Thread: Account hack?

For as long as we use screen names, which are publicly available, plus password for authentication there is no way to prevent brute force attacks like these where the attackers are essentially trying to guess the password on the account.

As security measure we block them after five unsuccessful attempts and send notification to the email on the account. Most forums and other sites would either not detect such attempts or not notify the account holder, but in my opinion that only decreases their security at the expense of keeping their members in the dark.
For example, the attackers are targeting accounts that have not been used for a while, clearly hoping to remain undetected, so our notifications are doing exactly what they are trying to avoid.

As long as you use a moderately secure password (i.e. not on the lists of the most commonly used passwords or your screen name) there should be no problem.