Hacked off

Last week I discovered that one of my email accounts had been hacked for the second time in a month. As I'd been enjoying a few beers with some friends when I discovered the misdemeanour, I thought the most sensible course of action was to delete the offending account. I reasoned that anyone who wanted to get hold of me could do so through various other means and anyone who couldn't wasn't worth speaking to anyway. After deleting the nefarious account I felt quite a sense of freedom, wishing I'd taken this course of action years earlier. I wouldn't miss the marketing emails from hundreds of companies I'd dealt with on one single occasion several years ago. And how hard could it be to update my details for online banking and other accounts?


When I woke the next morning my feelings of emancipation had susbsided somewhat. Perhaps it hadn't been such a sensible course of action after all. I checked to see if this was something I could reverse. It wasn't. I re-read the information on the "deleting your account" page, this time paying a bit more attention to the part that stated to only take this course of action if you are extremely certain you want to do it and have backed up all the information you require from your email because you can never, ever get it back. I recalled reading this the night before and feeling certain that I did want to take this course of action at the time. Now I didn't feel so sure, but it was too late.

Throughout this week I have been coming across various accounts, such as Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles, which I use regularly, and use my old email address to log in to but never remember the password. It's quite simple to reset it they just send either a reminder or new password to your email account. The one that I no longer have access to because I have deleted it. I have more or less got there in getting it all sorted out, however I realised yesterday that all the triathlons I have signed up to this year have been with the offending email address.

This has been further complicated by the fact that I am not quite sure which events I have signed up to. Through sending out several sheepish emails (from an existing account) to event organisers it turns out I have entered one or two more than I thought. Probably after having a few beers. Luckily there haven't been any surprise Ironman events.

I guess the bright side to this is that I now know exactly what races I am competeing in and when. However, like an extended turbo training session, this whole ordeal has been a major pain in the arse.

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