I had my old ICQ account for so long that my number was only seven digits long. But not any more. Recently, I tried logging in and it said I had the wrong password. I know the password has not changed. It’s been the same for years. But even logging into their web-based chat client told me the password was wrong. Somehow it was changed without my action.

How did that happen? Good question. There are several possibilities:

1. I used a one-word password back in those days — like “cat” or “dog”. Some one or some robot could have found that. Then someone could have changed it for fun. (These days my passwords are generated by KeePass and stored in an encrypted file.)
2. I recently have been playing with Linux and was running an old version of Gaim on the system. Perhaps there were security issues with Gaim that allowed someone to steal my password and change it.
3. Maybe some system somewhere dropped a bit.

That’s it. I am out of ideas. But since I’ve not been able to log into my old ICQ account (7125610), I take no responsibility for anything that comes from that account.

If you have any idea how I can get it back, please let me know. For some irrational reason, I have a fond attachment to that number. 😐