[44net] Portal security

Over the past few weeks, the portal has been subject to several brute force attacks on random usernames. In the past few days some accounts have been compromised because they used weak passwords. The attackers didn't do anything with any of the compromised accounts, it was most likely a script collecting valid usernames & passwords for later use. As a result I have tightened up security and some accounts will tell you that you need to verify your email address when you try to login. Please follow the link to have the verification email sent to you, then follow the instructions in the email when you receive it. Due to the enhanced security you will notice a CAPTCHA appears if you get your password wrong a few times, if you continually get your password wrong, the response time for the login process will get longer - this is intentional. It would help greatly if you could use a strong password, one that is at least 12 characters in length and contains a mixture of letters, numbers and punctuation characters, no "real" words and no "numbers instead of letters", e.g. "numb3r". Thanks, Chris