20100304: Hacker problem remedied !

Dear classmates of SACsslc1960...

I'm afraid, with regret I have had to withdraw the facility extended to y'all - of posting directly into our common Blog. I was constrained to do this by changing the password and the direct access email address earlier shared with you.

It is embarrassing for me to share with you the reason why - but our blog was hacked into to post unsavoury crminal messages with intent to con people into parting with their money.

Unfortunately one of you has compromised our Blog by inadvertantly sharing the email address with unauthorised persons - the knowledge of which has enabled access to our blog to criminal scamsters (mainly from Nigeria) to post their famous messages of sob-stories with financial demands - very often convincing enough to con the recipients and gullible Readers of these messages into parting with their money.

This could have also happened when the blog direct access email address was included by any or one of you while sharing with multiple email addresses of the Group your email messages addressed to one or more individual members in an open email.

I will not say more for reasons it may confuse your minds and compicate matters further.

No harm done though - I have now remedied the damage done:
i) by immediately changing the password for access into the blog;
ii) by also changing the direct access email address;
iii) by changing the stettings so no dirct post by a possible hacker, or by anyone for that matter, can get published right away - but instead, gets saved and hidden in the background for editing by me (as the administrator of the blog) before it appears on the blog for viewing as a published post; and finally,
iv) by cleaning up the Blog of all the hacked-in unsavoury messages and deleting them.

As I specified, no harm done!
You can continue to enjoy the Blog by accessing it at http://sacclassof1960.blogspot.com/ as before - the only change being that you will not be posting on the blog anything directly now, but only through me. It will entail a little more work for me to archive all your messages that are marked to me too, and such others as you may specifically desire to appear on the blog.... but then, that's my headache...

For those of you interested in posting on the blog diectly, and would individually indicate to me your wish, I will share with you the new direct posting email address once I am back in India - ONLY on telephone though, and ONLY after thoroughly briefing you on matters of email etiquette AND internet protocol to be observed - and most importantly, on how NOT to be a victim of scams.

On a personal note, I leave for India today and should arrive in Delhi tomorrow - Saturday morning.

Cheers,
Maxie