Preventing MSN / Bebo Hacking

[Guest]

My son appears to have a recurring problem with someone hacking into his msn
account & Bebo and then changing the content with malicious material.
It would appear to be a common problem at his school and the person
resposible is thought to be a pupil who is hacking into many other peoples
accounts.
My son follows the usual rules of using a address and password which isnt
obvious and uses numbers & characters etc.
He believes the person doing this is able to aquire someones msn address and
somehow use a program to find what the appropriate password is.
At the moment he is unable to access his Bebo account as he informs me that
the person has changed his password so he cannot gain access.
I would therefore appreciate any help or advice on the following points -
1/ Is it possible for him to gain access of his own Bebo if someone has now
changed his password.
2/ I had suggested that he perhaps change his password on a daily basis but
he informs me this is a very time consuming process. What additional measures
can he do to prevent his msn and Bebo accounts being hacked ?
3/ Is there any possible way the person responsible can be found and
reported ? Apparently they have used peoples accounts to make false threats
etc using the victims friends list.

Thanks in advance - Eos

 

[neil]

Perhaps there may be a way to recover a forgotten password. It usually
follows the form of asking to reset or have a temp password sent to the
email address used when the account was setup. After that whether he can
protect the new password by not using it at school only time will tell. This
needs to be reported to bebo & msn and to his school, if he suspects another
pupil is responsible. Perhaps someone is running a keylogger on a PC at
school in which case the IT dept should check it.

Neil

 

[Guest]

My son appears to have a recurring problem with someone hacking into his msn
account & Bebo and then changing the content with malicious material.
It would appear to be a common problem at his school and the person
resposible is thought to be a pupil who is hacking into many other peoples
accounts.
My son follows the usual rules of using a address and password which isnt
obvious and uses numbers & characters etc.
He believes the person doing this is able to aquire someones msn address and
somehow use a program to find what the appropriate password is.
At the moment he is unable to access his Bebo account as he informs me that
the person has changed his password so he cannot gain access.
I would therefore appreciate any help or advice on the following points -
1/ Is it possible for him to gain access of his own Bebo if someone has now
changed his password.
2/ I had suggested that he perhaps change his password on a daily basis but
he informs me this is a very time consuming process. What additional measures
can he do to prevent his msn and Bebo accounts being hacked ?
3/ Is there any possible way the person responsible can be found and
reported ? Apparently they have used peoples accounts to make false threats
etc using the victims friends list.

Thanks in advance - Eos

Does this machine owned by your son or the Uni?.
First you should check the machine for software that can retrieve all
passwords on this machine?, which I guess a smart (thinking) kid got it from
the internet and getting the passwords for all machines He/She manage to
install it on, or perhaps a Keylogger program installed and each time your
son write or log-in his password shown to the other party in clear text.
First I will try to Inform the Uni IT Department to discuss first with them,
they will be able to track the traffic down and nail the Son/Dau of Gun down
and clear your son from any wrong doing caused by this Profile Theft.
Download these tools to see the running processes in real-time and you
can search them to make sure they are Legit.
"Process Explorer for Windows v10.21"
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx
"AutoRuns for Windows v8.61 By Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx

 

[Guest]

Thanks for reply but just to clarify the problem is not with using the
schools pc's so isn't really thought to be something like a keylogger program
etc.
My son is getting the problem using his new laptop which isnt lent to anyone
else. I guess I mention the school part as it appears to effect quite a
number of people at the same school and maybe a fellow pupil as he appears to
know quite a lot about where people live and what thay do etc.
Although quite a few pupils appear to be plagued by this problem person, I
guess its not really a school matter as such.
He seems to think that once this person has your account address, they are
able to use some form of program to find details of your password. They are
able to find your address in the first instance by accessing the friends list
of any 'victim'.

Hope this helps - Eos

 

[Guest]

Thanks for reply but just to clarify the problem is not with using the
schools pc's so isn't really thought to be something like a keylogger program
etc.
My son is getting the problem using his new laptop which isnt lent to anyone
else. I guess I mention the school part as it appears to effect quite a
number of people at the same school and maybe a fellow pupil as he appears to
know quite a lot about where people live and what thay do etc.
Although quite a few pupils appear to be plagued by this problem person, I
guess its not really a school matter as such.
He seems to think that once this person has your account address, they are
able to use some form of program to find details of your password. They are
able to find your address in the first instance by accessing the friends list
of any 'victim'.

Hope this helps - Eos

 

[John McGaw]

Thanks for reply but just to clarify the problem is not with using the
schools pc's so isn't really thought to be something like a keylogger program
etc.
My son is getting the problem using his new laptop which isnt lent to anyone
else. I guess I mention the school part as it appears to effect quite a
number of people at the same school and maybe a fellow pupil as he appears to
know quite a lot about where people live and what thay do etc.
Although quite a few pupils appear to be plagued by this problem person, I
guess its not really a school matter as such.
He seems to think that once this person has your account address, they are
able to use some form of program to find details of your password. They are
able to find your address in the first instance by accessing the friends list
of any 'victim'.

Hope this helps - Eos

Have you considered that even a "new laptop which isnt lent to anyone"
could have a keylogger or other malware on it? All it takes is one slip
for such a thing to happen, especially if one is prone to downloading
unknown files from the internet or "borrowing" and installing software
from others. I've had to clean the computer of a friend's son twice now
because of his blind acceptance of "cool" (or whatever the current term
is) software from his friends at school. The usual claim is that the
disk is some popular game or other "cracked" bootleg software but even
if it is what it claims to be the "crack" program most often has several
payloads attached which do not treat the computer with much respect.

Just something to keep in mind...

 

[RalfG]

If the laptop is being used to access the school's network then it is
vulnerable to attack from other computers on the school LAN. If using
wireless access to the LAN, especially without encryption, then his account
passwords are being broadcast every time he logs in to them and even
somebody not logged into the network could conceivably get his information.
The perpetrator would have to be within the RF broadcast range of his, and
the other victim's, computers. If he doesn't connect wirelessly to a school
LAN you might still want to check that his wireless adapter isn't left
running in Ad Hoc mode and unwittingly connecting his computer to other
computers within range.

 

[orion6OF9]

I would make sure that the firewall is properly set on his machine( althought
windows firewall is not to be trusted, go get zonealarm its free and it works
great ), also have the antivirus updated, there could be some ports open in
his machine, make sure that for the wireless there is an encryption key set
and that he also has an SSID enabled and implemented, there are some tools
that you can use to close the ports but I am not sure that they are free,
make a research and you will probably find some, hope this suggestion helps.

If the laptop is being used to access the school's network then it is
vulnerable to attack from other computers on the school LAN. If using
wireless access to the LAN, especially without encryption, then his account
passwords are being broadcast every time he logs in to them and even
somebody not logged into the network could conceivably get his information.
The perpetrator would have to be within the RF broadcast range of his, and
the other victim's, computers. If he doesn't connect wirelessly to a school
LAN you might still want to check that his wireless adapter isn't left
running in Ad Hoc mode and unwittingly connecting his computer to other
computers within range.

Thanks for reply but just to clarify the problem is not with using the
schools pc's so isn't really thought to be something like a keylogger

[quoted text clipped - 69 lines]

 

[neil]

Has he tried to recover or request a new password via the websites
mentioned. Another user should not be able to "find" your password from the
website user name. Is he sure he is using the correct web address to access
the account and is not being duped into using some shortcut or other that is
actually ripping off his details.
Carry out a full virus and spyware checks, AVG Free has both items and have
good reports in the PC mags I have read.

hope that helps, let us know what happens
Neil

 

[Guest]

hey can anybody help me please?
somebody has hacked into my msn and changed my password and secret question
and i really need my email because i have loads of details on it and
important contacts does anybody know of a way i could get on it? i dont know
who the hacker is but i really need it. at the moment im using my sisters
email address but she has nobody on it that i know of and my contacts are
really important for work and things
please somebody help me

samantha

 

[Guest]

hey can anybody help me please?
somebody has hacked into my msn and changed my password and secret question
and i really need my email because i have loads of details on it and
important contacts does anybody know of a way i could get on it? i dont know
who the hacker is but i really need it.
please somebody help me

samantha

 

[Curt Christianson]

Contact MSN for help:

https://accountservices.msn.com/uiresetpw.srf?lc=1033&id=1184

--
HTH,
Curt

Windows Support Center
www.aumha.org
Practically Nerded,...
http://dundats.mvps.org/Index.htm

| hey can anybody help me please?
| somebody has hacked into my msn and changed my password and secret
question
| and i really need my email because i have loads of details on it and
| important contacts does anybody know of a way i could get on it? i dont
know
| who the hacker is but i really need it.
| please somebody help me
|
| samantha

 

[Guest]

thnxs il do that now