Important: For your security

In the previous weeks, the number of account hacks on poker players increased, first at Titan Poker, but also at PartyPoker and Full Tilt Poker. More info and a guide how to protect yourself against hacking is giving in this newsletter and will also be send by Email.

No matter the reason, account security for every poker player is an important subject. That's why we at PokerStrategy decided to write a newsletter to all our players where we provide tips and possible measures to secure your poker accounts.

At Titan Poker a critical security leak was taken care of by software provider PlayTech. Our own research at Titan Poker showed us that some users were partly very negligent with their own computer security. For hackers it was apparently not very difficult to get access to the computers of users and in that manner exploit the security leaks. In the case of Titan Poker we can exclude a connection to PokerStrategy.com completely. Although some users had the same password for PokerStrategy and Titan, but most did not.

Also with PartyPoker we can, as far as we know now, exclude any link to PokerStrategy Theoretically, this isn't possible either as PokerStrategy.com logically has no access to your passwords at the poker sites.

Though when a user is not careful this can be exploited by a hacker. When a user has the same password at PokerStrategy.com and at PartyPoker, there is the theoretical possibility that a hacker could have gotten access to the PokerStrategy account of a poker player through trojans, spybots, keyloggers, phishing or other methods. There he could have seen the username on the different poker sites and tried his luck by logging in with the same password. For that reason we took an extra measure that makes it impossible for a user to even see his own account name.

Based on questionnaires we have sent the people involved, we could confirm that some people had the same password for both PartyPoker as PokerStrategy.com, however most  of them did not. Furthermore the last few days there were victims of account hacking that weren't even registered at PokerStrategy.com

Nonetheless we ask of each of you to walk through the following checklist:

1. If you have the same password for PokerStrategy.com and for a poker site/Email address, then please change your password immediately on this poker site/e-Mail address.
2. If you have the same password anywhere else, please change your password immediately on the poker site as well.
3. Check your system for security leaks! Please follow every tip and advice in our guide at the end of this news.
4. If anybody of you notices anything suspicious which could indicate phishing attempts, we would be thankful for each lead via support ticket.

Currently our entire team works at full speed on the security issue. We are in close contact with the players involved, the poker sites and an external security company. Naturally we will keep you up to date about the further developments and results of the internal security reviews of us and the poker rooms.

Furthermore we will keep pushing our partner sites to introduce a Pin-/Tan system which could ensure an almost 100% security.

In case anybody has not (yet) received the newsletter, here's a copy with which you can maximize the security of your poker accounts:

Over the course of our investigations we have determined that many poker players aren't up to date when it comes to password security.

Even though the actual danger for most of you is limited individually, we do urgently advice you to follow our tips in order to improve your own security.

1. Your computer security

1.1 Make sure that your operating system and your browser are updated to the latest version available.
1.2 Use a professional protection program or anti-virus program.

For this, we can suggest to you the following programs that are free of charge:

Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Free AV - http://www.free-av.com/
Avast Home Edition - http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

*Important recommendation 1*
If during a test, the program detects a Trojan and/or Spyware, you should always reinstall your system.

2. Your password

2.1 Use a different password for every poker room.
2.2 Use a different password for every online payment processor (Moneybookers, Neteller..)
2.3 Use a different password at websites such as Facebook, but also PokerStrategy.com
2.4 Your password should not be a word that can be found in the dictionary or any other element that can easily be deducted. Try to use a random password that includes capital letters, numbers and punctuation. K3l9.19KaoP is a weird password, albeit a very safe one.
2.5 Your password should at least contain 8 characters.
2.6 Never use the function "Remember password" at any poker room.

*Important recommendation 2*
If you haven't met every requirement up to here, please be advised to make the changes as soon as you can. At the very least change your double passwords at poker rooms and online payment processors.

For more information on how to secure your password you can browse Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password

3. Choosing a password

There are several useful tools that can assist you with choosing a secure password. We can recommend the following tools that will generate a secure password for you:

RoboForm - http://www.roboform.com/
KeePass - http://keepass.info/

Why does such a program help you?

Your password will never be visible in plain text anywhere, nor will it be saved as such. You should also avoid this any time on your computer. If you have received a password in a unsecured e-mail, then you should change it immediately. If you have your password stored in a text file anywhere on your computer, you should delete it immediately and change your password, no matter how well hidden the document is.

People that can't remember many different passwords can find it useful to use a program called Password Safe. This safe will store all your passwords encrypted and can only be accessed by unlocking the safe with a master password. After unlocking the safe you can safely copy paste the encrypted passwords to poker rooms.

None of the passwords in the safe will be stored on your computer in plain text. Using this safe you can work with multiple different passwords without having to remember them all.

You should always run Password Safe on a secure system. If your Password Safe becomes infected, it doesn't provide you any security.

There is always the theoretical change to decrypt the password. However this is, when you use a safe password, nearly impossible and it would be way too much work for any hacker to even try.

4. Your Email Addresses

4.1 Use a different Email address for every poker room.
4.2 Use a different Email address for every online payment processor.
4.3 Use different Email addresses on websites like Facebook and PokerStrategy, than the ones you use for poker rooms.

In your best interest you should follow up the tips and recommendations given, especially the ones under points 1 and 2.