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This is a silly article with an alarmist title. They look at a list of sites she likes on Facebook, then they phish her from one of them. Then she lets them in

This is a silly article with an alarmist title. They look at a list of sites she likes on Facebook, then they phish her from one of them. Then she lets them into her house where they look for post-it notes with passwords on them. For a grand finale, they open her garage door. I guess the takeaway here is don't let people that identify themselves as "hackers" through your door and into your home office if you have passwords written on post-its, but I am fairly certain this is a rare occurrence.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
The title isn't alarmist. The victim was an ordinary who didn't have a particularly "IoT" home and wasn't a heavy Internet user. They were hacked successfully. It is a useful article as a warning for non-technical people.
- richmarr 11y ago
  To be honest I don't think technical people are above this either... either as civilians or as service designers
- wellsjohnston 11y ago
  I think it kind of is. There wasn't really hacking involved here, just people taking advantage of an older woman and "pwning" her. Really cringey if you ask me.
  - kqr 11y ago
    This was the day when you learned how a huge portion of serious "hacking" is done. Taking advantage of the right older women is a very time efficient way of gaining access to systems you shouldn't have access to. If you want to know more, I can recommend The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
    Social engineering and brute force attacks aren't "hacking"? Come on.
  - superuser2 11y ago
    Criminals who commit identity theft don't care what you find cringey. She (and people like her) are vulnerable, and that's a fact worth knowing.
deleted 11y ago
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FussyZeus 11y ago
I'd disagree, I think is an excellent example of people who think they don't need to worry about security because they aren't on the Internet very much. It was all pretty mundane I agree, right up until they had her power of attorney and social security number. This should be a wake up call to the have-nots: You aren't safe just because you don't post on Facebook and you don't use the computer. Just because you don't drive doesn't mean you can't be hit by a car.
- downandout 11y ago
  >It was all pretty mundane I agree, right up until they had her power of attorney and social security number. They only got these after she let them into her house and gave them physical access to her computer. Of course it's only common sense that anyone that is allowed into your home and onto your computer can "pwn" you and worse - hacker or not. That's why 99.9% of people, including this woman, wouldn't allow strangers into their home and give them unfettered physical access to their computer. The article title implies that they were able to "pwn" her through "hacking". The only mildly interesting they did in this regard was the spear-phishing attack based on her Facebook likes.
  - FussyZeus 11y ago
    As I read it, they got that information from her email, and were I a betting man I'd say probably Yahoo or Gmail. They already had her password; getting it from the website would be trivial. This is all my own assumption of course. The underscore here is that a limited use case person, someone who occasionally posts limited things and doesn't do anything beyond casual ebaying can still be a victim.
    - downandout 11y ago
      Yes, they got it from email, but they didn't get into the email until they were in the house and got the password from a post-it note for the main account, and the daughter had the browser auto-fill it. They wouldn't have had either of these without a willing participant that let them into the house to find the information. It's like saying "I was easily able to rob the bank vault after the manager opened it".
josu 11y ago
>she lets them into her house She didn't need to though, they could have entered through the garage door while she was away.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago

The title isn't alarmist. The victim was an ordinary who didn't have a particularly "IoT" home and wasn't a heavy Internet user. They were hacked successfully. It is a useful article as a warning for non-technical people.

richmarr 11y ago
To be honest I don't think technical people are above this either... either as civilians or as service designers
wellsjohnston 11y ago
I think it kind of is. There wasn't really hacking involved here, just people taking advantage of an older woman and "pwning" her. Really cringey if you ask me.
- kqr 11y ago
  This was the day when you learned how a huge portion of serious "hacking" is done. Taking advantage of the right older women is a very time efficient way of gaining access to systems you shouldn't have access to. If you want to know more, I can recommend The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  Social engineering and brute force attacks aren't "hacking"? Come on.
- superuser2 11y ago
  Criminals who commit identity theft don't care what you find cringey. She (and people like her) are vulnerable, and that's a fact worth knowing.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

FussyZeus 11y ago

I'd disagree, I think is an excellent example of people who think they don't need to worry about security because they aren't on the Internet very much. It was all pretty mundane I agree, right up until they had her power of attorney and social security number. This should be a wake up call to the have-nots: You aren't safe just because you don't post on Facebook and you don't use the computer. Just because you don't drive doesn't mean you can't be hit by a car.

downandout 11y ago
>It was all pretty mundane I agree, right up until they had her power of attorney and social security number. They only got these after she let them into her house and gave them physical access to her computer. Of course it's only common sense that anyone that is allowed into your home and onto your computer can "pwn" you and worse - hacker or not. That's why 99.9% of people, including this woman, wouldn't allow strangers into their home and give them unfettered physical access to their computer. The article title implies that they were able to "pwn" her through "hacking". The only mildly interesting they did in this regard was the spear-phishing attack based on her Facebook likes.
- FussyZeus 11y ago
  As I read it, they got that information from her email, and were I a betting man I'd say probably Yahoo or Gmail. They already had her password; getting it from the website would be trivial. This is all my own assumption of course. The underscore here is that a limited use case person, someone who occasionally posts limited things and doesn't do anything beyond casual ebaying can still be a victim.
  - downandout 11y ago
    Yes, they got it from email, but they didn't get into the email until they were in the house and got the password from a post-it note for the main account, and the daughter had the browser auto-fill it. They wouldn't have had either of these without a willing participant that let them into the house to find the information. It's like saying "I was easily able to rob the bank vault after the manager opened it".

josu 11y ago

>she lets them into her house She didn't need to though, they could have entered through the garage door while she was away.