Security checks.
They would have you verify some information, or ask to produce some documents.

I dunno, this is standard practice for account recovery in most companies.

That would be a slow and laborous process for both the user and FA staff. Each individual case may take longer than an hour to resolve with utter certainty. Multiply that by potentially thousands of users and folks may not be able to get an answer back in regards to their account for weeks.

Unfortunately, that's just how it is.
FA don't have a lot of staff, compared to multi-billion dollar companies that have hundreds of staff onboard to run through procedure.

It's kinda ridiculous for people to use throwaway e-mails, imo. Especially if it's for a website you plan on using a lot.

There really is no better way to verify users except with, what I call, an "eScreening".

FA staff sets up an auto-responder directing people to the Recovery Tool, secondary replies with certain keywords could be given an additional auto-response letting them know they're getting a high volume of requests on the issue inbound and they'd be placed in a queue and addressed in time.

Honestly, if people can't access their account because they used a throw-away e-mail, that's their fault for being stupid enough to use a throw-away for something they care about.

It's not that hard to create a second e-mail account for this kind of subject matter, and if you're that concerned about linking it to your main identity in any way, you should either be using a VPN, or re-consider where you're accessing these sorts of sites at.

That's just how it is.

The problem is that the reset code has to be sent -somewhere-.

Once you get in contact with a mod, the process shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.
Usually it means you'll answer a couple of questions about your account, then you'll probably get the reset email to a email address of your choice.

(I used to be a mod here.)

That's something I'd like to know. My boyfriend actually lost his account and had to make a new one.

sup. <:T

hey bii. <:T

That's a tricky one but if FA could implement security questions to be used if you need to reset your password or something, that could help with what's going on for some users.

That doesn't help with the current reset, since no-one ever entered any security questions' answers.

Security Question. Like some sites do if you forget things to get into your account.

I do like the idea of a security question for additional future security. Preferably custom ones so you can easily remember it. It could be an alternative to an email check.

Users would need to make sure it is very cryptic though. If someone can determine the name of your pet dog, that's all it would take to get into your account.

Edit: A bit redundant knowing they ciphered passwords, they'd have the same access to security codes.

No-one filled in any answers, though. So security questions can only help in future PW resets.

given the personal info stored, if you have lost your email you're up to create a new account, plain and simple!

there is not much data that would prove who you are other than the email in those things, unless you could show maybe sites that are tied to your account ? even then... would admins be that helpful?

they would need to implement new things and accounts already burned would probably be lost for now.

Yeah, I know someone who's run into this too. He doesn't even remember what the name of the address associated with his account is. I told him to just email accounts-at-furaffinity.net like it says. They'll sort it out. It'll probably be awhile because there are probably hundreds of people having a similar problem. Really though, that's kind of on the user for not keeping their e-mail address updated. I've changed e-mails several times since making this account. All I had to do was change the address in my preferences.

idk.. im having a similar thing with one of my accounts. Except my gmail account I couldn't change the phone or computer. I had changed phone carrier and number. As for the computer I had to pawn it back in the day before I got my new computers..

So I was left with nothing.... I hope I can still get that account back.

I remember when I used old throw away emails, that's how I lost my RS account after 5 years.

Yeah i already raised this question...
Like what could they possibly ask from you?
Where you live? Personal info? Contents of your notes?
How do they verify

Im curious

I feel a pin number on the phone could be easy enough to make work.

They had access to passwords and emails, they would have your pin and they are general insecure.

No I mean a process where you keep a phone number attached and they send a verification pin to your phone

That would work but it is even more information to be stolen in any future attack

just a phone number which are public info anyways for most
and it is a secure way of locking access to an account.

Anna:

Well, I do refuse to give my phone number for such purposes... EVERYWHERE. Well, my number is not 'public info'

And here, well, this is a shared account.

Also, if they don't allow you to use the same e-mail for more than 1 account, this would be a nightmare to all people leading fursuit, character and group/icon accounts - which I guess are the majority of accounts lost now BTW. And how about changing accounts(moving)?
phone number requirement would kill all side accounts.

so it could work ONLY as sth optional, not required

I have a friend who cannot get into his account cos it says that the email he tried to use to get verified didnt exist, yet it does and he still uses the email/is his only email. so i do not understand why he is unable to get into his account. Do you happen to know why it is doing this?

One of the best things to do now is try to keep a log of email addresses and passwords of websites you go on just in case this stuff happens again. I started keeping a small book with websites, usernames and passwords just in case after i went through hell trying to guess a few old needed passwords.


I wonder if FA can do some type of screening thing to figure out who the user of the account is if they don't remember the old email address. Like if you knew your old password to the dead account, although that might not be good now since it was all breached.

That's a very mature response. Most emails allow you to set up a secondary email that it will send a code encase you lose/forget access to your main one. My email is incredibly important as I can recover pretty much any password connected to it, and you can only login to that by also knowing my secondary email.

My FA account is very valuable to me, if I misplace/forget my information, I can't really point fingers at them.

oh that's a good idea! adding secondary email addresses in case you forgot your first one. I hope they will consider that and the security question thing  WereG-Wolf suggested with your addition of having the option for personalized security questions, they work well enough on other websites. Just if you ever be tricky in those security questions like say the question was "Favorite color" and you write "5$ footlong" as an answer. It would be best to write that one down somewhere or you might never guess it again. One of the reasons i have my little notebook now.

Do not keep a hard copy of this information. Unless you have some sort of safe to keep it in. I would suggest a password manager with good encryption like lastpass or dashlane.

That's what I do.

That's exactly what happened. I had to make another account because of those incompetent shit bags.

That almost happened to me. But when FA first went back up, I figured I should probably change it to my current one. Good thing...

people should really update their emails. it's not FA's fault that they were irresponsible with their email accounts. most websites reset passwords via email, this isnt new.

It also warned it was used for verification purposes

yeah. i think people here are just being incredibly unrealistic and should stop blaming others for their own mistakes.

Yep, there isn't much FA can do without willingly being insecure. I think many people are fucked.

Exactly! If you are invested in your profile for business especially!
Always keep stuff updated.

yeah! if it's important enough that you're going to complain about it then be responsible.

It's not really our fault FA were irresponsible with their source code.

if you lost your password o your own you'd need your email too. every website besides the few that you need a phone number or security question requires email verification. there was a recent similar problem with tumblr that people's passwords were leaked and they force reset people's passwords as well. it's not just FA.

Make a new account. :Q

I understand that some people want to keep things hidden from the rest of the world, but at the same time, if you that worried about who might see what websites you sign up through from your email, then well, need to think about where you access said email. Anyone that hacks that email account won't care about the sites you visit, nor do they know you. Other people shouldn't be looking of your shoulder when you get onto your email or Furaffinity in a NSFW mode. I, personally, wouldn't opt to view what's mostly on my own page in a public library but on my own phone that would be in front of me or at home. All my accounts, FA, DA, SoF, DF, or anything else furry related whether it has porn on it or not all goto my main email.

And lastly, yah, it sucks what happened, but it's not FA's problem if people can't keep up with their emails. Either use the same one for a long time or remember to update your preferences on sites that you frequent. If you haven't been back to FA in years and plan on coming back, then probably best to create a new account anyways.

6 years ago I made this account. Due to Microsoft fucking me over, the email I made it on is locked out to me. I had only just swapped it to my business email (This was originally assigned to my personal) a few months ago.

Lucky I did. Lost enough to that condemned hotmail email of mine, damn good thing I didn't lose THIS to it too!

There's really not much, considering no security questions were implemented. When passwords are your only way in, and those are compromised, you have to make a compromise between security and ease of access. The other option would have been to allow users to log in with their old PWs and then force them immediately to change them.

They have the original passwords. All that would do is make it that much easier to access your account and change the password to a new one, further fucking you over

That is a possibility, but chances are you would be able to get to the accounts faster than they would be able to. As it stands, people can't seem to get into their accounts already.

Yes but there are people who haven't even heard of the news because they haven't been on in days. Some just aren't online anymore. So they would still be left vulnerable

If you remake the old email thats been deactivated it'll still send the reminder to that email.

For example if your old email was 123[at]hotmail.com but it's been deactivated
Just go to hotmail and remake the email 123[at]hotmail.com

I just recently had to do that and it works :')

That is clever! If you can't remember the email your pretty much out of luck at that point, FA releasing the email name would allow anyone to claim it.

That works with a deactivated email, sure.

But for those of us who were locked out of our old emails due to wrong password attempts / hotmail.com's password recovery tool being more detailed than a Hospital New Patient form, we cannot use this method.

I tried to recreate the original email used for my FA and the message I get is:
"This email address is already in use. Please choose another or one from this list:" and then adds numbers to the email.

So I'm pretty much outta luck.

Their database probably still holds the name or someone else claimed the address before you could. Likewise I can find anyone's old emails and try to recreate them to access their accounts.

i was just talking to some one about this they had no right to reset peoples passwords is supposed to be hey we got hacked you might wanna change ur password or dont and maybe out off the thousands on here lose your account

Inconvenience is less important then security. Keeping any password the same as it was during the compromise is enabling the hacker(s) to access peoples accounts and harvest their personal information.

thats why i use and email that isnt linked to anything important

can apparently email the website for case like this i guess. ">accounts[at]furaffinity.net for assistance. When emailing please include your Fur Affinity username." from http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7586494

<--- Victim of the security leak issue...

I have since had to create this new, useless FA account to use if I want to continue watching my favorite artists. My previous account www.furaffinity.net/user/Sota is now obsolete because of the forced password change. Mainly because Hotmail has a ridiculously tedious way of verifying who it's users are... You either need multiple email accounts... or you have to have a back-up journal in case you forget your password you're going to need: Date of Birth, First and last name, at least 2 previously used passwords, at least 2 subject headings of the last few emails you sent, and many other random stuff that the average person wouldn't think to memorize......

Seriously though do they actually expect someone who hasn't used the email address for years to remember the subject headings of recent emails? ... Yet this is what Hotmail Staff told me would increase the likelihood that I can recover my original Email.

Luckily, I am not an artist and content posted by me is very rare and I highly doubt anyone was actually watching me for content.

I still don't understand the mindset behind hackers / modders / malicious users. Their actions and motivations, to me, seem borderline sociopathic.

I would suggest switching to Gmail, and perhaps creating a secondary e-mail account simply for this sort of subject matter. if you take issue with switching to Gmail, perhaps try Yahoo....really, anything other than Hotmail, it's ancient. >.>

From http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7586494

"If you are having issues resetting your password using the above tool you can email us at accounts[at]furaffinity.net for assistance. When emailing PLEASE be sure to include your Fur Affinity username. Staff reply time may vary."

I'm not good with stuff like this but maybe there can be a page where you type in your username and the new email and then when you click send the page shows you a code to type in when you get the email to verify that it is your email account and that you sent the request. After that they give you a temporary password so you can log in and change the password.

I could put in my email and get someone else's account that way.

Well, you could contact the hackers and have them tell you what e-mail was used?

Maybe the staff can check to see if you have the same IP and/or hardware configuration as your last log on? That wouldn't work for those who weren't logged on recently though... Who knows.

IP's are easily masked and also most are dynamic meaning that you couldn't securely verify that it is the correct person

but how would someone else know what your IP was supposed to be?
but yeah, that makes sense.

The IP is stored. Not saying it is at all likely but possible

I registered with an emil I created when I was freaking 6 years old... And I still use it. XD

yea this is fuckign buills shit i just lost all of my art and music.. fuckign bull shit.. old account was kerack.... now all that art is gone.. fuckign gone.. fuck you .. yes you who ever fuckign fucked us over go fuckign die shit heads.. because of you alot of art i had is gone for good. awsome.. fix this furrfaggity because i want my art back and i want it back now.

That account doesn't appear to have anything on it.

thqats becaus ei just made this account... https://www.furaffinity.net/user/ka.....shout-39235217 original account... well now im going to slam my head against a wall and cry myself to sleep in my mates arms

It's because you misspelled your own username as kerack.

Regardless, many users are stating success contacting FA staff accounts[at]furaffinity.net and answering a few questions to reclaim their accounts.

I have two accounts, this one which is dedicated to porn and adult stuff and my main account. I used the same email for both and now I can't get into my main account.

I got locked out of my account Due to the email used to create that account being owned by someone who's no longer on FA. I'm using my mates account. I contacted FA Via Email and have not heard back from them, and it's been a few days. Oh also the best way to tell kobalt and i apart, is i use comma's and stuff, and he's too lazy too XD I do hope i get an email back from FA though..

Actually, i thought of something, Call it stupid, but it could work. If people have pictures of themselves on their FA, why not have them make a video or something, and send it to the admin. Wouldn't that be "proof" enough?