Computer Hackers

[CRB#33]

I'm just curious. How are the message boards and private messaging systems on the Internet protected from hackers and from people reading private messages?

Is this even a possiblity?

Like I said, just curious. It's amazing what mentally sick, lonely computer geniouses would try to do these days.

 

[MosMom]

They could probably read them if they wanted to. I follow a simple rule on the Internet...I don't put anything in an email, instant message, private message, etc. that I wouldn't say outloud in a public room.

 

[MadMadamMim]

I would assume by some form of encryption embedded into the software itself - although there are hackers that can 'break the code' so to speak, some encryption methods are harder to decipher than others.

 

[jfulcer]

that this forum and many others have their messages saved in a database that isn't too easy to break into. There are tons of things board developers can do to make their information secure.

Of course they could always intercept the information packets going from your computer to the boards computer, but thats a lot harder.

Besides, I would think a hacker would rather spend his time breaking into a Bank site than a Disney board....

 

[CRB#33]

LOL jfulcer, you've got a point!

It's just you never know what a person is thinking. I mean you wouldn't think all sorts of people would do what they do on a message board or have any time to do it.

 

[Kermit]

To check someone's PMs, all you'd have to do is log in as them. You'd have to be able to guess (or generate) their password to do that. I doubt that many people would take the time, unless maybe they knew you pretty well in "real life" and knew enough to have some guesses about your password. I have to confess that I've been able to hack into a few people's computers (nobody on this site) when I legitimately needed something and they weren't around. It wasn't anything that would make them mad. In fact, they were all happy that I was able to take care of the problem myself instead of making them come into work.

 

[Crissup]

Protecting public web sites and message boards from hackers is the never ending battle. Even the most insignificant board is target for a hacker attack. Sometimes the hacker's motives are to simply stuff as many feathers into their hats as possible. Othertimes, it's to leave their mark in as many places as possible. In the worst cases, it's to destroy data or steal data.

Most network administrators today know that security has to be enforced. I'm sure that Pete and Alex have a firewall in place protecting most of the DIS from attack. Any network admin who runs a corporate, or otherwise important, network that doesn't have a firewall, should either have an extremely good reason or should be replaced.

However, even the best protected networks are never 100% safe. New attacks are being developed every day and the firewall companies and virus scanning companies have to constantly work to update their product to detect and prevent these attacks.

So, to answer your question, no, your data is never completely safe from hacker's prying eyes. However, thus far, Pete, Alex and crew have done a good job of protecting the DIS and would certainly take immediate action to close any such holes they found.

One final note, the message about logging on as the user is an extremely good point. Many people choose unbelievably simple passwords, such as their children's names or other private information. If I sat down here for a couple hours and worked at it, it would probably amaze people at the number of passwords I could hack into here. When the Melissa virus was released intot he wild, it was traced back to an AOL account named RocketMan. The FBI immediately obtained the real life info from AOL and showed up at RocketMan's company and escorted him out in handcuffs. Turned out that this man had neither the technical skill nor the inclination to do such a thing. Problem was, he had never believed that anyone would be interest in his simply, uninteresting emails and never chose a secure password. His password had been compromised and later used to release the virus. After he was cleared by the FBI, he tried to return to work. Problem was, everyone in the company had heard that he was the guy who did it and had cost many of them several hours of productivity. He received death threats against himself and his family.

My point here is, choose good, secure passwords, that can not be easily guessed by others, and change them periodically. A password like "fordmustang" is not as secure as you think. It is all letters and can be cracked by good cracking software relatively easily. However, mix a few numbers, capital letters and non-alphanumeric characters in and you get "F0rdM45t@ng". Now you have a password that would be extremely difficult to crack, yet still easy for you to remember.

 

[CRB#33]

Wow Crissup! Thank you so much for your answer and your tip on the password.

You learn something new everyday!

 

[I <3 Eeyore]

Originally posted by MosMom
I follow a simple rule on the Internet...I don't put anything in an email, instant message, private message, etc. that I wouldn't say outloud in a public room.

MosMom echoes my sentiments exactly. I am always amazed at some of the things people will say in a PM with the belief that it's 'private'.

 

[betz]

MadMadamMim I would assume by some form of encryption embedded into the software itself

As far as encryption goes, this site, your log in and pm's are not encrypted.

Why should it be?
Should the DIS maintain a certificate to keep secret the highly classified information that is flowing on this board?

 

[Pin Wizard]

Thanks for the info, Crissup! Here's a thought for you...Is it possible for hackers to copy pictures that are posted on here, ie, pictures of babies, etc. I've never posted a picture of DS thinking hackers can easily copy pictures and do some bad things with them if they wanted to. Any truth to that?

Thanks!

 

[caitycaity]

ANYONE (not hackers) can copy a picture of anyone else's posted here.

but what "bad things" would they do with a picture?

 

[LisaTx]

Everyone can copy a picture that is posted anywhere on the net. All you have to do is right click on it and save it to your computer. Then you can manipulate it any way you want.

If you wanted to, you could get a picture of Webmaster Alex and put his head on a picture of Bjork.

 

[caitycaity]

LOL, Lisa!

 

[RoutemanDan]

Originally posted by LisaTx
Everyone can copy a picture that is posted anywhere on the net. All you have to do is right click on it and save it to your computer. Then you can manipulate it any way you want.

If you wanted to, you could get a picture of Webmaster Alex and put his head on a picture of Bjork.

Bwahahahahahahaha......

 

[I <3 Eeyore]

Dan, I think that's a challenge for you. *Bows to the clip art king*

 

[ckr]

"F0rdM45t@ng"... yet still easy for you to remember.

Huh? Do you know how many times I'd have to retry with that one? "Now was that capital F, capital O or Lower case f and the zero?" Oh crud!"

If a decoding program would have a hard time with it, just think what it would do to my pea brain!!! LOL!

 

[WebmasterAlex]

OK.. couple of points...
Crissup makes many good points. On passwords, one easy way to do it is to make a sentence and use the first letter of each word, you can emphasize a word for capitilization
for example: I LOVE to surf the dis
would become iLtstd
FAR better than what most people use and much easier to remember than random passwords.
If anyone thinks the webmasters are just reading PM's go over to www.vbulletin.com download a copy of the software and try it. You will discover there is no method built in to get to people's PM's.
The PM's are stored in a giant database, it's around 3gb right now, along with the close to 2.5 million posts etc..
That database exists on a linux server that does nothing else. The webmasters don't have access to it, only some technical people (not even the tech team etc). To try to extract individual PM's out of there would be a big job and would require a lot of technical knowledge.
The passwords are encrypted, there is no way to pull them out in a usable fashion, for example a fairly short password comes out looking like this:
62d3222aaf5426af18123d6268624e8d
If you think a PM has been read I have to agree that by FAR the most likely possibility is someone "guessing" your password and you can control that.
The Bjork thing has been done already...RIGHT LISA....
and by the way I have an announcement! Lisa is being moved to our new "toilet repair tech support division"

 

[LisaTx]

Who me?

I don't have a clue what you're talking about, Alex.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

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