Friday, March 07, 2014

My Twitter account got hacked

This is a cautionary tale.  I am sharing it so that anyone who reads it will not be a victim in the same way I was.

Yesterday while I was at work, I got notification in my personal email that Southern Writers Mag @SouthrnWritrMag had mentioned me in a tweet including an indecipherable link.  I had no idea why Southern Writer Magazine would be mentioning me in a tweet (red flag number one), so I wanted to check it out from my iPhone.  I opened up the tweet, and proceeded to click on the link.  When I did, the Twitter app opened up a browser session and presented me with a Twitter login page.  Strange, since I was in the Twitter app - why would I need to login again?  (Red flag number 2). 

Since it was on my iPhone, and since I have been struggling to get the security settings on the device where I want them to be, I figured it was just a problem with my configuration.  In addition, the page on the browser on my iPhone was far too small to read, so I had to magnify the screen, thereby obfuscating some of the other parts of the screen that might have tipped me off that this was not a legit login page.  I typed in my username and password, hit enter and nothing seemed to happen.  Thinking I must have done something wrong, I went back to Twitter, clicked on the link again, and was presented with the login screen again.  Wondering if I had just fat-fingered my username of my password on the iPhone, I entered both again and hit enter.  The fact that I was at work, and the fact that I just wanted to see what Southern Writers Magazine was saying about me, and the fact that I was on the iPhone with limited visibility all conspired against me.

In the meanwhile, I noticed that the Southern Writers Magazine Twitter account was tweeting repeatedly some message about Dr. Oz.  In addition, there were other tweets that looked like the one that was directed at me (red flag number 3). Still it did not dawn on me that the account had been hacked, although I did wonder who had taken control of the Twitter account, and why they were seemingly promoting the Dr. Oz book so heavy-handedly (red flag number 4).

When I woke up the next morning and checked my email, I had an email from Jason Mashak in Prague letting me know that my Twitter account was spamming others with an infected link.  I immediately changed my Twitter password, and posted a brief apology.  I sent a thank you note to Jason, and in his response he mentioned that I should probably post a warning so that no one else would be duped so easily as I was.  This blog post is that warning.

For years at the beginning of the proliferation of email, I was surprised by the family members and friends who got themselves hacked by clicking on links that they shouldn't have, or worse, typing in their username and email address into pages that were obviously meant to trick them.  I felt embarrassed by their naivete.  Being the victim of an attack like this, and making the same innocent but careless mistakes, I am humbled.  Angry, frustrated, embarrassed and humbled.

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

RICKPRYLL.COM 2.0 is now LIVE

Check it out - a great update to my web site. RICKPRYLL.COM

My review - Li'l Choo Choo Johnson

Here's my recent review for Bryan Krull's Li'l Choo Choo Johnson.  A great example of the best of what historical fiction has to offer.

I found myself glued to the pages of this book. Then I turned to both Pandora and iTunes to hear the music that Mr. Krull captures so well. I didn't want the story to end. The really wonderful thing about this book is the historical accuracy. A few days after I finished reading it for the first time, I caught a CNN special on the British Invasion that talked about how the Rolling Stones got their name (from a Muddy Waters song) and how they insisted on featuring Howlin' Wolf on their television debut. I half expected Lil Choo Choo Johnson to suddenly appear! Just thinking about the book makes me want to go back and read it again.

http://www.amazon.com/Choo-Choo-Johnson-Bluesman-Bryan-Krull/dp/1608443558

Sunday, March 02, 2014

PayPal buttons to buy the print version: WALLOW

I am updating my PayPal buttons for WALLOW. Here's the button code:
And here's the email code: Buy WALLOW in print Need to update my signature to add the options for buying on Amazon or in print.