Poker account security

Recently I recieved an Unsuccessful Login Alert from FTP that showed me someone had tried to login to my account twelve times since I had last logged in. This prompted me to change my password to something a bit harder to crack and send an email to full tilt asking whether there was anything I could do to make my account safer. I got a great response from full tilt support with some great ways to protect my account. I didn't know these even existed so I thought I would share them with everyone as security should be the first thing on our minds when there are large sums of money involved.

Username

You should be using your email address to login rather than your Username. This way if someone sees you win a big chunk of cash, or playing high stakes they can't use your username to try logging into your account.

To do this Log in to Full tilt, click security from the top menu and select Login preferences. Check Login with email address.

Password

We all know that these should be as secure as possible but anything more than a word and a couple of numbers becomes impossible to memrose right? There are programs out there that can do all the memorising for you. I use one called Keepass password safe. You can create a new password in seconds, make it as long and as strong as you want (eg. here is a 25 digit password that I have made randomly from the program - zZCrsFtU68SjIMkemXULwgODn), and you can even get the program to type your username and password for you so it only takes two seconds to login.

Pin

Once you have typed your username and password you can have an additional pin that you need to input before you get access to your account. Full tilt does this in the form of three cards. You will recieve three cards in an email and when you want to login you need to click on the three cards in order. Here is a screen shot to help you understand.



To do this, login to your account, click security from the top menu then select additional authentication. You will get a screen with additional security, select the Login with pin option and follow the instructions.

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room.../security/pin/

Security key

A security key is a device or a program on your mobile phone that generates a new 6 digit code every 30 seconds.To use this method you must first purchase a security key or the application for your mobile from the full tilt store. Once you have done this and registered it with full tilt you must input the six digit code after entering your username and password to access your account.

More info about this can be found here - http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/login-w...curity-key/faq

Pokerstars equivilant - http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room...ecurity/token/

Check your login history

If you ever think something is out of the ordinary you can bring up a login history page showing the time, ip address, country, whether it was a successful attempt and if it wasn't it will tell you why (invelid password, invalid pin etc)

To do this open your full tilt account, click security in the top menu and click Check my login history. This will bring up a page in your browser.

I've had that happen before as well (go to login, can't.. and then read that there's been a bunch of unsuccessful login attempts... pretty annoying).

Great post here stubz!

Concerning and interesting.

Always concerned about online security and passwords. You never know.

Curious, do you think this was just a random thing?

I would be wondering if it might be someone familiar with me. You would think they would need to have an idea of what kind of password you might use. Yes, my usual conspiracy theorey ideas.

If there was someone at an IP address trying to access multiple accounts numerous times (even automated), it would seem that FT should be able to block the IP address or attempted log in's. Curious as to how much of this is going on.

Thanks for the reminder, I will check my login history today, and while I'm at it, change my old passwords.

Not sure why they hacked me.... but once upon a time my account was hacked and wiped out by the player. I changed my login to email instead of user name and didn't have another problem like that.

Still have to say kudos to FTP for doing the right thing and getting my money back.

I have the security key and it's very nice for piece of mind. I used the PIN prior to the introduction of the security key and I'm sure it's at least close to as effective.

Bottom line is that everyone with even $1 on a site needs to be vigilant concerning security.

With the PIN does it let you choose the cards you want or is it pre determined.

Your cards are assigned. You don't get to pick.

I was just browsing the FT store yesterday, and saw the security keys available. I thought, why would I waste my points on that? Now I see. I only have a few hundred in my acct., but might go for the added security. Would my rakeback take a hit if i purchased security?

You'll take a RB hit for spending the points (.05 for each point used * .27 to figure the RB hit). If nothing else enable the PIN it's very effective.

Your cards are emailed to you so if you like you can keep the email for a while until you memorize the cards. Also, if you are not happy with the cards assigned to you you can request a new pin very easily. Do this until you get something you are happy with.

Some other preemptive things that I do:

- Separate email address for poker site signups (ie, different than my facebook/msn/forum signups)
- Never use my forum alias as a poker alias/sign in name

Great post, thanks. My ftp account was wiped out (not much in it) by a former roomate. I had to change all my passwords for all online accounts, emails, bank, etc. What a pain. I'll be taking your advise, thanks.

not that i have alot of funds my privacy is very important when it come to my acount full of pennies.thanks for the helpful post.i wouldve never figured this out on my own and am headed there now to make some adjustments. thumbs up to this post.

Yah I do this ^ too.

I've heard of a bunch of hacking attempts via AIM (on another forum) that has happened to quite a few MTT regs. Hacker gets onto AIM acc't., then tries to hit up contacts for transfers on pokersites, saying it's to fund players he has staked, etc. Seemed to be fairly rampant for awhile there.

I've also heard that some players just stay logged onto the pokersites 24/7.