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Author Topic: !! URGENT: Shutterstock experiencing major hack !!  (Read 29776 times)

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derek

    This user is banned.
« Reply #50 on: November 02, 2018, 15:45 »
+2
I changed it anyway ... because it was an old password but, bruteforce targeting of user accounts isn't a "hack" so there very well could be some attempts ... but, it'd take years for them to even make a dent.

They could over a long period of time take a bit here and there!  nobody would notice or be alarmed and it could go on for years!........when you write to support to check your account all you get back is the same waffle " we're constanly improving our Tech department and so on"


« Reply #51 on: November 03, 2018, 00:46 »
+10
I can confirm. I've been hacked and my PayPal account got changed. Earnings have gone. I am waiting an answer from the support, i hope to have my earnings back.

How are earnings gone if Shutterstock haven't started to rollout payments just yet? SS just does not pay on request, they process everyone every month.

You can be hacked by a number of reasons, one of them you alone having a virus or malware on your computer. That is very different from a problem affecting all contributors, or at least a large number of them.

I'm not seeing any problem and I'm not aware from any communication from SS until this point.


« Reply #52 on: November 03, 2018, 00:53 »
0
I changed it anyway ... because it was an old password but, bruteforce targeting of user accounts isn't a "hack" so there very well could be some attempts ... but, it'd take years for them to even make a dent.

They could over a long period of time take a bit here and there!  nobody would notice or be alarmed and it could go on for years!........when you write to support to check your account all you get back is the same waffle " we're constanly improving our Tech department and so on"

Again, how can someone take a bit of the contributor income to be unnoticed on SS if they do not pay on request, but monthly, automatically, with all the value that is payable and to all contributors?

Any hack would take all or nothing and surely be noticed. Especially by those having a payment every month, which I'm sure are going to SS daily and would note immediately any problem with a password hack.

derek

    This user is banned.
« Reply #53 on: November 03, 2018, 02:50 »
+2
MicroVet!!  Exactly! how can the guys earnings be gone when SS havent even computed them yet?? and how can SS fail to see anything if something?...no I dont buy this at all!
Could for all we know be lots of shadey people teaming up for robbery?  or of course nothing at all?

« Reply #54 on: November 03, 2018, 10:19 »
+1
MicroVet!!  Exactly! how can the guys earnings be gone when SS havent even computed them yet?? and how can SS fail to see anything if something?...no I dont buy this at all!
Could for all we know be lots of shadey people teaming up for robbery?  or of course nothing at all?

OP probably meant to say that his/her last months earnings all disappeared like it happens at SS at the beginning of each month...

« Reply #55 on: November 03, 2018, 12:28 »
+3
Its worth remembering on SS if you use FTP you should probably treat your credentials as compromised.  SS doesnt provide different user and passwords for FTP nor does it provide TLS or any encryption so your full contributor login details are sent as plain text for anything sniffing on that PC. the same network or upstream to steal.
If you use SS FTP from public WiFis id be even more concerned.

« Reply #56 on: November 03, 2018, 15:18 »
+3
I can confirm. I've been hacked and my PayPal account got changed. Earnings have gone. I am waiting an answer from the support, i hope to have my earnings back.

Sorry to hear this but have your earnings gone, or are they just reset at the beginning of the month? You cant request a payment - Shutterstock send it automatically  - and the money for last month hasnt been sent out yet I dont think.

« Reply #57 on: November 04, 2018, 07:29 »
+1
........................
« Last Edit: November 04, 2018, 07:41 by everest »

nobody

« Reply #58 on: November 04, 2018, 07:41 »
+1
once again I feel like we are left in the dark by SS!  >:(


« Reply #59 on: November 04, 2018, 07:58 »
+1
once again I feel like we are left in the dark by SS!  >:(

Yes, takes them an age to report a problem and when there is no problem they don't report it at all, complete darkness.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #60 on: November 04, 2018, 12:59 »
+3
once again I feel like we are left in the dark by SS!  >:(

Yes, takes them an age to report a problem and when there is no problem they don't report it at all, complete darkness.

You want them to send a notice out that we have no problem? From what I see, the urgent report hack rumor started here and spread to the SS forum, and is unsubstantiated and denied on the forum. So you want them to write to all of us and deny that something, that doesn't exist, is a non-issue?  ;) :o


« Reply #61 on: November 04, 2018, 13:08 »
+1
once again I feel like we are left in the dark by SS!  >:(

Yes, takes them an age to report a problem and when there is no problem they don't report it at all, complete darkness.

You want them to send a notice out that we have no problem? From what I see, the urgent report hack rumor started here and spread to the SS forum, and is unsubstantiated and denied on the forum. So you want them to write to all of us and deny that something, that doesn't exist, is a non-issue?  ;) :o

I though I had put that in far fewer words using sarcasm.

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #62 on: November 04, 2018, 20:37 »
+2
once again I feel like we are left in the dark by SS!  >:(

Yes, takes them an age to report a problem and when there is no problem they don't report it at all, complete darkness.

You want them to send a notice out that we have no problem? From what I see, the urgent report hack rumor started here and spread to the SS forum, and is unsubstantiated and denied on the forum. So you want them to write to all of us and deny that something, that doesn't exist, is a non-issue?  ;) :o

I though I had put that in far fewer words using sarcasm.

Sorry, must be a Senior moment thing, I didn't see a smile and thought you were serious. You know sometimes sarcasm doesn't transfer well when it's in print. Oops!  :)

LMS

« Reply #63 on: November 04, 2018, 22:20 »
0
I have a feeling I know who the person who originally posted this is.  I say that because I  was invited to work on a support platform for a few months and became familiar with the writing style of the other "user experts".  Eventually I quit out of frustration because of the sheer lack of information and answers available to us from Shutterstock. 
If they are indeed receiving dozens of support tickets per hour I suggest you consider it seriously.  Trust me, no one is going to get rich on that platform by starting a rumour.
*EDIT*  That is not to say that SS has neccessarily been hacked, it could well be that contributors using the same password across agencies have been hacked through another agency.
« Last Edit: November 04, 2018, 22:59 by LMS »

LMS

« Reply #64 on: November 04, 2018, 22:35 »
+2
I'm a contributor who works with Shutterstock's new contributor support team.

So, how much do you get paid?

Whatever it is, you make a lot more if, for example, a few unscrupulous contributor support people got all their friends and their friends' friends to send support emails about their accounts being hacked, and you get to copy and paste an answer to them. All they need is the email address for support.

The timing just seems suspicious, is all.

If this is the same platform, working alongside of the others and participating in the forums there, I think most did it more because they enjoyed helping than to make $.  Sometimes you could spend two days back and forth with a contributor and in the end not make your measly $1. In addition we got to field a lot of the vitriol angry contributors had towards SS.


So to the OP - Thanks or the heads up and I hope things are better there now that the growing pains are hopefully over.

msg2018

« Reply #65 on: November 05, 2018, 03:48 »
+1
Its worth remembering on SS if you use FTP you should probably treat your credentials as compromised.  SS doesnt provide different user and passwords for FTP nor does it provide TLS or any encryption so your full contributor login details are sent as plain text for anything sniffing on that PC. the same network or upstream to steal.
If you use SS FTP from public WiFis id be even more concerned.

Agree. Different user and password for FTP would be the easy and sensible thing to do to (easier than TLS which makes using third party services and shell scripts difficult).
There's no point in using https if the same login is sent unencrypted every time through FTP.

Shelma1

  • stockcoalition.org
« Reply #66 on: November 05, 2018, 06:58 »
+9
I'm a contributor who works with Shutterstock's new contributor support team.

So, how much do you get paid?

Whatever it is, you make a lot more if, for example, a few unscrupulous contributor support people got all their friends and their friends' friends to send support emails about their accounts being hacked, and you get to copy and paste an answer to them. All they need is the email address for support.

The timing just seems suspicious, is all.

If this is the same platform, working alongside of the others and participating in the forums there, I think most did it more because they enjoyed helping than to make $.  Sometimes you could spend two days back and forth with a contributor and in the end not make your measly $1. In addition we got to field a lot of the vitriol angry contributors had towards SS.


So to the OP - Thanks or the heads up and I hope things are better there now that the growing pains are hopefully over.

This reminds me of the photographers who submit work to the free stock sites because they enjoy photography. They fail to realize that their free work takes paid work away from other stock photographers.

Youre willing to work for 5 cents an hour because you enjoy helping other contributors, but your almost-free work puts paid customer service reps out of a job. And the other contributors get meaningless customer service...because no matter how well-intentioned you may be, you dont have access to account information the real customer service people had.


LMS

« Reply #67 on: November 05, 2018, 09:43 »
+2
Which in turn reminds me of how professional photographers felt about microstock. :)

I'm not going to defend or bash the concept of crowd sourcing, I tried it and it wasn't for me.

But I don't think it provided meaningless support.  Rather it provided contributors with a platform that immediately helped them on a one to one basis in lieu of a semi quasi related cut and paste that was of absolutely no help to their situation and took three weeks to come.  A lot of the support was geared towards why their images or releases were being rejected, avoiding keyword spamming, account setup issues, etc Often it was a matter of directing a contributor to the right information in the contributor support centre or contributor blog.  When there were suddenly a large number of support tickets on a certain technical problem it was pretty obvious there was an issue and anything that couldn't be dealt with on the platform including items that required account access, was immediately forwarded to Shutterstock.  Because the daily mass of other support tickets had been sorted through, Shutterstock should have been able to identify and deal with those issues a lot faster.

In my opinion the contributor support from Shutterstock has been subpar, but I get how difficult it must be to handle the sheer mass of contributors. IMO this platform was a step in the right direction, but the compensation which was set by Shutterstock was completely insufficient.  Unfortunately, as a result it will likely eventually turn into another cut and paste system.

From working alongside and seeing the time and care some of these people put into dealing with frustrated and often angry contributors, it's hard for me to view them in the light they are being painted.   

Shelma1

  • stockcoalition.org
« Reply #68 on: November 05, 2018, 10:07 »
+5
I'm not trying to paint them in any particular light...I'm sure they're well-meaning. I found that "real" support answered my questions pretty quickly, as frustrating as I may have found a few of their answers.

I won't be writing to support any more because now it's fruitless...the fellow contributor I'm writing to knows no more than I do and has no access to the files I'm asking about.

This is just an attempt by Shutterstock to save money by doing away with most contributor support and replacing it with contributors who are willing to make, from your telling, literally 5 to 10 cents an hour. I find it sad. It's sad for the support staff who might have been making a living wage, and it's sad for contributors who are willing to work for 5 an hour.

LMS

« Reply #69 on: November 05, 2018, 10:25 »
+2
I don't think I said that they worked for 5 or 10 cents and hour. :) However, I concluded that I wasn't making minimum wage after three months, and you pretty much had to be on call after answering a ticket. Nevertheless, the effort it would take to start a scam by getting your friends to send in support tickets would not be fruitful and would be shared with all the workers across the platform.  I can't see that happening.

Shelma1

  • stockcoalition.org
« Reply #70 on: November 05, 2018, 10:35 »
+2
"Sometimes you could spend two days back and forth with a contributor and in the end not make your measly $1."

I'm not sure getting friends to send scam support tickets would be fruitless. If you let people know in advance what the issue would be, when the tickets would be sent, and you supplied a simple answer anyone could cut and paste, you'd have a few people who'd be prepared to jump on dozens of tickets right away, before the other folks even had a chance to open and read them and type an answer. If you live in a country with a low cost of living and made the equivalent of U.S. minimum wage, you'd be doing well. Just send the tickets when the U.S. and Europe are sleeping.

Anyway, that's my latest conspiracy theory. ;)

« Reply #71 on: November 05, 2018, 11:46 »
+2
I'm not trying to paint them in any particular light...I'm sure they're well-meaning. I found that "real" support answered my questions pretty quickly, as frustrating as I may have found a few of their answers.

I won't be writing to support any more because now it's fruitless...the fellow contributor I'm writing to knows no more than I do and has no access to the files I'm asking about.

This is just an attempt by Shutterstock to save money by doing away with most contributor support and replacing it with contributors who are willing to make, from your telling, literally 5 to 10 cents an hour. I find it sad. It's sad for the support staff who might have been making a living wage, and it's sad for contributors who are willing to work for 5 an hour.

I feel exactly the same way having had the same exact experience as you.
And as everyone stops sending support requests because of the poor responses they will need fewer and fewer people to respond - they win  - and with fewer support requests they can boast how well the system works because they get so few complaints -- they win.

« Reply #72 on: November 05, 2018, 13:46 »
0
Sounds like a real devils masterplan.

« Reply #73 on: November 05, 2018, 13:48 »
0
Sounds like a real devils masterplan.
A fairly unambitious one though....not going to fund an island liar that way

« Reply #74 on: November 05, 2018, 14:09 »
+6
Which in turn reminds me of how professional photographers felt about microstock. :)...

These two things are not equivalent - I'm somewhat frustrated that this comparison is raised any time anyone who contributes to microstock complains about something being unfair or unreasonable. Just because two groups of people are unhappy does not make what happened to them the same.

Microstock was a competitor to traditional agencies offering similar products on different (more convenient) terms. Part of the reason that microstock initially took off was that there was a new way to buy something of equivalent quality with less hassle (instant download from a web site with no price negotiation, sales rep hassle or contract to be negotiated). Most of the previous generation of stock producers started out doing this as a side gig with out-takes from custom shoots.

Shutterstock is trying to screw its own contributors by providing cheap but largely useless support in an effort to cut costs. They aren't crowdsourcing the same or a similar service, but trying to palm off something even worse than cutting and pasting boilerplate just by calling it contributor support. As soon as they come up with some broken AI software "equivalent" they'll fire the underpaid gig economy workers

The party to aim our ire at is Shutterstock for treating contributors with disdain and letting go professional support staff. The gig economy "support" folks will soon be collateral damage, so they should be looking for their next gig now.


 

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