Gmail Issues
I was minding my own business this morning at Starbucks when I got a text message from a friend of mine. She asked me where I was and if I was on Gmail or FaceBook. I thought she just wanted to chat, so I pulled up gmail. To my shock, there was a bastos (vulgar) status message on my gmail chat. Whoever did this was apparently saying really vulgar things to my female friend.
I later realized all my email messages had been erased.
I'm guessing the problem is with SM Manila's wifi, but I don't know.
I don't think my computer has been compromised (I use a Mac). I also checked my gmail account and there are only two IP addresses listed (the one here for my place and the IP address at SM).
It seems like my gmail account is just fine. I've had no trouble logging in, and I've changed my passwords just to be sure.
Really sad that some losers don't have anything better to do with their time. Anyway, please let me know if any of you have anything strange happen related to email/chats.
If any of you tech geeks out there can explain what happened, please let me know.
Update: It seems what happened to me is know as a Sidejacking attack. Here's a link which describes it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFNFa-48lpI
Quoting from Wikipedia:
"Increasingly, e-mail spam today is sent via 'zombie networks,' networks of virus- or worm-infected personal computers in homes and offices around the globe; many modern worms install a backdoor which allows the spammer access to the computer and use it for malicious purposes. This complicates attempts to control the spread of spam, as in many cases the spam doesn't even originate from the spammer."
This can happen for both email and IM, whatever email provider. It seems to be the case for you, unfortunately, though I'm not sure how that can be fixed. Have it checked personally by a member of the Geek Squad or something. That's what we advise our customers when they call us about a similar issue (call center agent here), but we also ask them to make a report to our abuse department to preempt the deactivation of their account due to spamming (because again it's not really them doing it but the worm or whatever it is).
Hope this helps at least in enlightening ya on the issue.
do you log in with https?
Here's the link, just in case: Enabling the HTTPS Setting
Thanks, guys. I think everything is OK now.
The best I can tell, he somehow was able to hack into SM's wifi and mess around with my account for a few minutes. Once I pulled up my google page I was immediately able to change my status message and take control again. Sadly, he erased all of my emails.
I've since changed my password. Nothing else has been bothered.
I'm pretty sure my computer is not infected with a trojan since it is a mac.
I'm going to look into the https thing.
hi kevs, i've also noticed that you posted your gmail account on your blog with the ABOUT ME/CONTACT. I've learned from other sources that if you want to display your email account you should not use the "@" sign, cause some viruses target the "@" sign as a way to flood your email accounts with spam and other trash, I also had the misfortune of leaving my yahoo account with a forum i visited and since then, i've been receiving a lot of trash in my yahoo account. you can replace the "@" sign temporarily with "[at]". i hope this helps.
valski
You are right, Val. I removed the email from my blogspot profile.