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Some people shouldn't be allowed on the internet
bad_boy
Posts: 1 Newbie
in Techie Stuff
Just read Amcluesent's thread about the one hour to expose someone's private life.
Not surprising when you consider how willing some people are to share information.
While messing on the free for all to use internet cafe at work one day I discovered that someone had saved their password for their yahoo-mail account. Being bored and nosey I decided to have a look. It was obviously an account he uses regularly - notifications of credit card statements, update from various internet account subscriptions, recent holiday booking confirmation.
As I didn't know him, and doubted that he'd take too kindly to me telling him that I'd hacked his e-mail I thought I'd do the next best thing and change his password. This would alert him that something was up and he'd make it more secure.
No!
The following day I thought I'd have another look. I entered the new password but it didn't work. He'd reset his password and changed it.Oh well, it was fun for a while. He wouldn't re-use his old password would he?
Yes!
At this point I thought - people like him shouldn't be set loose on the web. Time for some more fun. Let's see what else he gets up to.
Ebay, Friends Reunited, Genes Reunited, Man Utd credit card!!!!!! (now I've got no sympathy for the guy), Flikr, Paypal - the list went on.
Most of these sites use email address and password to login. As he used the same password for many of these accounts it was easy to have a snoop. Some required a user-name which was kindly given out in the e-mails sent from these websites.
Some had different passwords but a quick password reminder or reset request soon fixed that. One or two (like Ebay) require some answers to personal questions before sending a reset email. It's amazing what people put on sites like Friends Reunited.
Bear in mind that I'm a complete amateur.
And yes, I'm sure some of what I've done is illegal, definitely immoral and I don't condone it, but people really should be more careful.
I think the single biggest mistake many people make is using the same password for multiple accounts, although I could probably have accessed all but his credit card account via the reset option.
I'm sure I'd now have more than enough information to commit some major fraud if I knew how / was that way inclined.
Not surprising when you consider how willing some people are to share information.
While messing on the free for all to use internet cafe at work one day I discovered that someone had saved their password for their yahoo-mail account. Being bored and nosey I decided to have a look. It was obviously an account he uses regularly - notifications of credit card statements, update from various internet account subscriptions, recent holiday booking confirmation.
As I didn't know him, and doubted that he'd take too kindly to me telling him that I'd hacked his e-mail I thought I'd do the next best thing and change his password. This would alert him that something was up and he'd make it more secure.
No!
The following day I thought I'd have another look. I entered the new password but it didn't work. He'd reset his password and changed it.Oh well, it was fun for a while. He wouldn't re-use his old password would he?
Yes!
At this point I thought - people like him shouldn't be set loose on the web. Time for some more fun. Let's see what else he gets up to.
Ebay, Friends Reunited, Genes Reunited, Man Utd credit card!!!!!! (now I've got no sympathy for the guy), Flikr, Paypal - the list went on.
Most of these sites use email address and password to login. As he used the same password for many of these accounts it was easy to have a snoop. Some required a user-name which was kindly given out in the e-mails sent from these websites.
Some had different passwords but a quick password reminder or reset request soon fixed that. One or two (like Ebay) require some answers to personal questions before sending a reset email. It's amazing what people put on sites like Friends Reunited.
Bear in mind that I'm a complete amateur.
And yes, I'm sure some of what I've done is illegal, definitely immoral and I don't condone it, but people really should be more careful.
I think the single biggest mistake many people make is using the same password for multiple accounts, although I could probably have accessed all but his credit card account via the reset option.
I'm sure I'd now have more than enough information to commit some major fraud if I knew how / was that way inclined.
0
Comments
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Yep people can be very silly like that. Went into an Apple store recently to have a look at the iPhone 4 and someone had left their Facebook account signed in... of course tons of people had put rude status updates on for that person lol. We logged it out after.£2 Savers Club 2011 (putting towards a deposit
) - £5880 -
You are never safe in an internet cafe or anywhere else in public for that matter. Even if you use InPrivate, they could still have a keylogger program installed on the pc gathering all your information and you would never know.0
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Yep people can be very silly like that. Went into an Apple store recently to have a look at the iPhone 4 and someone had left their Facebook account signed in... of course tons of people had put rude status updates on for that person lol. We logged it out after.
Hannah, where is the nearest apple store to us then..? I have just got an IPhone 4 and am looking for screen protectors.
BTW my advice is get one, they are awesome.0 -
I've got a screen protector on my android phone, yep - well worth the £3 investment! Awesome
..just trollin' along... :PUtinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.0 -
DatabaseError wrote: »I've got a screen protector on my android phone, yep - well worth the £3 investment! Awesome
..just trollin' along... :P
Pitty your android phone wasn't though eh.....:rotfl:0 -
LOL... ok another Apple hater i guess.? Have you actually had one..? This is my first and i have to be honest coming from an i8910 is a big improvement.
What don't you like about it..?
Not an Apple hater at all, use MACs at home (as well as PCs -and yes I know a MAC is a PC)
The iphone4 is very good, OH has one, but it is not the phone for me.
It does drop calls and when held too close to the ear, the speaker has a tendency to turn on.
As I said nice phone but not the phone for me.0 -
Not an Apple hater at all, use MACs at home (as well as PCs -and yes I know a MAC is a PC)
The iphone4 is very good, OH has one, but it is not the phone for me.
It does drop calls and when held too close to the ear, the speaker has a tendency to turn on.
As I said nice phone but not the phone for me.
That's fair dues, everyone has their own tastes 0 -
You are never safe in an internet cafe or anywhere else in public for that matter. Even if you use InPrivate, they could still have a keylogger program installed on the pc gathering all your information and you would never know.
I would hope that the person(s) responsible for maintaining the desktop network in an internet cafe would be savvy about internet security and have the system set up so that it protects against malware etc being installed?
Surely Internet Cafe operators can not afford to have their PCs spending too much downtime as it's lost income, I assume therefore they take the integrity of their system seriously.
However, users of such places should still be sensible about what personal details they enter on sites when using computers in them.0
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