That is good advice, always. Our email to users recommends resetting strictly as a precaution. It is best practice to use a unique log in combination (email and password) on each different platform that you visit as a general rule.

Meant mine as a tip not a criticism ;)

And, I was beginning to worry someone else had control of my account

Question: I had joined through my Facebook account and so didn't create a Houzz password. So do I have to change my Facebook password?

I got an email too

well I knew it was a breach somewhere because as of late I started getting these threatening letters in my spam.."I know that one of your passwords is XXXX. (I indeed have one password like that, truly I don't remember whether I used it to login here). If you blahblah don't give me 900 dollars for my hard work blahblah, by certain blahblah time, I'm going to expose you to your email correspondents blahblah, and don't even bother to answer blahblah. I'll see when you read this letter blahblah"

I didn't answer even though I really wanted to come with some witty remark..)) so these nice folks won't get even more of my info

it looked like there was a breach in the third party..some big site probably.and now they are fishing..maybe somebody gonna give them 900 bucks for their hard work lol

I have nothing worth stealing here.

@littlebug The password reset is recommended only as a precaution, but in the case of using the Facebook log in when you have not created a separate Houzz password there is nothing to reset. We do not have access to your Facebook password.

What happens if we do nothing?

"What happens if we do nothing?"

I suppose it depends. If the hacker has your user name and password, he can log in and masquerade as you. He can hijack your account by changing the password and literally locking you out. He now 'owns' your account. By reading your posts, he may harvest personal information such as your friends names and any email addresses you have posted. He might find the names of your children and photos of them, and a bunch of pet photos, or photos of the landscape surrounding your home.

If you have used the same password (heaven forbid) for other accounts such as your private email or bank account, he may find a way into those.

Its possible that nothing happens, It is also possible that you do not detect anything and have nothing the hacker is interested in, but he is a 'peeking Tom' and monitors your account to see what he might discover while getting the satisfaction that he has been successful. I'm not sure how most web sites are constructed, but I am under the impression that if he is logged into your account, you won't be able to log in if this account allows only one user at a time.

The other day I noticed that I had an idea book that was named my email address. I have my email address set to private. I did not set up the idea book as I don't use that feature and I wouldn't give it my email as a name if I did. I thought it odd at the time and deleted the idea book, but now I wonder if that was related to the breach somehow.

Anyway, password has been changed just to be on the safe side.

It is also interesting that our spammers have been gone for a few weeks. I haven't had to delete postings about movie downloads. Hmmm...are these the same people?

ETA: 30 minutes after I posted this, 2 movie spams showed up.

April, I've been getting the "your account has been hacked send me bitcoin" type emails since last October. With those, as far as I can tell, my compromised passwords were from sites that used vbulletin types of forum software. Those passwords were really old ones I used to use about 10 years ago. Thankfully I use uniquely generated ones now.

right, right..bitcoin.."if you don't know how to pay in bitcoin, google it" stuff

If it makes y'all feel any better, I have a neighbor who doesn't even know what houzz is who has also been getting those emails for about the same period of time. ETA I mean the "i've got your stuff" emails.

I rec'd the Houzz email too. Like Dawn, I don't know what they'd gain. I've never purchased anything through Houzz so no CC ever here, have my email set to private. I did change my password as suggested, updated (shut down and logged back in with new) and this morning I had to log in again to get by the Sign Up prompts.

Do not ever log in with Facebook (or any other third party). Even if you don't, go into your Houzz settings, "social media settings", and disable "log in with Facebook". If you're affected by that hack, they will have all your Facebook data too!

Emily if Houzz does any further downsizing I hope they leave you here, you have been very helpful and responsive, thank you.

I didn't get any emails about it but I did change my password. I always get paranoid about this stuff because I'm not tech savvy and don't understand why it's so difficult to make the sites hack-proof. I guess there are too many evil smart people out there who don't want to work for a living and spend their full time on it. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there are some very smart hard-working people being paid by someone to do it for them!

I haven't gotten an email either and not sure I'd be inclined to do much anyway. I can't remember when I last signed out of GW/Houzz and no longer have a clue what my password is....it has been years - literally - since I used it. And who knows what I would encounter if I did sign out and then log in again with a new password!! Sorry but I just do not trust this platform to give me back what I now have :-)

On the plus side, I can think of nothing in my profile that would reveal anything personal about me or provide access to any of my personal data.

Thanks jemdandy - I got the email but figured since I've never bought anything on here I don't have any of my cc information here. Never thought about them being able to post as me or lock me out. Password changed!

Well I spoke one hour too soon, I just got the email. But as I stated, I already changed the password. Since Houzz has my email address (I kept it private) I'm guessing that if someone hacks into the account they can get your email address. I'm pretty sure I had to list it when I originally signed up eons ago, I might be wrong.

“Marketplace”

houzz sells stuff?

I clicked the link to have Houzz send me the link to change my password. Thursday. I'm still waiting for the email from Houzz. I changed my password anyway. I wonder if my email provider thought that the password link message from Houzz was spam and didn't send it on. Or maybe Houzz never sent the link or sent it to an old address, which would have been strange, because the message about the data breach was sent to my current email address.

foodonastump

“Marketplace”

houzz sells stuff?

I found a better deal on a Houzz item. With everything I've read about Houzz practices since I'm glad I ordered elsewhere.

https://kashmirdesigns.com/products/picasso-blue-cat-pillow-cover-quadruplets-ii-hand-embroidered-wool-18-x-18

https://www.houzz.com/products/picasso-cat-pillow-cover-quadruplets-hand-embroidered-18-x-18-prvw-vr~20880348

I got the email this morning. It was a confusing process to click on this, then wait for this, then go back to that. I don't know if I did the right procedures or have a new password or what. Just know that I am able to get to KT again.

Got the email this morning to change my password--it arrived in my junk mail but because of this thread I knew to expect it.

I didn’t get an email, but when I went to my bookmark today to open this site, I was logged out and couldn’t login with my password. The password requirements seem to have changed, and my previous password does not meet the current requirements.

Miniscule - Thats exactly what just happened to me. I used my bookmarks at 7:30 this morning with absolutely no problem - but at 11:30 I was locked out and couldn't use my password. I had to reregister a password and yes, the requirements were different.. My bookmarks now work again.

Get Houzz to email you,"I forgot my password". Follow the link to reset. It has to be 8 long and have numbers and things like @ &$, ect. I can't remember all the rules, but it will prompt you.

I got the email, but did not change my password from there. I just went to my account and changed from there.

Before you get locked out, you need to go to your houzz and change your email and your password. My old one did not meet the security requirements.

For those of us who didn’t get an email, because presumably we weren’t affected by the data breach - I am not impressed by lack of notice that password requirements were being changed nor by being suddenly locked out. A more secure and “polite” approach would have been to notify EVERYONE about the data breach, the changes to password protocol, and the need to change passwords. This lacklustre approach is not confidence inspiring.

Mine showed up in the spam folder. I don't usually look at it.

I am not a big fan of Houzz, but they have no control over my virus protection, which is McAfee and is great. McAfee put it in the spam folder.

I was a little unnerved, knowing about the hack, when I was suddenly expected to sign in since that hasn't happened for forever and then my login didn't work. Throwing caution to the wind I did replace my password. Confusion ensued with me ending up on a page that didn't seem to lead back to where I started. Oh well, I managed to get back. Life.

I read about the data breach 3 days ago here at houzz. I figured I wasn't affected since I didn't get the email, but went ahead and changed my password. Well today, I got the email saying that while they (houzz) didn't believe that my password was compromised, they went ahead and changed my password for me and I should reset it (again). I wish they notify us before they changed MY password and locked me out.

I finally received an email yesterday, but they didn't change my password. I'd already changed my password when I first read of the breach, and now when I click the sign-in button, I have to back out the dots that represent the old password (different number of characters), and then re-enter the new password, each time.

I've unclicked the 'keep me signed in' button, signed out, closed firefox, and rebooted the computer several times--all to no avail. Not a big deal, but less convenient to use this site. Anyone else have the same experience?

Maybe clearing cache and history would help. ???

Houzz Is giving me a lot of trouble on the iPad. It defaults me to the photo and shopping page when I try to post. Says I need to sign in when I’m already signed in. It all started when I changed my password as suggested.

MamaGoose, You will have to change the saved password in your computer. Mine prompts me with a little screen in the top right corner. "Do you want to update password". You can also go to password manager on your computer and change it there.

FYI, that would be your browser prompting you, not your computer, I believe.

Yes, that is what I was talking about, to point out that it had nothing to do with Houzz and the dots.

So what actually happens if our PW is stolen or hacked from HOUZZ????

I don't order anything from this site so credit rd info isn't accessible, my *email* associated with this site has a computer-generated password with number, letters, and symbols. BTW, I didn't get the email.

You might start getting tons of robocalls and spam...

Hi all, Checking in after the weekend. Wanted to give you a quick link to the FAQ for those who may have missed it. https://bit.ly/2S2Gxm8

Important to note that not all accounts have been sent an email, but there is certainly no harm in updating your password regardless. It's a good practice to change passwords regularly and to use different passwords for different sites.

For a small number of people (as at least one person noted above) their password was reset proactively because our system was able to detect that it was a weaker password.

It is a good idea to check in your account settings and make sure your email is still current. If at some point you do want to reset your password, you will need to have access to the email that is registered to the account to do that.

(Also, unless you are registered as a pro, there is no phone number associated with your account, so there couldn't be any connection between this incident and spam phone calls.)

Emily

Sherry, that worked. Thank you very much!

Unfortunately, I have a credit card on file with Houzz because I ordered from them before I learned about their dishonest business practices. I did get their hacking announcement , don't trust their statement that that info was not affected and want to delete the card from my account. However, there is no provision for that, just "Add a card". Does anyone know how to do it? As far as their business practices--did you know that they steal photos from the designers they've sucked into signing up , re-label cheap knockoffs of those photos and market the items at outrageous prices via Chinese-et-al imports? I am going to delete my account just as soon as I figure out a way to get my credit card info off this site. I suspect that deleting my account will not actually remove its info from Houzz' clutches.

I take it back--I just got a message saying if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page with the credit card info, there is an option to delete that card. I don't know why Houzz has ZERO info about that anywhere on the site.

When i tried to sign in, using old username and password, I was brought to this thread, and there was a space where I could comment ... so here I am.

Being old and quite forgetful, I have a hard time with passwords where there's no interconnection, preferring e.g. "jackass". When they want capital and small letters intermixed, with symbols and numbers, I have a hard time remembering ... and they want me to change them frequently.

Yeah, right!

Now ... where did I put that book that contained all of the passwords ... with each location assiigned about a half a page, so that I could scratch out the former password when I changed to a new one ... RATS!!

It seems to get more true, the saying that I discounted not too long ago - that this getting old is not for sissies!!

And I didn't bring my glasses with me, it seems - better visit the dollar store to get a $2.00 or so replacement.

Hope you're having a good week - so far.

ole joyful ... most of the time

Sorry folks, I guess my password was compromised or reset, I never received an email notification. As a result and I had to try and get a password reset, which never arrived, despite multiple tries! I was so frustrated, I called them and they suggested that I re-register. So I added an 11 to my name and began again. Happy to be back!

Compumom 11, you don't HAVE to get a letter or e-mail to reset. You click on "Your Houzz" in the top corner, then "Edit Profile. then "Password" , then It will ask you to log in again, follow the prompts to enter your new password, then be sure to update .