Technical Support Forum

For the most complete information and post mortem on the May 2019 hack, please see:
         "Re: Update on May 2019 Security Breach"  



Greets,

Thank you for reporting this. Due to the reports received over the past 24 hours, we are definitely investigating this further. As with any security related issue, I take this very seriously.

I do want to note...
Over the last few months, I have been working diligently to make upgrades and changes to Writing.Com's servers and the security systems we use throughout our network. As part of the changes and updates that have been made since May of this year, plain text passwords are no longer stored within Writing.Com's system. As such, I do not believe this is a "current" issue... but one that had already occurred prior to the security changes I've put into place.

The process began because during a regular review of our systems, I found that one of the sites on a shared server Writing.Com used did not have very good security in place. Realizing that this could cause a concern for us, my 24x7 focus since May has been a complete review of every aspect of Writing.Com's back-end servers. This included vast changes to our security protocols, as well as updating all server software, bringing everything up to current, secure versions and making sure any other sites using shared resources had the same level of security as Writing.Com itself.

While the reports today suggest something may have occurred, our entire infrastructure has changed significantly for the better over the last 3 months. I do not believe whatever happened is presently "happening" - that this would have been a past event.

As always, people should use unique passwords that are used on only one site. Changing your password now should ensure no one has further access to your Writing.Com account; that's good practice to use in general, all the time, anywhere on the internet. If you change your Writing.Com password and this occurs again with a new password, please let us know immediately.

Writing.Com is our baby and our members are like family to us. My wife and I are always working to be sure it's a safe and secure environment for our community. As a sole proprietor, I always do all that I can to stay on top of security issues and if indeed there was an incident, I sincerely apologize for any past issue which may have allowed that to occur. Know that I am doing everything I can to keep all accounts here as safe as possible.

Thanks again,
~~SM


For the most complete information and post mortem on the May 2019 hack, please see:
         "Re: Update on May 2019 Security Breach"