To your knowledge thus far on this fourm, has there ever been hacking that penetrated the data base of Coin Talk? Seems to me that some savy theives could actually gather personal information, info on your collection, look up your info on the internet and possibly put together a plan to separate you from your collection. I have removed all pictorial post's that I have made thus far due to this fear...is such a fear warranted? Thanks in advance for your replys. RickieB
If anybody wants to steal my collection, I'm not yet worried - I put it together for nearly 95% face value, and I have it under insured protection for its amount. I can simply restart it because I am not too far along yet! ~AJ
I am not a moderator here but I am the administrator of the most popular Sportster motorcycle forum on the Internet (www.xlforum.net if you are interested). Cointalk is using vBulletin as their forum software and it is the best available today. I also use this software. Very strong and secure with quick update when vulnerablities are found. It cost a bit of money to buy this software but at least you get a good product. Every webserver on the Internet is hit daily by numerous attepts to exploit new and older vulnerabilites. I have used free forum software in the past on The XL Forum and have been hacked due badly written SQL. I also know a lot of good forums that have gone down because of using free software. Some of the worst and most unsecure free packaged are phpBB and PHPNuke. Most hackers are not trying to get the info from the database of a website anyway. Mainly what hackers do is try to spread spam using an SQL injection. The Hackers do not want to register on login to every website to spread their SPAM so they run scripts the hit large ranges of IP address. The scripts try to put messages into the forum via SQL Injection but are only able to do so on forums that are vulnerable to the exploits written into the script. In any case I would never put my home address or phone number on a forum, not even in a PM. If I need to give someone on the forum this info I will email it to them.
I don't know, RickieB. You might want to ask Peter via a PM. Just my opinion, but that (your scenario) doesn't sound like something that's very likely to happen.
Rickie, your's is a concern that many have and why they do not participate in forums like this. Personally, I think it's an ungrounded fear. It reminds me of the fear that many had when internet banking first came on the scene. Most were hesitant to sign up for it because they thought - OMG, they'll rob me blind !! Well they didn't - and now internet banking as widely accepted as anything else. If your fears were justified, coin robberies would lead the statistics - but they don't. Just think of all the forums out there - all the individual web sites where collectors post pics of their coins to share with others. Sure robberies happen, but not as a result of posting pics in forums or on the web. I've been around ever since this forum started, and to the best of my knowledge - no it's never been hacked. But if it makes you feel more secure, by all means continue as you have been.
Gentlemen.. Thank you for your responses. After posting several pictorials of my personal collection it suddenly hit me in a most fearful way. I realized that I was more or less advertising my collection...yes I am proud of what I have accomplished..just as others are no doubt about that one. I thought I would post the question anyway. I appreciate the answers and will proceed with descretion because I enjoy this fourm so much. Realizing that there is a certain amount of risk involved with anything...I became concerned as my collection like many of yours is considerable. Kind regards, RickieB
The best defense to being robbed for your coins IMHO is not to publicize your home address at all. I use a P.O. Box for everything and don't have my street address listed in the phone book. A dedicated searcher can find me, but not without a lot of effort directed at me by my "real world" name. So, I fearlessly post coin pictures and talk about purchases.
