how embarrassing

[OogyWaWa]

well, over the weekend someone(thing) took over my gmail and managed to get one email out to my entire contact list before i could regain control.

any ideas on how it could have taken over my account? my password was stupidly short and i've changed it since then, but i've scanned for viruses, etc. and have had nothing turn up...

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: OogyWaWa
any ideas on how it could have taken over my account?

my password was stupidly short

^ that's one possibility, especially if the password was a dictionary word. Our accountant at work recently mentioned that he uses the password golf for most sites... yikes! :shocked:

 

[OogyWaWa]

yah, it is a dictionary word. but, would it have been some bot crawling accounts and guessing random shit? there had to have been some site i went to or something i got that read my email address...

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: OogyWaWa
yah, it is a dictionary word. but, would it have been some bot crawling accounts and guessing random shit? there had to have been some site i went to or something i got that read my email address...

Not really.

There are programs that connect to sites like gmail and just start going from account to account. It isn't hard to write a program that will create both the email addresses and passwords to try .

NEVER use a dictionary word.
If you have trouble remembering longer passwords then use something like Lastpass.
https://lastpass.com/

 

[Chiefcrowe]

wow that is crazy! did you ask him if he changed it?

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: OogyWaWa
any ideas on how it could have taken over my account?

my password was stupidly short

^ that's one possibility, especially if the password was a dictionary word. Our accountant at work recently mentioned that he uses the password golf for most sites... yikes! :shocked:

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Chiefcrowe
wow that is crazy! did you ask him if he changed it?

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: OogyWaWa
any ideas on how it could have taken over my account?

my password was stupidly short

^ that's one possibility, especially if the password was a dictionary word. Our accountant at work recently mentioned that he uses the password golf for most sites... yikes! :shocked:

I told him dictionary-based passwords are a huge risk, and gave him tips on what makes a strong password, e.g. HoleIn1!. But he's an old geezer, not sure if I got through to him or not.

When I started as a basic I.T. guy at a non-profit agency with an NT4.0 domain and about 60-70 desktops, guess what the Domain Admin account's password was, by the way? Oh yes, the timeless classic... it was password

When I left there, it was something along the lines of ((AMD_Athlon64_X2)) :evil: