I've been air-cracked!

MariMel

Just found out I've been air-cracked.
Was posting on a forum I use and a minute later a post appears directly after my comment.....but written by a man!
As I post a lot everyone twigged it wasnt me and I immediately changed my password.
Now I am worried about all my accounts, facebook, gmail, hotmail, banking etc etc.
I figured out who it was that had air-cracked my account from what they posted. Theyd obviously forgotten they were under my profile and posted a comment about themselves. He told me my password was easy and to just change it!!! My passwords always have a strong setting and are so ridiculously random that I dont even know how I come up with them.

Just how easy is it for someone to do that?
This person had access to my laptop a few weeks ago.
Would that be when it happened or could he have just done it tonight from his own house which is what he is saying?

I want to make sense of when it could have been done.

Sulla Felix

MariMel wrote: »

Just found out I've been air-cracked.
Was posting on a forum I use and a minute later a post appears directly after my comment.....but written by a man!
As I post a lot everyone twigged it wasnt me and I immediately changed my password.
Now I am worried about all my accounts, facebook, gmail, hotmail, banking etc etc.
I figured out who it was that had air-cracked my account from what they posted. Theyd obviously forgotten they were under my profile and posted a comment about themselves. He told me my password was easy and to just change it!!! My passwords always have a strong setting and are so ridiculously random that I dont even know how I come up with them.

Just how easy is it for someone to do that?
This person had access to my laptop a few weeks ago.
Would that be when it happened or could he have just done it tonight from his own house which is what he is saying?

I want to make sense of when it could have been done.

Do you save passwords in your browser?

srsly78

Aircrack is something for hacking wifi... Not really relevant to this. Unless he lives next door and use use rubbish wifi encryption.

Switch to gmail and setup 2 stage auth and no casual intruder will be able to get into your mail (unless they steal your mobile).

Your laptop is probably riddled with viruses and trojans now, so a reinstall it. Don't let other people use administrator account on it in future.

Sulla Felix

Sulla Felix wrote: »

MariMel wrote: »

Just found out I've been air-cracked.
Was posting on a forum I use and a minute later a post appears directly after my comment.....but written by a man!
As I post a lot everyone twigged it wasnt me and I immediately changed my password.
Now I am worried about all my accounts, facebook, gmail, hotmail, banking etc etc.
I figured out who it was that had air-cracked my account from what they posted. Theyd obviously forgotten they were under my profile and posted a comment about themselves. He told me my password was easy and to just change it!!! My passwords always have a strong setting and are so ridiculously random that I dont even know how I come up with them.

Just how easy is it for someone to do that?
This person had access to my laptop a few weeks ago.
Would that be when it happened or could he have just done it tonight from his own house which is what he is saying?

I want to make sense of when it could have been done.

Do you save passwords in your browser? It's ridiculously easy to decrypt saved pws even with a master, if you have phcess.

PogMoThoin

I hope you're not one of these people who use the same password everywhere?

MariMel

Sulla Felix wrote: »

Sulla Felix wrote: »

Do you save passwords in your browser? It's ridiculously easy to decrypt saved pws even with a master, if you have phcess.

It was someone I was seeing and yes my password was encrypted in my browser for this account as I never felt the need for otherwise.
I suppose I am naive to think he wouldnt have de-coded it.
I did notice a few weeks ago that it was no loner there but thought it was because he'd started to use the same site and my name was no longer the only one attached to that site in my browser.

We stopped seeing each other a fortnight ago.
So it means he's had access to this particular account for a number of weeks?

And are you absolutely sure air-crack cant be used to hack into social network sites?

Want to be sure.

MariMel

PogMoThoin wrote: »

I hope you're not one of these people who use the same password everywhere?

no not at all.
Ive a different one for everything and not even variations of one password, they are all completely different.

srsly78

Why do you keep saying air-crack? Did he say he used this? Does he live within wifi range?

MariMel

srsly78 wrote: »

Why do you keep saying air-crack? Did he say he used this? Does he live within wifi range?

I dont know what else to say. sorry.
He said he used air-crack to hack my password and no he lives 15km from me.
Said he'd just gotten it and thought he'd try hack into my account.
Made a joke out of it. :rolleyes:

Duiske

MariMel wrote: »

I dont know what else to say. sorry.
He said he used air-crack to hack my password and no he lives 15km from me.
Said he'd just gotten it and thought he'd try hack into my account.
Made a joke out of it. :rolleyes:

He noted your password when he had access to your comp a few weeks back, and is now trying to make himself look like a hacking genius, while at the same time winding you up. Change your password and tell him to f**k off and grow up.

ZENER

Aircrack-ng is for finding WEP & WPA Keys on wi-fi networks but you have to be within range of the wi-fi unit to capture the packets. Has there been any odd cars parked up outside your house lately ?

Ken

monkeypants

Could have just installed a keylogger when using your laptop.

Sulla Felix

Wouldn't even need a logger. Five minutes work with admin privs. I've had to do it often enough on family/friends when they forget and have a master set so you can't just view them.

r3nu4l

monkeypants wrote: »

Could have just installed a keylogger when using your laptop.

That was my first thought. OP, what anti-virus are you using and is it up to date? Most of the keyloggers found online are easily detectable by anti-virus these days. Keyloggers can log every key stroke (some also take screenshots) and email the logs to an external account.

While you were seeing him, he could have set up a keylogger, kept it going for a few days and uninstalled it. Then when you stopped seeing him he may have decided to have some fun.

A keylogger is only one option but it's the easiest for someone who isn't bothered actually doing any 'hacking'.

If he has accessed any data that he is not supposed to, then he has commited an offence under the Criminal Damage Act. Regardless of whether or not he has just guessed the password or did something more elaborate.

If he has just logged onto your social network accounts then it would be a waste of Gardai time imo but if he is someone with an axe to grind then potentially he could be doing more malicious things. You only caught him out when he accidentally posted using your account so you don't know what he's up to.

I would certainly run extensive AV scans as recommended and also change all your passwords. Whether you want to take it further is up to you.

Overheal

keyloggers can also rarely be physical devices implanted on the PC, check your USB ports for things that shouldn't be there if he's had physical access to your machine.

/still have to get this and plant it on my brothers machine.

MariMel

Ive run my security, a full scan (usually it runs a short scan most evenings)
Nothing came up. He's admitted to being able to access one of my accounts for a few days. But is still saying he used the air-crack programme which I now know is only used for wi-fi.
I reckon he was sadly disappointed with what he found but I still cant get my head round why on earth he would have even wanted to go through my account.
Having someone take a proper look at my laptop over the weekend to see if there is something I've missed.
I also dont get rid of my browsing history so I am wondering if i go back through it to see if he used a web based programme or something.....if its still in my history. Dont know what programme(s) or keyword I should put into the history to try and find some evidence of when it happened.