cloven hooves Help Documents Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity
These are some important online safety and cyber security guidelines to follow, for this forum, and honestly for any website out there. Since this place is a feminist community, it would be wise to keep in mind the potential of malicious people wanting to hack this forum's database.

The following advice is meant to minimize damage to yourself in the worst case scenario of a malicious person accessing the forum's database.

If some of these things seem scary or concerning, I'd like to point out that a lot of websites out there have poor to mediocre security and just don't tell you about it. For example, Reddit can read your private messages. Many private messages on various social websites are stored in plaintext, sometimes even major tech companies store passwords in plaintext (thankfully, MyBB does not). This is very much a "don't ask how the sausage is made" kind of scenario. But I care more about making sure members of this forum stay safe than having a falsely comforting façade of security.

  1. Use a unique password for this forum. Do not reuse a password. Definitely don't reuse a password that you use on other important websites, like your email!
  2. Don't use an important email for your account registration. This forum currently does not have an email server set up, so there is no need to even provide a working email address. An email is "required" on registration, but it can be anything. In the future, if I set up an email server, then it would be reasonable to use an actual email. Until then, feel free to just make something up. (Caution: If you choose to use a fake email, it is highly unlikely I can assist you if you forget your password. I will only be sending a password reset to the email associated with the account.)
  3. Be wary of the private messaging system. If someone accesses the database, it would be really easy to read these.
  4. Be wary of what you share in the community section. This one doesn't even need to involve a database breach, this could just involve a malicious person getting enough trust to gain access to the community section of the forum.

Utilizing these common web safety practices helps keep your online presence more secure.