Say someone hacked into my cpanel account on Trap17.com and started to delete and change my files and email people off my emails and such. Also say that person also hacked into my forums and started banning everyone and such. What can i do to keep this from happening and also if it did happen to get my site back to normal.

Last year i worked on these forums as a admin and the forums got this member who got on my name and banned all ther admins names and ips adress. IPB didn't help me so we had to make new forums. Is there a way to fix that? Also say that this guy got on my cpanel and started to delete all my webpages and changed the password. What do i do?

So what do i do? Please post it here.

Well for beginning, I'd change your cPanel password to something more complex and let no one know about it. The good rule of thumb is to make your password at least 8 characters long, mixture of alpha-numeric. When I worked as a system security manager, I had everyone follow the password generating rule: pick a letter, pick any 3 digits from your social security number, then pick a letter from your name, pick a letter that's twice removed from the previous letter, repeat it, and then end with another letter from your name. For example, Z123BDDH.

Even with this much of cloak if your computer is infested with keylogger or remote viewer, your best password is ineffective. Make sure you sweep your computer for any spyware and possible security leaks. And back up your forum as often as you can and store it in at least two different places. This will ensure that if you happen to lose your backup from your cPanel, you can always retrieve your backup-backup from another place.

It's always best to stop something from happening rather than to solve it when it does so follow these steps and precautions...

• Choose a good secure password
  A good password should combine of at least 2 of these characteristics:
  • A lower-case letter (b)
  • An upper-case letter (B)
  • A non-alphanumberic symbol (&)
  • A number (2)
  It should be something related to you but don't make it too obvious (ie your name written in sms form such as $@m@nth@). Make your cpanel password different from your trap17 one. If they hack into cpanel, they'll naturally try for the forum and vice-versa.
• Back-up your files
  If your files are lost or edited and your password is changed at least you will have a back-up of your files so you don't have to re-write them. I recommend you back-up your files at least every week or each time you change one, back it up, it's easier that way.
• If you get hacked...
  The only way out I see is to terminate your hosting account and then reapply. I don't believe you can terminate an account without knowing the cpanel password so you'll have to have it manually terminated. You can prove that it's your account with your accepted application. When you get reaccepted, upload your backup files.

That's my advice, I don't think that cpanel has back-up activated so you may have to do it manually.

>.< my password is 8 characters but not that secured :/ i hope i dont get hacked