I’ve been on the blockchain since October 23, 2016.
And honestly? My time on the legacy chain and on Hive has been a whole roller coaster. Messy. Brilliant. Exhausting. Weirdly life-changing. I’ve learned a ton. I’ve met people who, at different points, straight up changed how I see the world. And through it all, I’ve been quietly, steadily earning crypto. Not a fortune, but it was mine. I earned it. Post by post. Comment by comment. Little wins that add up.
I’ve also walked away a couple times. Life gets heavy, brains get fried, words stop working, and when you’re running on fumes you don’t exactly feel like blogging on-chain. But even when I wasn’t active, the blockchain has always lived in my heart. It’s not just “a platform.” It’s like a living organism. It’s community. It’s history. It’s receipts. It’s home, even when you need a break from it.
So yeah… this part sucks to write:
My original account @artemisnorth got hijacked.
And the real kick in the teeth? I’ve always thought of myself as pretty tech-savvy. Careful-ish. Not clueless. But apparently I’m not as locked down as I believed, and I’m pretty sure Google is where the crack in the door happened.
I didn’t think I was letting Google save logins, but when I dug way down that long, cursed list of stored passwords (you know the one)… I found Hivetasks, and inside that saved login was one of my keys. Yep. A KEY. Just sitting there like a tiny “please rob me” sticky note.
According to someone who’s been incredibly helpful (I’m not naming them yet because I want to confirm they’re cool with it), it looks like the takeover actually started back in April… when I wasn’t even active. They changed my recovery account. Why they waited this long to keep going, I honestly don’t know. Maybe they were learning. Maybe they were watching. Maybe they saw me become active again and decided it was time to scrape it clean.
Either way, it taught me a few valuable lessons. The big one:
Always double-check what you think you did or know.
Because confidence is not security. Ask me how I know.
So now I’m rebuilding from scratch… after being here for years. Which is humbling in the most annoying way possible. I had forgotten what it’s like to have limited RC. I literally had to wait until this morning to upload my profile banner.
Love that for me. 🙃
But I’m still here. I’m not disappearing. And I’m not letting this be the end of my story.
Also: I want to throw a huge thank-you to the people who showed up for me fast and hard: my sister @shadowspub, @thekittygirl, @alessandrawhite, @derangedvisions, and two others who I’m keeping unnamed for now until I know if they want to be mentioned. Thank you for the help, the support, and the “okay breathe, we’ll figure it out” energy when I was ready to flip a table.
If you’re reading this and you’ve been lax with security because you thought you were fine: please learn from my disaster. Check your saved passwords. Check your key storage. Lock your stuff down like you actually want to keep it.
Because apparently, being careful “in your head” doesn’t count.
I’m pissed. But I’m also rebuilding. And I’m not done.
Until next time friends...
@artemisnorth.com, this is truly an amazing piece of writing, but I wish you hadn’t had to write it!!
I think there still a notion in the Hive community that it’s a slip up out of convenience or a new user’s rookie mistake, or maybe a change in devices that may cause a complete lack of access to one’s account. But none of these situations is you on Hive as @artemisnorth.
I know you to be incredibly tech savvy, security conscious, and a keen watcher of your wallet — not to mention that you’ve been on the chain for nine years, so you are most certainly OG!
I know you to be an obsessive Hive Keychain user, as many of us are. But it never really occurred to me until now how perhaps old habits of password management might leave a door approachable as a security risk.
In your forensic work of determining who was at fault and what exactly happened, I know we’ll all be safer for what you learn.
Our HIVE accounts have a handful of value types inherent in them. Our Hive usernames are part of our identity. Just like the places where we physically live, I firmly believe that HIVE should be a safe place not just for our wallets, but also for how we’re known to our friends.
Thank you for sharing!! ❤️🙏🏽🥰
Thank you for your support!! I appreciate it more than you know. It's funny the other day, on a different platform we were talking about usernames and how we should be showing our face or we aren't taken seriously. You put into words the feeling... my username is my home. It's my identity. Honestly I think it says more about me then I could tell you. AND...I can't always control my face. LOL
Oh, my (almost) sister, especially for the next few days, I can’t show my face!! My username doesn’t look like any big interesting deal, but it is to me.
It’s brilliant and meta that you are @artemisnorth.com.
I’m happy to know ya!!
I'm sorry to hear that happened. I'm not totally sure how a recovery account can hack you, but there is plenty I don't know. I expect many account will still have it set to steemit or whoever created their account. It needs to be someone you trust. We did not always have tools like Keychain so we used to have to actually enter our keys into web sites. I saw some ask for the master key and they definitely should not need that.
I hope you can rebuild on Hive.
!BEER
Thanks Steve... it wasn't the recovery account that hacked me...the hackers ETHBOYZ, changed my recovery account so they could have total control over my account.
View or trade
BEER.Hey @artemisnorth.com, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @steevc for you. Enjoy it!Do you want to win SOME BEER together with your friends and draw the
BEERKING.View or trade
BEER.Hey @artemisnorth.com, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @steevc for you. Enjoy it!Did you know that <a href='https://dcity.io/cityyou can use BEER at dCity game to buy cards to rule the world.
Sorry to hear you lost the account , good to know that you found the cause and share it with us so that others can avoid this.
You have been manual curated and upvoted by @ecency
Did you know that @stresskiller is also a witness now ?
As someone who works in IT professionally. I can sadly relate to this post. You think because we know more than the average person about online security and such that we are less susceptible to these attacks. Then we learn real quick we are human too.
Sorry it happened but glad you didn't let it end your Hive journey!
I am sorry this happened to you, but your post might help others stay away from that trap, so GOOD FOR YOU in writing it! Don't worry about RC, my dear, you will get a delegation to prevent RC problems! 😉
Thanks for sharing this painful story. My thinking was always, “How could anyone possibly hack my Hive account with all these damn keys?! Even I can’t get into it half the time.” Now I see that is a dangerous assumption. Thank you for being for us what I always held myself out to be for my daughter, a dire warning (DM me for more parenting tips).
But seriously, hang in there and we got you!
...𝔻𝕀𝕊ℂ𝕆𝕍𝔼ℝ𝕐...
...!discovery...
You have received an HP delegation from rc-assist to help rebuild. Yes, we saw that ShadowsPub already delegated to you, too, but maybe this extra will help a bit. Good Luck! 🍀
Congratulations @artemisnorth.com! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 100 upvotes.
Your next target is to reach 50 replies.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP