So, my Gmail got hacked.

Richard M · 16-04-2010, 20:52

So what, you say?

Well, it involved a spammer using my entire address book to send spam to all of them but kept the addresses in the To: field
The email addresses of several high class escorts were also in this which I had contacted previously (do NOT assume things here, read the full story).

Then, the emails were also sent to my boss... and the IT director because the IT group email was also in my address book.

Read here for the full story:
http://www.digit4l.net/2010/04/the-gmail-hack/ (contains some mild profanity, be warned)

This is 100% true, it happened today, and I'm currently having a frigging drink or 3.

colin25 · 16-04-2010, 21:08

I read the story...on a positive note, it was a good story to read, had me on tenterhooks until the end.

Have one on me

Ps is michelle a red head, I've always had a thing for..oh well..anyway lol

Raistlin · 16-04-2010, 21:16

I like your theories on how it happened:

Quote:

My entry into the MOD contained my email address, this was later stolen (yes, from the MOD of all places).

Ok, so they got your email from a stolen hard drive. Ummm, so how does that help them, they still need the password yes? Also, whilst I hate to be a pedant I feel I must point out that the drive wasn't stolen from the MOD but from one of their contractors (EDS).

Quote:

My original Warcraft account was hacked and this used the same email address to log in.

Ok, so they got your email from a hacked Warcraft account. Ummm, so how does that help them, they still need the password yes?

Quote:

The Mozilla Weave security problem that I had reported to Mozilla themselves.

Ok, so they got your email through a Mozilla Weave security problem. Ummm, so how does that help them, they still need the password yes?

Forgive me if I've missed something, but nothing here explains how they got the password for your account. Which they would have needed to log in to GMail.

Was this the only account this password was used on? Was it sufficiently complex to negate a brute force attack against it? If yes is the answer to both of those then you have most likely been compromised in a way that you have yet to discover.

Like I say, I can't see how any of the scenarios you describe in isolation could lead to the situation you're writing about here.

Richard M · 16-04-2010, 21:23

I don't know, but it's possible they were actually monitoring my email since the WoW hack.
With access to somebody's personal email account, you can pretty much take over someone's life.
Sad I know, we have invested too much into the intertubes.

The only other thing could be this but I've looked and can't find anything:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02...n_google_buzz/

I've also checked for rootkits on my current install and can't find anything so the hack must pre-date Feb 2010.

**Paul M** · 16-04-2010, 21:24

I got your spam mail.

Raistlin · 16-04-2010, 21:25

Spammers don't 'monitor' email accounts, they don't make any money that way. The get them, they use them straight away and for as long as they can, and then they discard them before they're traced.

They're a rapidly bought/sold commodity because they have a very short useful life.

Richard M · 16-04-2010, 21:28

Quote:

Spammers don't 'monitor' email accounts, they don't make any money that way.

I agree, but how do you know how this works?
Maybe my login details were on some huge list that it took them 2 months to get through?

Raistlin · 16-04-2010, 21:31

'Login Details'

Possibly. But they still had to have had your password in the first place. The question you need to be thinking about is how did they get that?

I think the other point I'm trying to make here is that your GMail account wasn't 'hacked', it was accessed using legitimate credentials which were obtained through means as yet unknown.

Richard M · 16-04-2010, 21:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob M

'Login Details'

Possibly. But they still had to have had your password in the first place. The question you need to be thinking about is how did they get that?

I think the other point I'm trying to make here is that your GMail account wasn't 'hacked', it was accessed using legitimate credentials which were obtained through means as yet unknown.

Maybe.
I guess I will never know and TBH, I'm really not in the mood for a debate - I nearly lost my job today.

Raistlin · 16-04-2010, 22:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard M

I nearly lost my job today.

For the fact that you can say 'almost' I am genuinely glad.

I'm not trying to goad or bait you into an argument or anything, I see a lot of people in my line of work make an assumption about what caused a compromise - that leads them to fix what they think is wrong, rather than what was actually wrong, they then get turned over again and then the pooh really hits the fan.

If it came across as overly critical I apologise, it wasn't intended as such.

Richard M · 16-04-2010, 22:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob M

For the fact that you can say 'almost' I am genuinely glad.

I'm not trying to goad or bait you into an argument or anything, I see a lot of people in my line of work make an assumption about what caused a compromise - that leads them to fix what they think is wrong, rather than what was actually wrong, they then get turned over again and then the pooh really hits the fan.

If it came across as overly critical I apologise, it wasn't intended as such.

No worries mate.

I'm now using Hushmail over SSL for mail.
I'm seriously considering giving up gaming now (because of having to run Windows) although that will affect my personal life and that really really annoys me.

Rich

Charlie_Bubble · 17-04-2010, 02:19

My gmail account got hacked about 2 weeks ago. Basically I woke up, turned on my PC to check my mail and I had some messages from friends asking if I really thought they needed viagra.

Two emails had been sent to everyone in my address book advertising some viagra sites. There was no actual sent mail in my account, so they had somehow got the ability to send to all my contacts.

Luckily, I don't have any embarrasing contacts in my account, but I do have people from work and from my family. I can understand your panic at your realisation of who would have received the emails and what other addresses were visible to others.

I have no idea how they did it, but I changed my password that morning just in case they came back.

**Damien** · 19-04-2010, 10:48

At the bottom of your G-Mail page there is a line that shows your 'Last Account Activity' and next to that is a link to a page called details. This will display a list of IP addresses last used to access the account. Might be to find the IP address and location? Not helpful as it's probably spoofed but might give a clue.

**Stuart** · 19-04-2010, 11:08

Just throwing out random speculation here, but could it have been a virus and/or trojan? Gmail is used by enough people that I'd be surprised if there weren't several viruses devoted to harvesting ids and passwords for it.

Richard M · 20-04-2010, 06:30

Well it seems that I'm not the only one:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/...e40be5e6&hl=en
900+ other people have posted in that thread.

And today Slashdot have this story saying that the source code to the Google login system has been stolen:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/04...-System-Stolen
Coincidence?