Slashdot Mirror
Password Hackers Do Big Business With Ex-Lovers
Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that disgruntled lovers and spouses considering divorce are flocking to services like YourHackerz.com that boast they have little trouble hacking into Web-based e-mail systems like AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook and Hotmail. The services advertise openly, and there doesn't appear to be much anyone can do about it because while federal law prohibits hacking into e-mail, without further illegal activity, it's only a misdemeanor, says Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University. 'The feds usually don't have the resources to investigate and prosecute misdemeanors,' says Kerr. 'And part of the reason is that normally it's hard to know when an account has been compromised, because e-mail snooping doesn't leave a trace.' It's not clear where YourHackerz.com is located, but experts suspect that most password hacking businesses are based overseas."
And part of the reason is that normally it's hard to know when an account has been compromised, because e-mail snooping doesn't leave a trace
Simply do like most client systems and put in big red bold: "someone tried to connect to your account 32 times from w.x.y.z ...", and keep something like a 30 days log of connection history browsable somewhere. I'm sure modern techniques can also be used to highlight strange connection patterns and/or unusual connection location. Although it's far from perfect it at least gives some basic tools to be aware and deal with this situation. And if the hackers know their address is not only logged in an obscure web log but also available to the user (with a nice helpful tips page about what to do and who to contact when you're a victim) it would probably intimidate part of them.
What is your girlfriend's name? Let's see the wife try to guess that one.
Have gnu, will travel.
Quite a ingenius scam really. The following link - http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/yourhackerzcom-c141692.html [complaintsboard.com] - suggests that they take your 'hard earned money' and then blackmail you. Saying that they will tell the person you are trying to 'hack' if you don't send them $1000. It made me lol.
Actually, web-based, free emails could be remarkably secure, if people weren't such morons about passwords.
I'd imagine it has more to do with those damn required "Security Questions", many of which use publicly available information.
Even the services which allow you to specify the question and answer are probably no match for a cracker working in conjunction with an Ex.
I'd be more worried about what the crackers do with the knowledge they acquire as far as your other accounts are concerned, sure they may hack the e-mail account for you, but they're just as likely to clear out your bank account afterwords.
If you're curious how these things work, here's a write-up of a typical example of one of these services.
"Hello, Student Loans Company, do you have a reference number?"
"Yes, L238BNM"
"Could you tell me the fourth letter of your mother's maiden... hmm... I'm sorry sir, I think there's a problem with the system, please--"
"Is it a hash symbol?"
"Er... yes. And the first letter of your first pet's name?"
"The number 8"
"That's correct."