Spam Purgatory

Cyber-criminals have found a way to use the information provided on social networking sites to hack into different user accounts. The type of information provided on most social websites is just what cyber-criminals need to crack passwords and steal confidential information.

The first step in the Domino hack is to obtain the e-mail address of a user. E-mail addresses can be obtained on social networking sites under users’ profiles; they can also be obtained from forums, blog comments and many other places on the internet. Guessing the corporate e-mail addresses of staff members is another way of harvesting addresses. For example if “John Black” is the Marketing director for Twitter we could assume that his e-mail address is johnb@twitter.com or jblack@twitter.com.

After obtaining the e-mail addresses of potential victims, hackers will use the other information provided on social networking sites to obtain the e-mail account passwords. This information includes the Date of Birth, hometown, school name, spouse’s name, children’s names etc. It is a fact that most internet surfers use the aforementioned type of information as passwords for their online accounts; so all a hacker needs to do is guess the password according to the extra information provided on the social website.

To quicken the password guessing process, hackers can use the Dictionary or Brute Force attack. This type of attack involves trying every possible name, number sequence, code or combination until the right password is discovered. If the Dictionary attack doesn’t work, hackers may attempt an e-mail account reset, provided they have enough information and the potential victim has not added an extra security measures.

Once a hacker has full access to your e-mail address, you can only expect the worst. Your e-mail account could be used to send out spam, or the hacker could go through your e-mails to see which external websites you are registered with then hack into those accounts and reset the passwords. All in all, something as simple as your e-mail address can initiate a process that will leave you down and out thus causing a domino effect.

To avoid becoming a victim of the Domino hack, take note of the following security measures:

• Ensure that you use complicated passwords that include both numbers and letters;
• If possible add capital letters as well.
• Change your passwords on a regular basis.
• Always add a secondary e-mail address under your account settings.
• Be cautious of what type of information you add on social networking websites.

Popularity: 11%