Help !!!

I just received this e mail, not sure who is doing this ,can I find out some way by using the IP address ?

GearHead EFI Forums <admin@gearhead-efi.com>	12:28 AM (8 hours ago) https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif		https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
to me https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif

Dear joe cool,

Someone has tried to log into your account on GearHead EFI Forums with an incorrect password at least 5 times. This person has been prevented from attempting to login to your account for the next 15 minutes.

The person trying to log into your account had the following IP address: 117.169.1.186

All the best,
GearHead EFI Forums

That IP address is common for hackers. Type it into google and you'll see it on plenty of blacklists for spammers. Joe Cool is a fairly common username so it's probably not personal. I'm going to send a PM.

it's probably nothing to worry about. brute forcing a password almost never works if the forum is configured to stop allowing logins after a few attempts like that.

the only reason i'd be concerned is if your password is a single common word, such as 'password' or 'test', in which case it may be a good idea to change it.

Yeah... and combining them to make "test password" isn't very secure, either.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 1project2many

Yeah... and combining them to make "test password" isn't very secure, either.

---

lol.

Thanks fellas, My password is pretty unique. It is the first time something like this has happened to me and I was worried. What if someone hacked in and posted a pic of an old ,fat ,ugly guy on here.
No ,wait ,that would be my pic!!!

:laugh:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 1project2many

Yeah... and combining them to make "test password" isn't very secure, either.

---

actually you'd be suprised

if it's an over-the-wire crack where you can only check five passwords every 10 minutes because you get locked out; the chances of 'test password' being chosen that close to the beginning of dictionary permutations are... well. it would probably take longer than you're alive for someone to guess it

unless someone specifically assumes that common passwords may be combined in pairs and seperated with a space, and that's more likely than single words, which would be an odd assumption. it'd exponentially increase cracking time, and what if they use testpassword instead? that's taking something that may take a hundred years to figure out and making it take a thousand.

that's why when a forum locks you out after a half a dozen failed login attempts, you shouldn't get upset about it. it's a good feature. it turns 'unlikely' into 'damn near impossible.

I'm just gonna leave this here...

http://xkcd.com/936/

crackers also know that if you build a password dictionary by trawling a forum for the most popular words, you'll generally get at least a few accounts on that forum easily by counting down.

this means if you're on a car forum, don't set your password to 'piston' or 'racecar' or 'stickshift', you'll get nailed way more easily.

i got that same email this morning......
whois says china...............

Second time i've gotten it.
"Someone has tried to log into your account on GearHead EFI Forums with an incorrect password at least 5 times. This person has been prevented from attempting to login to your account for the next 15 minutes.

The person trying to log into your account had the following IP address: 209.249.157.69"

Skandolis,i'm right outside fort smith in Sallisaw.
small world.