WILD CARD

Wild Card
So this story is from a few years back.
I had AOL DSL at the time so the service included the ability to have multiple screen names. We let other family members have these names because one of them can be online while we are online via DSL. It allowed one dial up access at a time, so each family member who had dial up had to work with each other so they didn’t boot the other family members who might be online. But this is a different story. So my niece had a screen name through our account and she had computer troubles. The person she had fix her computer had her save her password for her internet so he could see what was wrong. The person logged in and changed her password and then saved the new password so she didn’t know it had been changed. He then used his own computer with her screen name and AOL service to launch an email attack on people and companies. AOL shut down our internet service and locked out all of our screen names because of the attacks. We were able to regain our service and lock out that screen name so the person could not continue. My niece was able to figure out who did when she was told by AOL the times the assaults were launched. She was at work and her boy friend and his buddy (the computer repair guy) were either hanging out or playing online games at the buddies’ house. These attacks were upwards of 1000 emails sent to others at one time to fill inboxes and overload servers. AOL didn’t say that any of the emails were threatening but several were offensive and graphic in nature. Lesson learned is that when you have passwords saved on your computer and you let other people have access to your computer you run a risk of then gaining control of your password protected information or services. In this instance the predator changed the saved password so the user didn’t even know it had been changed. Then he was able to do his damage when he was ready and she was the one blamed for the problem. This was a few years back when this kind of stuff was happening (pre 9/11/2001). So to protect my self I always change my passwords that I have saved before and then after I have someone work on my computers. I also try not to let people I do not know use my computers, because someone can hack into my computer and do damage later. This holds true for those who use internet communities or sites that you log in to use. Someone can access what you have on MySpace or Face Book and make changes to your page and mess with your friends’ pages. My daughter made the mistake years ago of accessing her Neopets web page from another person’s computer and either didn’t log out or let them see her password so they stole all of her points and pets. So; just as a note internet security is not just a spam blocker or the little lock in the lower corner or virus software it is how much information you are willing to give out and how you protect yourself by your actions. EBAY warned users about ghost pages that look like the EBAY log in page but they are not so you are giving someone else your information. The email tells of things to look for like the www. Address should be there site and you will only be directed to log in pages through certain actions so if you are directed and have not done one of these functions you should leave EBAY and return through the front page.

Casey