Gmail Being Hacked

[kendrik578]

Looks like another round of Gmail accounts are being hacked. Most were hacked on the 11th and 12th. The gmail forums have hundreds of people reporting hacked accounts. I have family whos Gmail and Facebook was hacked yesterday.

 

[poltergeisty]

Yep, no surprise to me. I'll never use the popular, especially with E-mail attached to bank accounts, eBay, PayPal, etc.

 

[GTR8000]

While it's certainly possible to hack an account on-the-fly, the truth is that most of this can be attributed to weak, common or obvious passwords...clicking links in emails before verifying they're legitimate...replying to illegitimate emails...willingly providing account info to unauthorized sources...etc.

In other words, carelessness on the user's part.

Kendrick, wasn't your email/Gmail hacked back in April? I recall getting some spam from your account. I sincerely hope you weren't hit again, but I imagine you learned your lesson the first time and changed your password to something very tough to crack, and stopped clicking unknown links.

 

[kendrik578]

Kendrick, wasn't your email/Gmail hacked back in April? I recall getting some spam from your account. I sincerely hope you weren't hit again, but I imagine you learned your lesson the first time and changed your password to something very tough to crack, and stopped clicking unknown links.

Well it looks like it has once again hit a lot of people at once. Lindsay showed me an article awhile back of some drug dealers who hit the accounts around the time i got hit.

O yes i changed my password and i have diffidently changed some habits. So far they haven't got me...knock on wood.

My sister got it this time except they totally changed her password on gmail and Facebook.

 

[GTR8000]

Hey, it happens to the best of us. It is easy to get into habits and patterns online, which probably makes it easier for hackers to figure this stuff out. I'm pretty paranoid about my online accounts, I change the passwords regularly to some pretty cryptic stuff that I can't even remember half the time, and I make sure to always take a look at the Sent folder of my email to make sure there's nothing there that shouldn't be. I also use a BS email for stuff like Facebook, never my primary email. If it were to get hacked, I wouldn't care all that much. In fact, I have more Gmail accounts than I can count, because I like to keep things as compartmentalized as possible to limit the damage should one of them get hacked. My primary email is under my own domain/server, so I would be aware very quickly if someone were trying to fiddle with it.

 

[kendrik578]

I make sure to always take a look at the Sent folder of my email to make sure there's nothing there that shouldn't be.

Yea back when i was hacked if i had gotten online just 10 minutes earlier i could have stopped all that spam from being sent. The great thing about gmail is the "Last account activity" and you can sign out gmail in all locations.

 

[GTR8000]

Yeah, I also like how they display the last IP address to login as well as any new IP that tries to login while you're active. Also make sure you have "Always use https" checked in the options, and disable POP/IMAP if you're not using it. Every little bit of security helps.

 

[kendrik578]

"Always use https" checked in the options, and disable POP/IMAP if you're not using it.

Yea when they got me i didnt have that checked cause it caused my previous comp to run slow, but you can bet its checked now. Im just worrying i might get hit in next couple days.

 

[GTR8000]

Isn't the Internet loads of fun? :twisted:

 

[poltergeisty]

Blackbird: African American browser, community, culture, social networking, bookmarking, news, and events

 

[ScannerDude244]

hmm didn't see this in the main stream sites like mashable, digg, or engadget, but I'll check mine anyways thanks for the heads up!

Edit looks like mine is fine, you can check if it's been hack by clickin on Last account activity details at the bottom of the page.

 

[CapStar362]

heh, my hotmail password is longer than the address itself

 

[pasadenamd]

I think people need to use more email addresses then just one. I have one for primary use/weather alerts, another for forums/websites that need username/password, one for my photography website and one for Facebook/college stuff (I never check this one).

 

[mike_s104]

People are stupid. Don't use the same password for everything. Use complex passwords. Don't have your browser save passwords. Don't use Myspace or Facebook. People probably had the same password for one of those waste of time sites as they did with their Gmail. Someone probably got the password for one of those stupid sites and just tried their Gmail and got in. It happens all the time.

You'd be surprised (or not) of the people that when their password is reset ask "Can I just use that one?" or "Why do I have to change it?" or "Why does it ask me to change it every month?" or "What's wrong with putting it under my mousepad/keyboard/on my monitor?"

There are just some plain stupid people out there. But without those, people like me wouldn't be around.

 

[iMONITOR]

Gmail has always been risky. I don't understand why people still use it. Especially now that people know!

 

[Drowsiness]

While it's certainly possible to hack an account on-the-fly, the truth is that most of this can be attributed to weak, common or obvious passwords...clicking links in emails before verifying they're legitimate...replying to illegitimate emails...willingly providing account info to unauthorized sources...etc.

In other words, carelessness on the user's part.

Kendrick, wasn't your email/Gmail hacked back in April? I recall getting some spam from your account. I sincerely hope you weren't hit again, but I imagine you learned your lesson the first time and changed your password to something very tough to crack, and stopped clicking unknown links.

Definitely what he said.

Weak passwords are 90% of the problem as they are easily brute-forced in very little time.

People tend to use weak passwords in the worst places like in their home router, email, commerce websites and the like. Anything less than 7 alphanumeric characters is bad, with alphanumeric and symbols being the best if the system supports using symbols.

Just don't make yourself a target.

 

[Drowsiness]

Gmail has always been risky. I don't understand why people still use it. Especially now that people know!

It isn't risky. I've been using it for a very long time now (read: years) and never once had a problem.

I just use overly complex passwords for everything. Well, except stuff which I do not care about... like a lot of forums (not this one) I post on.

 

[poltergeisty]

FWIW- I was reading an older issues of TIME mag and The Numbers said 40% of social network users have submitted private info.

 

[poltergeisty]

Yep. New that from watching a haxxer convention on YouTube...

...Agent Molder was right, you know... TRUST NO ONE