I was going to post this over in reddit's /r/cybersecurity_help, but I decided it sounds too much like a lecture.
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We understand that when you have "pressing" concerns, you often can't even formulate a question coherently, but please take a few moments to organize what information you have, and what questions do you have, so we can answer your questions immediately, rather than trying to draw additional details out of you which wastes both your time and ours.
Rule 0: Please read the posting guide:
https://www.reddit.com//r/cybersecurity_help/wiki/guide
Rule 0.5: Please read the "10 rules" (check right hand bar at following link). Failure to follow them may result in removal of your question.
https://sh.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity_help/
Rule 0.9: Please ensure your question actually is relevant to cybersecurity. A LOT of people seem to confuse privacy with cybersecurity.
"I lost control of my Instagram account! What do I do?" -- Cybersecurity
"Someone threaten to reveal my IP Address! Is that bad?" -- Privacy
Here are some subreddits that may be relevant to people who are confused as to where to post:
* /r/techsupport -- general technical support questions that has NOTHING to do with cybersecurity
* /r/digitalprivacy -- general online privacy questions that has nothing to do with cybersecurity
* /r/sextortion -- if you are being extorted via possible leak of "adult" material you should seek help here
* /r/cybersecurity -- cybersecurity questions regarding career choices, classes, how to study, etc. (should look for Mentoring Monday topic)
Rule 1: 2 C's of Questions.
I'm going call this the 2 C's of Cybersecurity Questions: Condition, Confirmation. (There are 2 more on the answer side, Cause, and Correction, but we'll talk about those later)
**Condition: WHAT made you came to this subreddit today?**
This should be short, concise, and goes in the subject/title.
* Good: "I lost control of my gmail, hotmail, and EpicGames accounts."
Clear on what had happened. Details would be in the body of the post.
* Meh: "Can this be (insert malware name)"
Please start with description of your problem(s), NOT what you SUSPECT the cause is. Your guess is often wrong. If you can guess correctly, you wouldn't be here, would you?
* Bad: "OMG PLS HLP ME NOW!!!!!!"
We don't need to know how you feel. We need to know what brought you here today.
**Confirmation: what evidence, supplemental facts, observations, and so on, do you have to support/confirm the condition that brought you here today?**
This will go into the BODY of the post. If you have pictures, good. But please do not MERELY post a picture, and expect us to understand what you are asking. We may be good, but we are NOT psychic.
* Good: "I can no longer log into my gmail, hotmail, and EpicGames accounts. I used my phone to check my accounts and it confirms some sort of account change at each. I tried password recovery for each and I am not getting any message, so it appears ownership email had been changed."
This is nice detailed explanation of the condition. This doesn't have to be screenshots or logs or whatever. "What should I do?" is implied.
* Meh: "Well, my PC started doing X, Y, and Z. Should I be concerned?"
You could have LEAD with that as the condition/subject. But at least you included that. I hope you included details.
* Bad: "He's in my phone! Help me!"
How are we supposed to help if you can't even provide details about what phone make/model, what OS level, and what made you suspect someone's in your phone? So now, we have to spend another back-and-forth trying to solicit details out of you. THEN we MAY be able to offer some suggestions.
BONUS TIP: Please don't include opinions, like "I'm sure it's my ex who either had taken a cybersecurity course / had ex-government job / who is really a secret agent". You'll attract attention of trolls.
BONUS TIP 2: Please separate assertions from statements. Assertions are basically opinions (see above). We need statements of fact around here, details that we can classify, correlated, and recommend actions to mitigate. We do NOT need opinions.
BONUS TIP 3: Please do NOT tell us "(insert LLM name) told me I am in danger" LLMs may be good in detecting bugs or potential exploits in code, but they are LOUSY decoding human speech. LLMs are designed to be "helpful" and rarely push back against panicked assertions. Give us the facts that you think supports the assertion that you may be infected / hacked / whatever and we'll let you know if you are correct.
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For those of you answering, please limit your answers to the 2 C's of answering... (suspected) Cause, and Correction (Remediation), or solicit Confirmational Evidence... or perhaps, inform OP that the question is off-topic.
**Confirmation(al evidence) -- OP needs to provide more details so we can narrow down the cause / correction**
Please explain WHY more details are needed. Sometimes, it's obvious, but it's better to overexplain than underexplain here.
**(Suspected) Cause -- i.e. what do you think OP was afflicted by**
Please also explain how you came by this conclusion, and/or references from a recognized source. Google, Microsoft, AV vendor, Security News, MakeUseOf, etc.
**Correction/Remediation -- how should OP fix the affliction**
Same idea as above, add reference if possible
Please note that for some Correction methods (i.e. remediation), we do recommend "the nuclear option" i.e. "nuke it from orbit, start over", and it works regardless of cause. So we do sometimes ignore the cause but we would usually explain WHY we do that.
Also, we do give STOCK answers quite often, as this is a form of tech support. We will copy/paste stock answers, even when we have relatively incomplete info.
**Off-topic -- OP's question is not cybersecurity related**
A lot of people come here for privacy related questions. "Someone used my photo without my permission", "someone is harassing me online by impersonating me", and so on. Refer them to /r/DigitalPrivacy. For people asking about Sextortion, there's /r/Sextortion. There's also /r/phishing or just /r/Scams
DO NOT DO: pass judgment on OPs actions, attitude, condition, etc. We are here to SUPPORT (within limits). Simply don't mention anything else. Limit reply to the statements provided (the portions that seems factual, not opinions)
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