One
of the things that us, informatics, are constantly asked for, is if it
is possible to steal the e – mail accounts of your friends, colleagues,
etc. Most people think that it is possible because they have seen it
through the internet, or someone told them that they have downloaded a
program to steal Hotmail passwords but he or she does not know how to
use it. This is because, this whole issue of stealing e – mail
passwords, whether they are
from Hotmail, Yahoo or G Mail, through
certain software or programs, are completely false.
Besides,
there must be certain precaution when entering to those sites that say
that they can allow you to steal passwords through software, because
they usually contain viruses.
Stealing passwords though programs
is not possible, because companies with e – mail services, such as:
Hotmail, Yahoo or G Mail, have made a huge investment in their nets
security; so, the only thing that can be true when stealing a password,
is that is has been due to a lack of attention from the account’s user.
There are many the methods used to decode the mails, among the most used ones we find the following:
The
method of the virtual postcard: The method of the virtual postcard is
one of the most used and effective ones, especially for those who are
expecting someone to send them a postcard, because they work by sending a
postcard from web sites , love poems or other kind of deceiving, such a
free cell phone offer, free iPhones and all sorts of fake messages from
Facebook or videos from Youtube.
But, to be able to open these
postcards, you are going to be asked to introduce your password, because
your session has been closed; in that way, the victim writes his or her
password and never realizes that it is all tricks, while the one, who
is stealing the password, obtains it. So you must take care with these
web sites ,besides remember that is ilegal in many countries.
The
method of the executable file sent through Messenger: This method
usually happens when people do not count with an antivirus software,
because most of them easily detect it. It works in the following way:
someone sends you an instant message, inviting you to play, to visit
some web site or to download some file, when you open it, you will find a
new window in which you read that the session is over and that you have
to introduce your password again, when you open it up, your password
will be sent to the one who sent you the message, and he or she will be
able to open your e – mail account.
The last method, and a very effective one if you know how to use it, is : The
social engineering:
Commonly, experts in informatics security are able to manipulate any user’s information through some sort of deceiving or trick. Social engineering is based in the fact that in any system, users are the weak link. With the aid of certain methods, social engineers can take advantage of people’s reactions, depending on the situation, to give them the information they want to, even though this type of threat is usually very known by those people who store valuable information such as bank accounts or accesses to some restricted resources, because they are trained to know these type of acts.