EuroPython 2018: Please reset your password

Regular password resets are always a good thing to do, but this time we have a specific reason to ask you to consider taking the extra time.

In December 2017, our ISP detected port scans originating from our server and informed us about these. During the analysis, we found that someone (or better: some script) had found a way to break-in to our web server running the EuroPython website. We quickly fixed the situation, reset all authorizations and put measures in place to strictly limit the number of people having access to the server to a minimum and better secure the server against future break-in attempts.

The server was only used as SSH port scanning relay and we found no evidence of loss or leakage of data. We don’t believe that any of your personal information got into the wrong hands, but even though the passwords are stored using secure and salted hashes (using PBKDF2), we still recommend to reset your password to be on the safe side.

We know that this notice is late and we’d like to apologize for the hassle caused by this.

If you have just created a new account on the https://ep2018.europython.eu/ website we just launched, no further action is necessary.

We only recommend the password reset if you have had an account with us in previous years and this account is active on the new https://ep2018.europython.eu/ website. Logins on the older versions of our website are disabled for regular users, so no action is necessary on these.

How to reset your password

If you have had a password based account on one of the previous year’s EuroPython conference systems, these will typically still work on this year’s website.

Please log in to the system using your EP2017 account details (user id and password) and then go to the page:

https://ep2018.europython.eu/accounts/password_change/

This will ask you to enter your old password and then a new one. Once this is done, you can start using your new password next time you log in.

How to reset the password in case you don’t remember it

If you don’t remember your password, please go to this page and enter your email address:

https://ep2018.europython.eu/accounts/password_reset/

This will start a process to reset your password: you should get an email explaining the process.

I have trouble resetting my password

A password reset will only work for accounts which indeed did have a password set. If you had used Google authentication for account creation, there is no password stored on our system which could be reset. As a result, the process will not work.

If you do know that you have a password based account, but cannot remember the email address or password, please contact our helpdesk@europython.eu and ask them to disable your old account, provided they can find it. They may ask questions to verify your identity as part of this process.

You can then create a new one using this link:

https://ep2018.europython.eu/accounts/new-account/

Please note that our helpdesk will not be able to reset your old account or send out a new password.

I would rather like to use Google for login

If you have previously created an account using passwords and would like to switch to a Google authentication based one, please write to the helpdesk@europython.eu asking to disable your existing account and change your email address.

You can then create a new one using this link:

https://ep2018.europython.eu/accounts/new-account/

On the right you will find a link to the Google login. After login, you can then update your account details on our site (they don’t have to match the ones you’re using on Google).

Going forward, we will probably call for such yearly password resets regularly - hopefully without having a reason such as the above.

Thank you and sorry again for the trouble.

Enjoy,

EuroPython 2018 Team
https://ep2018.europython.eu/
https://www.europython-society.org/

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