What to do if your email account has been compromised

Mailboxes (email accounts) password are encrypted on our servers. However, unauthorised people or applications can still take control of your email account by means of spyware/malware or simply guessing a weak password.

If, for example, your password has been set to an easily guessable password like "info123" or "domain123", this is very easy for a spammer to guess and the chances are good that your mailbox will be compromised at some point.

If you are responding to an email from our Abuse team, the following action is required of you:

  • If we have informed you that we have changed all your passwords, you need to login to your control panel and change your password to a stronger password that meets our password complexity requirements which are :
    • minimum 10 characters
    • at least one lower case character
    • at least one uppercase character
    • does not contain your email address account name
  • Once the password is changed you simply need to enter the new password into your email program such as Outlook or your Blackberry
  • If we have asked you to change all your passwords, this can be done in SolidCp Control Panel. You will need to inform us once this is done before you will be able to send mail again
  • It is always necessary for you to run security software such as anti-virus and anti-spyware/anti-malware. You should run a full scan of your PC before changing your password(s).
  • Microsoft has a free safety scanner available to help scan and secure your PC
  • www.Malwarebytes.org has a free malware scanner available as well.

Please be sure to only use strong passwords on all accounts at all times.

The repercussions of compromised sites are severe:

  • Blacklisting of servers results in mail delivery failures for all domains hosted on the server.
  • Damage to the reputation of all parties involved.
  • Financial implications including de-listing fees, disrupting business continuity.

It is for these reasons that HostworX takes email abuse and general abuse extremely seriously and reserves the right to suspend or terminate, without warning, any service in violation of our abuse policy, whether the abuse was intentional or not.

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