Or perhaps I should say “are you willing to help me understand”!
To keep it brief, I am under suspicion of “blackmail”. I put this inverted comas as its not blackmail in the legal sense, but rather the moral sense. I very much doubt whether I will be able to clear my name with the person who believes this of me, but now its become important for me to understand how these events happened for my own peace of mind. This may also help me discover the real culprit, or at least narrow the field, but that is a secondary consideration.
I have limited understanding of IT, but this experience has been a huge learning curve!I have got a great deal of information through the net and from browsing forums such as this, but my limited understanding of programing language is holding me back. I have also considered buying in technical help, but my purse doesn’t stretch to it. So I wondered if anyone here could/would help answer a few basic questions for me.
I understand that is it possible to crack email passwords. There appear to be two methods talked about. Am I right in assuming that the only way to crack a pop email account’s password is to have access to the pc from which they have been read? Either downloaded on to that pc or read in the accounts webmail? Or if the pop account also has a webmail access, could the password be cracked without accessing the physical machine? In this particular case we can rule out social engineering!
When hackers talk about “owning” a machine, does this mean they can read files stored there? Or simply mean they can leave scripts which will interfere with the functioning of the machine? What (in general terms) can they do and not do once they are in?
To get access to a machine they need an IP address. Could they get the IP address they need from an email header for example? And if so, can they then hack a machine from anywhere?
I also have reason to believe someone piggy backed off my wireless connection (yes it was unsecured at the time, yes, silly me, just one of the many things I have learned since!)I know to do this they must have been physically close, and the two things MAY be just a coincidence… Linksys tells me they couldn’t have accessed my pc whilst doing this, but I have heard reports recently on the radio that have said people can.. what should I believe?
Finally, while trying to help me narrow my “suspect list” it would be helpful for me to know what level of IT knowledge would be needed
to know how to do anything like all of this? As I say I am NOT an expert in any way, but have a good basic understanding of pc’s. I have found a lot of information on “how to hack” on the net, but many of the (I assume) programing terms mean I can’t follow the steps! So would I be right in believing that a hacker needs to understand programing to do it? Or would anyone with enough patience be able to find a “hackers manual” and follow it?
One thing I have looked into is the possibility of a keylogger installed on my pc, and have run anti logger programs to no avail. So I guess I should rule out that option, unless anyone knows better…
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my questions. If you have any of your own before you feel able to comment, please just ask. This is very important to me now.
Thank you