“Never tell everything you know…” - Roger H. Lincoln
Unauthorized Access & Hacking: Access means gaining entry into, instructing or communicating with the logical, arithmetical or memory function resources of a computer, computer system or computer network. Unauthorized access thus means any kind of access without the permission of either the rightful owner or the person in charge.
Email hacking is an offense U/S 66 C of the IT Act 2008 – “Punishment for identity theft” with imprisonment upto 3 years and fine upto 1 lacs.
Hackers Weapons:
Key-loggers: They record each and every stroke that a user types on a specific computer’s keyboard. Key-loggers can be either hardware or software.
Phishing: Phishing involves use of fake login pages, to harvest the user credentials.
Unsecured Networks: Like open/ public/ free Wi-Fi networks. They are used to sniff data packets using Man In The Middle attacks.
Important Case Details: You should provide the following details to police for proper investigation.
Hacked e-mail ID
Self attested government approved ID card
Last successful login and last unsuccessful login attempt (approx date and time)
Phone number linked to the hacked mail
Emails added as recovery email
Name of Device/ Operating System/ Browser used for last successful login with date and time
Investigation Procedure in Brief: Formal request is sent to the concerned email legal authority to –
Block the hacked email ID and
Get digital fingerprints
Granting access back to the original user
Dos & Dont’s:
Password Management: Never share login credentials with anyone. Password sharing is the main reason for email account breaches.
Key-loggers: You should detect key-loggers by pressing - Ctrl + Alt + Shift + A to Z. Also, use online keyboards to bypass them.
Phishing Pages: Always look carefully at the URL address to detect phishing pages.
Unsecured Network: Beware of free/ public/ open Wi-Fi. Use VPN and refrain from sites requiring login while using open networks.
