[Ham-Computers] Email security question

[Jay Austin]

The thing about email is that it can appear to come from anybody. I can send
an email that appears to come from any account that I want. That is one
reason that you should not trust emails. It is also a good reason to use
some form of encryption such as PGP. In this case change the password to
something secure. Do not use a word in the dictionary. Use a passphrase and
make sure that you have at least 3 of the following; an uppercase,
lowercase, number and symbol. It is relatively simple to run a dictionary
attack against an account and come up with a password. 

73,
 
Jay Austin KE4RHN
 
Austin Computer Solutions
http:\\www.austin-computer-solutions.com
Hire a Tech, Not a Geek
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal) [mailto:aaron.hsu at nbcuni.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 3:29 PM
To: Computers (or other) used for amateur radio, communications,or
experimenting
Subject: RE: [Ham-Computers] Email security question 

Brian,

>>> Can Yahoo or whomever  trace something to that nature

First, have the owner of the account change the password, if not already
done!  Then, you can attempt to contact Yahoo to see if they can get the
login logs for the account.  Most likely, if the account is a "free"
account, they'll say "No", or it's not possible.  Yahoo and most providers
do keep logs of all logins, but the information is confidential and might
require legal means to access.  If it is a paid account and you explain the
situation, they might be more forthcomming with info.  Otherwise, good luck.


>>> or would the computer's harddrive keep a record of when that email was
last logged onto

The computer that was used to connect to Yahoo might have an updated cookie
with the login time and date, but it might not be useful as the cookie might
be updated often while using Yahoo and can't be used as a reliable
indicator.  The browser's history will show when a particular page was last
visited (limited by the tombstone date of the history), but this also might
not be reliable.  Otherwise, as Yahoo's mail is browser based, there's
nothing else the browser has or kept that would be of help.

73 and good luck,

  - Aaron, NN6O


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 10:04 PM
Subject: [Ham-Computers] Email security question 

I hope someone can give me some good info on the above subject.

For example, if someone has Web based email, such as Yahoo mail, Hotmail,
etc. and they suspect someone has figured their password out, and logged in
from another computer somewhere other than their home computer,

Can Yahoo or whomever  trace something to that nature, or would the
computer's harddrive keep a record of when that email was last logged
onto...Time, date, etc

I hope this is worded correctly and I didn't confuse anyone.

Thanks for any input you might can add, or suggestions.

73/Brian 


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