Is it really that easy to get someone's password?

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Summary: We'll look at some ways that someone else could access your account.

It appears that someone has figured out the password to my Myspace account and has logged in and sent e-mails from the account as well. I have two questions: First is there any possible way to track down the person who is doing this (mind you they did not change my password)? Is it really that easy to obtain someone's password on a site like this? I do not use a public computer and change my password regularly.

There are a couple of things going on here. Yes, it's possible that you got hacked, but it's also possible that you didn't.

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It's quite possible that you didn't get hacked. It's quite possible that someone is impersonating you in one way or another - this is a common practice with email borne viruses and spam that could possibly apply to other mail systems as well. (See my article Someone's sending from my email address! How do I stop them?! for more information on that scenario.)

The good news is that, no, it's not that easy to get someone's password from such a site. Possible, perhaps, but typically very, very difficult.

More commonly, these kinds of exploits are the result of poor password selection, so that someone can easily guess your password, or by trusting someone you shouldn't have with your password. And, as you already indicated, public computers are also a possibility. For that matter, any computer you use that someone else has access to could be a security risk if you allow it to save your passwords for you.

Unfortunately once it happens, it's nearly impossible for us "mere mortals" to track down the culprit. It really depends on how the service, such as Myspace, operates. It's possible that they could track it down, but by that I mean only that the technology might support it. Whether or not the service keeps that information or even uses it is unknown. Even if they do, they are probably not very willing to simply hand it out for claims like this. More often than not, privacy concerns might require that laws have been broken, law enforcement get involved, and perhaps even a court order be required to get the information from the service.

My advice is to get in touch with the service's support contact and see if and how they might be able to help. My expectations, however, would be that they won't be able, or perhaps willing, to do much.

Related:

• Someone's sending from my email address! How do I stop them?! Email spoofing is rampant. Spammers often send email that looks like it came from you. And there's little you can do about it.

• How do I keep my computer safe on the internet? Internet Safety is difficult and yet critical. Here are the seven key steps to internet safety - steps to keep your computer safe on the internet.

• How can I keep my email safe from sniffing? We'll look at what sniffing is and ways to avoid it.

Article C2426 - September 25, 2005