No, I’m not referring to the 2006 Denzel Washington movie, Inside Man, but a recent trend in malicious activity around the web. Foreign spammers have been targeting popular American email providers so they can become ‘Inside Man’ and bypass many US email spam filters that would typically block them. They attempt to guess weak passwords to take control of your email account to use your address/contact list to send their spam or even worse, distribute malicious software (virus).
Aol, Gmail, Yahoo & Hotmail/MSN have been the most popular targets. If you have received strange emails from a friend or family using one of these email providers, refer them to me so that they can get help! Likewise, if someone has informed you that your email is sending them strange stuff, act quickly!
If your password is more than a year old and isnt at least 8 characters long, you could be at risk. If you want to know more about password ‘best practices’ give me a call or email.