Hackers steal your passwords easily

UNDATED - Crooks who want to break into e-mail accounts don't need geeky know-how, they just need $100.

"We are proud of our long history that has helped to build our reputation today, since 2004 we are helping people over the world to discover the truth," YourHackerz.com boasts on its site. This site promises to deliver the password to any e-mail account, excluding .gov and .edu addresses. "Hack Yahoo passwords, Hotmail passwords, AOL Passwords etc. and the list goes on and on forever."

There may, however, be little honor among thieves. Numerous complaints from former customers are posted claiming the hackers also were blackmailers "demanding I send $1,000.00 or they will {tell} the person I wanted the email password for, that I wanted to hack the password to their email account."

Hacking e-mail accounts is a federal crime, but only a misdemeanor, if no further laws are broken.

George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr, a former computer crime attorney for the Justice Department, tells The Washington Post, "The feds don't usually have the resources to investigate and prosecute misdemeanors. And part of the reason is that normally it's hard to know when an account has been compromised, because e-mail snooping doesn't leave a trace."

Peter Eckersley, staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells the Post, "This is an important point that people haven't grasped... If you have any hacker who is competent and spends the time and targets you, he's going to get you."

Still, developing some basic habits will reduce the risk posed by invasive e-mail hackers.

• Use different passwords for different clients and accounts. (Your Windows log-in should be different from your bank account and e-mail passwords.)

• Change your password regularly.

• Don't use such obvious choices as your birthday. Mix letters, numbers and symbols.

• Never share your password with others.

• Treat your secret question/answer as seriously as your password.

• Have a secondary e-mail address. If you forget your password for one account, it can be sent to the address you seldom use without passing through your (possibly hacked) primary account.

• Be careful of what you click on. If you get a greeting card from an unknown sender, don't click on it. It may contain a keylogging program or other spyware.

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