On 13-Jul-2010, at 7:19 AM, Rony wrote:
Hello,
I have come across people who know people who can easily crack into facebook and gmail accounts. There are computer courses run by some reputed colleges in Mumbai where hacking (sic) is taught as a subject and those students can crack others' accounts. They don't need access to the other users' machines. Simply give them a user id and they crack it. They do it as ethical testing for friends.
How much of this is actually true and how easy is it to crack gmail and facebook accounts without the user's machine being involved?
Gmail security is very strong. Without having the password, you can not get into gmail. At best, it would be social engineering - getting the password by trying out standard passwords like name (surprising how many people do that), birth dates, etc. The other way is pfishing. A third way is to use the "forgot password" option, provided he has access to the alternate email id or knows the questions / answers saved as a part of the security setup.
About FB, i do not know.
Why not ask the students what they can do ? Give them your email id and see if they get through.
-- Regards,
Rony.
GNU/Linux ! No Viruses No Spyware Only Freedom.