Dear Online Friends & Family:
I am sorry to say we are experiencing a technical difficulty which has turned out to be partly a gmail issue, and partly not.
There are those whose names and other info were in my inbox at the time it was robbed yesterday during the late evening hours.
The file that was stolen includes some personal info which was not as carefully guarded as perhaps it could have been, but it wasn't anything so serious as what others tell me they've had rifled through in their own gmail accounts.
Whoever it is perpetrating such a crime is surely busily trying to access any of the files people keep within every email account currently communicating to PPS's gmail account.
Which means all our friends may want to take warning and change their passwords, give gmail their home and/or cell phone numbers for further security, and so forth.
This may lead to further problems for those of you who also keep records using email and/or whose home computers keep on file things which may then be accessed while email windows/accounts are open/actively in use.
I wanted to warn everyone right away, as soon as I began to notice how this had occurred.
I've just been on the phone with Apple, where I got some of the best service I think you'll find anywhere. We ran systems checks on every portion of the Studio's workhorse computer, and while nothing came up, I can't help wondering if I've only been lucky this time.
As this excellent member of Apple's Apple Care staff and I chatted (running disk utilities checks can take time), he divulged he'd also been the victim of a similar crime with his own gmail account.
Friends of PPS had better be warned their gmail and other email accounts may be robbed within the next day or so. Anyone connecting with us on a regular basis via my own personal email may get an unwanted visitor, as these creeps know how to jump from account to account using technology we don't understand well enough, or they'd have been stopped long since.
We do not bank online at this office; however, others whose names and email addresses were in my gmail account during the theft of my one and only serious file there may well do their banking and blogging via a single account with gmail or yahoo, etc.
Please be warned: Identity thefts may occur before there's time to stop the Phishing mentioned in this post. It's best to shut down our computers completely overnight AND not before we have LOGGED OUT of each of our various fun sites, accounts, and so on. That would include sites like our beloved Bella Creations ning, through which any Phisher-man might access and re-access people's private funding and/or private lives.
We are sending our friends this post in an email (that is, anyone we've been corresponding with) although it may have already been too late.
Please be careful, people. When your IT team tells you even they've been experiencing problems due to phishing (also known as hacking into people's emails and using their private information to entrap others, etc.), you know there's a real problem to guard against.
So be careful, think smart, blog with caution, sign out of every account when shutting down for the night, and make sure your online security is working as it should. (Even close windows between tasks/sites. Important!)
We all had better change any passwords right away and then keep changing them periodically for weeks, just to be certain.
Let's batten down the hatches, people!
Let's not let them get the better of you and me!
Rose & Co
