Do you know how easy it is to hack your password?
By sanuanu
@sanuanu (11235)
India
April 9, 2009 12:48am CST
I was reading an article in one of a magazine and I was shocked and immiditately changed my security question for all the email id I am using. Now, I think no one can hack that.
The story was like, I guy thought to do an experiement on how to hack a password for one of his friends. He chose his wife's friend "Kim". He knew her before hand and he knew her name and her address. He went their had a cup of tea with her. He knew which bank her account was but didn't know the user name. He already knew her email id. It was on gmail.com. Now, in process she told him her account id of the bank!
Reset bank password: After, that he tried reset password option on the website of that bank. It said that password has been sent to gmail account. Next task was cracking her gmail account. So, he went for reset option for gmail id but her question asked was like mother midle name and street address etc. Those were available on her blog. The only problem was to crak her B'day
Finding b'day: He went to her myspace profile and searched scraps to get to know her b'day and month but year was missing. he thought of giving it a chance. He tried and (un)luckily the site offered him 5 retry chances!
Not to mention that he cracked her b'day and in result could reset her password of her gmail account too. Kim was very upset when she knew that her password was hacked!
So, the conclusion of this story is that you need to be very cautious while sharing your personal details. Now on I am going to make this as a habit that I will use different security question and answers so that no one can crack it. I can't control my b'day because I don't know how many times I have shared it online.
So, do you get scared by reading this story?
19 people like this
42 responses
@simplyshawn (650)
• United States
9 Apr 09
We really should be aware of all that stuff we put in our profiles online. I've had my ebay and email accts hacked into before and thankfully I was able to get them back, but that was really scary. Now my passwords are totally made up and have no meaning to anyones birthday, names or addresses.
@rosdimy (3926)
• Malaysia
10 Apr 09
My passwords tend to be connected with me because to a certain extent it makes it easier to remember them. But the connection is remote and only known or realised by a few other people. Most of them cannot be found online, or translated in sch a way that it would require a seriously determined hacker to find it. For example what would your name mean in Mandarin?
2 people like this
@momtrying2makeit (3270)
• United States
9 Apr 09
I think you are right this is the best way to deter theifs online. Using personal info is easier to be hacked online. Thanks for sharing your story and I think it will be helpful to others :)
2 people like this
@jdyrj777 (6530)
• United States
11 Apr 09
No, you dont understand. Nothing was lost. Just by somebody knowing her name and birthday. Used that and assumed her identity. Committed crimes in her name. My friend was stopped for a traffic violation. Cop ran a check on her and discovered an arrest warrent. The arrest warrent was for the person who used her identity. She had to go to jail and court because of this. She now has to carry around the court papers to prove this until it gets settled in the courts.
2 people like this
@scarlet_woman (23465)
• United States
9 Apr 09
a lot of people make those mistakes.
the first thing people who knew you look for is the familar.
pet names,relatives.you're best off using number/letter combos that don't spell anything.
@scarlet_woman (23465)
• United States
10 Apr 09
yea.i had a friend who suspected her bf of trying to break into her accounts at home,so she put a keylogger on it.she was amazed what he tried to use for passwords.
she realized right then she told him too much.
2 people like this
@mishastar (734)
• United States
10 Apr 09
This was very informative.
I think we all have to be more cautious as to what information we give out online.
Thanks for posting this.
2 people like this
@mishastar (734)
• United States
11 Apr 09
It's vanessa hudgens from the high school musical movies.
She's a good actor.
2 people like this
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
10 Apr 09
He went through a lot of steps to get into her account. If he had not had all of that information he would not have been so successful. People should keep their IDs to themselves and they should make their passwords longer and have a combination of letters and numbers as well as upper and lowercase letters since many passwords are case sensitive.
2 people like this
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
11 Apr 09
That is why it is said, "Your worst enemy is your own close friend".
If I am your friend and a very close one then you would probably tell me some personal details to me, don't you? Then it would be easy for me to access your data. Otherwise people must not use same id for bank account as they use for their email ids. Even paypal can be hacked, don't you think?
2 people like this
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
11 Apr 09
Paypal is hacked every so often but not even the person closest to me knows my IDs and passwords.
2 people like this
@csrobins (1120)
• United States
13 Apr 09
Yeah, I am paranoid about that as I continue to add more and more online accounts of different kinds. I am pretty sur enone of my accounts give anything away but I know hackers are very smart and I'm not about that sort of thing, Of course that scares me, but there must be a way to stop or help prevent them from getting them.
2 people like this
@vicky30 (4766)
• India
14 Apr 09
Yes i was a bit scared by the story but it happens many times in our lives
.We might not even know if our password is hacked.That's the reason people keep advising to change the password often.I have kept the same passwords since five years and i never change it.Once one of my friend used to scare me in college saying he got my password.From that time on i installed security softwares for my computer protection.
.We might not even know if our password is hacked.That's the reason people keep advising to change the password often.I have kept the same passwords since five years and i never change it.Once one of my friend used to scare me in college saying he got my password.From that time on i installed security softwares for my computer protection.2 people like this
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
10 Apr 09
yes this amazes me how many people use regular things for their passwords. i always use a long pecular thing no one would guess. i think people who are new to the internet takes a while to learn all the precautions.
@fatherblogger (673)
• Philippines
9 Apr 09
Honestly speaking, I was not scared since this is not the first time I heard of such stories. In the online world, it's not just the password that we should protect but also our identity. I believe it is our obligation to ourselves.
We are now living in a world where anything can easily be stolen from us. Therefore, using common passwords is not really advisable. In my case, I have tons of accounts and passwords. However, they are totally different from each other and the words are considered out-of-this-world. I have a list of them in which only my wife knows where I hide it.
Just my 2 cents.
2 people like this
@fatherblogger (673)
• Philippines
10 Apr 09
No, I don't remember them all. I open my files where I hid them.
I also installed Roboform software on my PC to help me sign-in to accounts automatically. However, this is slowing down my PC so I don't use it that much.
2 people like this
@deedeehall (1144)
• United States
10 Apr 09
yes this dose scare me i just can not believe how far people will go to still from others. i just can not even relate to how they could ever be that kind of person.are these people even scared of jail? i dont think you should have this information out there and if you have to .change it as often as you can so that it will be harder to get.
2 people like this
@vindiku (255)
• India
12 Apr 09
Hi, truly that is very shocking. One day you wake up and find that the money in you account is gone just because someone hacked your email ID, etc. For me basically, I don't share my details "anything financial to others" like where i have account, and one more thing is like it don't use this net banking facility. So, no such problems with getting into my account, other problems could rise. So, after typing this response, i am going to change my security question too. :-)
2 people like this
@sandymay48 (2030)
• Canada
10 Apr 09
Hi sanadoodoo...Now I hear things like that all the time and ignore them. If someone broke into my bank account, they would be sadly disappointed. I do not keep money in my online accounts other than to pay bills.
Thats why I dont have any friends either
..The less people know, the better...Then they cant find me or anything about me...maybe this isnt even really me..who knows..I say it is!!
Ok, now I am going to change all my passwords...thanks!
..The less people know, the better...Then they cant find me or anything about me...maybe this isnt even really me..who knows..I say it is!!
Ok, now I am going to change all my passwords...thanks!2 people like this
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
11 Apr 09
Hi Sanyorita,
Thats why I dont have any friends either
Just because you don't have money in your account?
Ok, now I am going to change all my passwords
That was an icebreaker my friend.
i was wondering that you will say that you don't need to change your passwords but you choose to respond otherwise! Never could understand you! LOL
Ok, now I am going to change all my passwords
That was an icebreaker my friend.
i was wondering that you will say that you don't need to change your passwords but you choose to respond otherwise! Never could understand you! LOL1 person likes this
@jav_1218 (12)
• Philippines
11 Apr 09
i guess anyone using the net and subscribing to anything should be careful to make their passwords because it's your responsiblity and you are the one who'll be affected in the end, i guess who need to use hard to guess password. But as for me i never experience that.
2 people like this
@rocketsky (1013)
• China
14 Apr 09
i always hate those hakers ,it seems they could alwasy make fun from hurting other people .
why they use their skills to help people out of trouble instead of hurting them?
2 people like this
@alokn99 (5717)
• India
9 Apr 09
It's a scary situation and a lot of personal data, bank accounts and more can be hacked into. To make it more difficult it is always advisable to change the passowrds frequently and also make the passwords more complicated by using special characters.
@dinxcarin (595)
• Singapore
10 Apr 09
Big thanks for this info. Which reminds me of my email that has been hacked a week ago. The one who did it deleted all my contacts, inbox and even chat-mailed my friend rudely by using vulgar words. Internet is not safe. No matter what we do there will be people we don't know that could attack us anytime and would come from different parts of the world. We all just be very careful in disseminating our private infos. Just to keep safe.
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
11 Apr 09
Well, it was a general thing for me to not to logout and close the window while surfing in internet cafe. In my early days one of my account was hacked and then on I started logging out before closing a site because we don't which site uses cookies to auto login, isn't it?
1 person likes this
@cocooreo (705)
• Malaysia
10 Apr 09
Hmm.. I usually do not put my birthday as the security question. I am glad that most of the security question I have have no answer to be found throught the internet. However, thank you very much for sharing the story, I would be extra careful next time when setting any password and security question in the future.
2 people like this
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
11 Apr 09
I am quite happy that you searched your securtiy questions to come to this conclusion. I am using a question which sometime make me feel think awkward that why did I choose a question which i can't remember but I used to have a hint saved in other email accounts.
1 person likes this
@gracypure (529)
• Philippines
10 Apr 09
hi sanuanu!
Glad you posted this discussion! I have more than 20 email accounts and the majority of them i used my real full name, birthday, middle name and some of these accounts have the same email id and passwords. Hmmp , i must start editing my profiles or else i'll be a victim of hackers again! Yes , my friendster account get hacked last year and i already contacted admin to delete my account and they responded that i need to submit 2 valid id's. Thanks sanuanu, i just reminded by this discussion to inactivate my account in friendster.
Good day!
2 people like this
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
11 Apr 09
So, did you submited your ids to get your account deleted? I hope so.
We must not and never use email id as passwords. Some of the websites have restriced same password as email id.
Fear not because I had also this tendency of using all my original details while getting sign ups but now I have opted not to do so. Although I don't blog and all!
1 person likes this
@kawalnarang (1095)
• Trinidad And Tobago
10 Apr 09
Yes ,but that's how life goes,, there will always be thieves in this beautiful world,,
