Oh yes, regardless of what I said it's definitely still cause to change passwords and make sure everything is safe. But I'm still not too rushed about it because the next step is to just refrain from storing your personal details online or linking social media accounts. The trick is to not have anything worth hacking stored online in the first place, in my opinion. Although obviously it becomes more serious when it comes to things like banking or PayPal.

Yandex is basically the alternative to Google. It doesn't insist on my phone number every few months like Google and it doesn't track me across the web to advertise to me, like Google. So it seemed like a great choice. South Africa is a lot closer to Russia than the US anyway. Despite our mentally challenged president, we're a part of BRICS and during the Cold War, our racist government was supported by Israel while the 'evil commies' were the only ones actually helping the resistance, which is now in power.

Thanks for all the help. I seem to be unblocked from everything right now. Not sure how long it will last but hopefully it's an issue that my ISP has sorted out by themselves without needing to be pushed into motion like they normally do. I hope this lasts. Thanks again, dude.

Well I mean honestly, I would probably consider myself an anarchist. But I realise that my vision of the world is utopian so I have no choice but to choose one devil over another devil. That doesn't change that I view them as devils though. I'm not so sure that even judging by merit would help my views of these people - politicians in this instance - that have no mastery or qualifications other than marketing and being successful at navigating the minefield of political jargon. If our 'leaders' were scientists I might take a side but otherwise the 'left' and the 'right' seem mostly the same to me. One way or another it all boils down to money. I've learnt this from flirting with green style activism and I've learnt this from history. Nothing is worthy of respect or consideration unless there is economic value, not as far as politics and laws are concerned. And I cannot respect that whether you call yourself democrat, socialist, capitalist or god's chosen people.

I honestly think I'm better off not choosing a side at all. That way I don't need to shift my morals and values depending on who happens to be wearing my colours and flying my flag at this moment.

Personally I use KeePass to generate a different password for everything i sign up for, usually 60 characters in length containing everything from letters to numbers to symbols. If anyone happens to get access to one of my accounts there is zero chance of them using that to gain access to something else. Above and beyond that I have four different email accounts. A gmail account for Play Store and Google rubbish, a gmail account for Facebook and only Facebook, a yandex account for forums and junk mail and one more yandex account for personal use.

When I put it into writing like that it seems like a hell of a complicated process but honestly it's not. If you use an email client like Thunderbird, it doesn't matter whether you have one email address or fifty thousand million email addresses. And if you use a password safe like KeePass every account that you ever need to sign into is a click and master password away. I would highly recommend. Also, avoid password safes that store your stuff online, that kinda defeats the purpose.

Do you have any suggestions of a tool to use to check if I've been infected? I'm currently using Malwarebytes, which tells me that my system is clean as a whistle but maybe it's missing something. Besides that, I reinstall OSes so often on my PC that I'm not sure if it would even be my PC. Would a mobile phone be capable of wreaking this havoc?

I have been removed from the blacklist that I was on for 48 hours while they investigate (as per their protocol) and it hasn't made a difference to my browsing whatsoever, I'm still coming across more and more websites that I can only access with proxy, the latest being the NYTimes.

I guess if all else fails then I have no option but to contact my ISP but I'm moving in a month and hoping to change to another provider while I'm at it so maybe I'll just leave it for the next poor sucker :P

Thanks for the info! I've tried incognito, using a different device, resetting my router. Following that blacklist check, turns out I am on one blacklist for some reason. I've requested to be removed and asked them to let me know why I'm suddenly on the list in the first place, now I guess I wait. When I thought it was only Reddit, that was fine because Reddit isn't Reddit anymore anyway. But finding that you're blocked by a whole lot of web pages is kinda depressing. I mean, I ended up following the chain all the way to Reddit's registrar (gandi.net) and I'm blocked by all of them, registrar included. Same thing with anything to do with CDC Global.

Thanks again for the info, hope that this is sorted out easily.

Off topic but in the last 24 hours it seems that my IP address has been blocked by Reddit and this Vox website I've never visited before as well as every 'brand' connected to it. Wtf is going here? In going to end up needing a proxy for every second web page I come across at this rate.

But.. But evil Russia. Don't do this to me, what am I supposed to do without an evil enemy for Team America (fuck yeah!) to stand up against? Don't you know that the rest of the world is begging for Team America to come save them from the evil Russians? I refuse to believe this. Obama is handsome and well spoken and black, an absolute angel. This must be more Russian treachery. You're a spy aren't you? Are you hacking me you dirty commie bastard?

The users need to create an account in this new internet and sign up with their Driving License and the social media accounts.

Is this for battling trolls and cyberbullies or for more effective targeted advertising? Anything on the internet that wants my Driver's License and/or ID can honestly fuck right off. And anything that requires me to be constantly signed into social media accounts that track your activity across the web can do the same.

Remember when people were freaking out over the revelations of just how much access to your information organisations like the NSA have? And now this is supposed to be a good thing?

If this becomes some sort of standard I would like to say that it would cause a lot of dissent but judging by the amount of people that are perfectly happy providing Facebook with their personal details, phone number, home address, a list of friends and every event that you attend and who with, I doubt it sadly.

Welcome to world of zombies raised by Facebook and iPhones. Instead of teaching people that the world is a harsh place and giving them the skills to deal with it, lets create echo chambers where no one can ever grow or learn. Instead of having examples of the good and the ugly to learn from, lets censor anything that doesn't tow the line so that the poor babies will be safe from having their fragile spirits broken. Instead of keeping the internet free and neutral, lets regulate the shit out of it and put a barcode on every user.

It's pathetic. The 'left' used to be pro choice and anti censorship. Now it is being turned into a joke by the weakest generation of all time. No need for governments or corporations to exert power over us, we now censor ourselves and openly welcome regulations that turn our lives into an Orwellian/Minority Report fuck up. But as long as it stops a few trolls, I guess its okay.