During this week’s episode of Office Hours, Our-Hometown President and CEO Matt Larson, along with support specialists Teri McLaren and Vera Lemonovich, addressed some of the common questions and feedback we received after Tuesday’s announcement that we will be requiring all newspaper staff members to change their account passwords on our platform.

Check out the video below to watch Matt talk about this password reset, or keep scrolling to read some of the questions/concerns regarding this process.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is there a security threat? Why am I forced to reset my password? 

No! This is strictly a preventative measure. There is no evidence that suggests that any accounts on our platform have been compromised. However, as a result of a year-end security review, we discovered that several newspaper staff accounts do utilize weak passwords that could be easily guessed by “bots” developed by criminals to force their way into accounts.

Using a “medium-strength” or higher password greatly reduces the chance of your account being broken into by one of these bots; so we are requiring that all staff accounts for all of our customers use one of these higher-strength passwords.

2. Will my subscribers have to change their passwords as well?

No! This mandatory password change is only required for staff members who have access to post and edit content or otherwise customize the website. Only Users with a role other than Subscriber will be forced to change their password.

3. It is now Thursday, and I have not been asked to change my password. What is the deal?

This mandatory password change is being gradually rolled out to customers on our platform. This means that while some customers will be prompted to change their passwords on Thursday, others won’t be asked until this option is rolled out to their site, which could be next week or the following week. Please be patient if you have not yet been asked to reset your password!

4. Should I change my password now to avoid having to do this later?

When this change is rolled out to your website, you will be REQUIRED to change your password at that time — regardless of how recently you changed your password. We won’t advise against changing your password now if you think you are using a weak password, but keep in mind you will be asked to change it again.

5. Once it has been rolled out to my site, how do I change my password?

You will be prompted to change your password the next time you login to the website or the admin dashboard. You will not need to use the Forgot Password link or otherwise reset your password — the system will make sure to walk you through the process!

6. I don’t want to change my password. We use the same password for everything. Is there any other option?

No. This password change is mandatory and there is no option to opt-out.

While we understand that changing a password that you’ve used for years can be a bit of a pain, we can assure you it is worth it in the long run! This is not about preventing a greedy reader from accessing your content for free. A criminal who is able to access your staff account could add, remove and manipulate content, add or remove advertisements, edit business and event listings, manage subscribers and more.

Furthermore, we recommend that you do not use the same password for all of your important accounts online, as that in itself can be a security risk.

That being said, if remembering your new higher-strength password is going to be an issue, you can always use Google Chrome‘s built-in password management tool to automatically fill-in your passwords when logging into sites that you frequently visit, or a similar tool such as LastPass. Just make sure to update your password within those tools so that they do not keep trying to log in with your old password.

If you have any more questions or concerns, please e-mail us at ops@our-hometown.com at any time.

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