The silver lining in all of this is that I can take this experience and pass that lesson along to any new models looking into signing agreements with webmasters: OWN YOUR NAME. In all its shapes, variations, and forms. Otherwise, someone else will end up owning you.

The hackers themselves will tell you that if you limit yourself (and anyone else on your server) to difficult passwords and better-secured billing scripts, they will have a difficult time indeed. They may even go broke because they can no longer charge their members for the chance to steal your bandwidth.

People can hack, steal, and then sell your passwords – why do that to yourself? That’s hundreds and thousands of potential dollars that you are losing.