Hi all, first post, not really a computer expert and was looking for anti-hacking advice and stumbled upon this page!

Just wanted to know how easy or difficult it is to hack into a yahoo mail account, if you are using the same PC. I mean, if you were living with someone, is it easier for them to hack into ur yahoo mail account?

I don't need steps to hacking or be taught how to hack!!, just some general comments would be greatly appreciated!!

If you tell the Yahoo site to remember your login, then it stores a "permanent" cookie (I think; could be something else) on your computer. If someone w/ access to your computer searched it, they would probably be able to find the cookie fairly easily. I don't believe the cookie is encrypted by default.

If you have seperate user accounts set up, then it becomes a little more difficult, especially if you have a login that decrypts your account; I believe Win2k and XP are able to do this by changing the settings in the control panel or user accounts area.

If you don't tell Yahoo to remember you, then all it keeps is a "temporary" cookie on your system. However, we all know that these temporary cookies usually stick around until you manually purge them. Opera browser has a setting to delete all cookies when you close it and the others may too; otherwise you might want to run a cookie cleaner whenever you're done browsing.

There might be other ways of getting your p-word, but I would imagine these are the easiest.

depends on your browser settings. should always sign in using secure mode and never say yes to saving passwords for autocomplete. if you have, then assume u'r room mate has snooped into ur mail account. also make up a really hard password. like first letters of words of ur favorite line and add some digits to the end, for example: "I hate you so go away." so password would be: Ihysga and then add first or last digits of your randall's card number or something.

I'd have to agree with what has already been suggested to you in this thread and I would like to suggest one thing myself.

Be aware of spyware. If your house/room mate is computer savvy and really wants your passwords - for some sick reason, there is nothing to stop them really. They can install just about anything (if they have the administrator rights) and you are powerless to stop them snooping.

It all boils down to "trust" in this situation.

Thanks for the time guys! and another question, if I installed a spyware tools, such as Spybot Search and Destroy, then can I remove the spyware already installed? or does Spybot S&D have to be installed prior to the spyware being installed?

And how easy is it to get passwords on yahoo mail assumming there is no spyware?

Is it like in the movies where they just hook a small box to something, and it automatically deciphers the password for u? or do you have to know computer programming language to do it? Also, is it easy for ppl to hide spyware...I mean, if its on the computer I'm using, I could look for the thing just as easily right?

Thanks again for all usefull comments!!

Unfortunately the powers of spyware have no enemies, well, i'm still to meet one.
I did an experiment a lil while ago testing this theory of mine. I had just bought a brand new pc, with absolutely nothing on it, no spyware. So the first thing I do is install Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Internet Security, which put up a firewall. On top of that I installed Spybot S+D to regularly check for spyware.

So ok I went to sites I shouldn't go to, but at the end of the day I had a ton of spyware crap downloaded onto my nice new harddrive.
What to do, what to do. I surfed and found all the 'latest' internet security solutions and spyware removers and not one could effectively get rid of all the spyware on my pc. Arrrgg!!! I really hate spyware. Once your computer is infected, it is always infected. Well, our friend Format is always available to combat infections, but that's pretty much it.
So I just stick to one simple rule now: don't visited sites you know you shouldnt, and nothing bad will come to you.
peace
Rich

Spyware killers can be used after an infection is already made; realistically, it almost impossible to not have an infection before installing it. As long as you keep the update signatures current, you shouldn't have a problem. However, you really should use as many different version of spyware killers, because not all of them find the same problems.

In addition to spyware, there's also keyboard loggers that will keep a log of everything you type. They can be either software (trojans and certain spyware) or hardware (a dongle that sits between your keyboard and your computer). This way, it doesn't matter how secure your password is or if you have encryption running; the person can just look through the keyboard log and see exactly what you did. Heck, if someone really wanted to, he could create a bogus website (a la phishing) and collect your information when you log in; if he gave you a error message and did a redirect to the real login screen, you'd think you just typed in your password wrong.

Easiest thing to remember: no matter how secure you think you are, there's someone who is trying to break it. It's only a matter of time. The best you can do is make it so difficult that the person moves on to easier targets. With your roommate, maybe the best thing to do is move or get a new one.