If someone broke into your account and changed your password, you can normally reclaim control of your journal. However, this requires that you still have access to an email account that you had previously validated for your LiveJournal account. The steps below describe how to resecure your LiveJournal account. It is important that you follow them in order, to ensure that your account is as secure as possible.
EMAIL ACCOUNT SECURITY
Before resecuring your LiveJournal account, you should first ensure that your email account is secure. Your LiveJournal account is only as secure as any email address(es) you have validated on the account.
If you believe that your email account is secure, but are not positive, you should always change your email account password before changing the password to your LiveJournal account. If your email account has also been broken into, you will have to resolve that problem before dealing with getting your stolen LiveJournal account back. LiveJournal cannot assist you with the security of your email accounts; you should talk to your email provider for assistance.
Ultimately, it is the security of the first email address validated on the account that determines the security of the account. If your first email address has been compromised and is non-securable, your account will never be fully secure.
RECLAIMING YOUR PASSWORD
You should not request your password until you are certain that your email account is secure. If your password has been changed, you will still be able to retrieve it, as long as you have access to an email address previously validated to the account. You can have your password emailed to you by going to
http://www.livejournal.com/lostinfo.bml and entering your username and any email address you previously validated on the account.
UNFAMILIAR EMAIL ADDRESSES
Once you have ensured the security of your email account, you should log in and go to
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/emailmanage.bml to check whether there are any unfamiliar email addresses there. If your email address hasn't been changed, you can go on to the next section.
If someone broke into your account and changed your email address, you should then change the email address on your LiveJournal account to one you used before your account was broken into. You can do this at
http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml. Re-validate your e-mail address, and then visit
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/emailmanage.bml to remove the intruder's address from your account's history.
You will need to re-validate an older email address before you can delete a more recent address. In order to delete an intruder's email address, you will need to re-validate your own old e-mail address -- not a new one. Instructions on how to validate your email address are available at
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=11.
CHANGING YOUR PASSWORD
Once you have secured your email account and removed all unfamiliar email addresses, you should then change your password. You can do this at
http://www.livejournal.com/changepassword.bml.
You should make sure that the new password you select is different from the one you use for your email address; it should also be complex and secure. You can find more information on creating a secure password, as well as other things you can do to keep your LiveJournal account secure at
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=71.
RESECURING YOUR ACCOUNT
After completing all of the above steps, your account will then be as secure as you can make it. Unfortunately, if the intruder made any other modifications to your journal, there will be no way to revert those changes. Your userinfo, entries, and userpics -- if deleted or altered -- cannot be restored to their prior condition.
If you have further questions about resecuring your account, you should file a report with the Abuse Team, as they may be able to assist you. Instructions for filing a report are available at
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105.
.
.
